The Bangkok project (November 1980)
Extremely committed people: Bernhard Müller, LucFrancois Granier, and
Dieter Sellin.
Preparatory phase and tour of Europe (1981/82).
Everyone wants to be entertained, many are doubtful, few believers; unfair
boycotting, intolerance of outsiders. Work and size increase - stress and
pride. Work in progress - organizational and public dilettantism.
But stubborness, pride, surprise, and curiosity for the worlds that are opening
up. Licence plate number begins with 0 for the province of Oberösterreich.
Defect - a quality. Foundation of corporation accompanied by the laughter of
the hyenas. Gathering the minimum not licenced but registered. Signs of doubt
on the horizon that we cannot make out clearly. Haze, fog. Blind flying.
Freelancing is risky, we want to pick up the stone without confirmation, it is
not ready, can be collected two days later on May lst.
Europe is bored and amused by the self-appointed jesters, but they are serious.
Relative weightlessness: established truths and values lose their
attractiveness. A sense of detachment and departure.
Foundation of Archieve Europe Asia (5 onlookers unconcerned) first Bangkok
Festival, fifth press conference, the first philosophical data bank was opened
by pneumatic hammer in the secrecy of the night.
We live (?) in the future, talk about the history of Europe and Asia, meet
Eurasian hippies, mystics, businessmen.
We think we are citizens of the world and have not seen anything yet, this is
brought home us later: under duress of success and stress of the project.
Go East (1982/83)
Farewell. The roads and the countryside of Europe are new to us. Turkey - Syria
- Lebanon - Iran Pakistan - India - Thailand. In southern Turkey at last the
European veil is lifted from our eyes. New Year's Eve concert in the townhall
of Beirut for Palestinian, American und French soldiers.
Studies of the Iranian revolution in Iran, front sculptures, arms concert. A
wheel breaks in the Pakistani desert - the stone is on the point of Falling.
Storage of stone in New Delhi. One of us drifted to the abstraction of God and
refers to the doings of satan's one and all. What are we ... are we artists? 6
months behind our schedule.
The Bangkok Festival (April 1983) In the Bhirasri Institute of Modern Art.
One month of teamwork and individual action, installations, conferences,
exhibition, exchange of ideas and feelings. For the participants it is the
first time they are confronted with the Asian way of life.
PHASE 2
Opening up and more time for the plurality of a different culture.
Controversies and quarrel, asserting personal interests, initiation, everything
is a complex, inferiority complex. Exotics and reality: The almost mystical
tourist fever or the search for secret, hidden monasteries.
Settled everyday life - 2 years of living and working outside the Western
hemisphere. Luggage and the shifting of suitcases: away from and yet at home,
the homelands fades. We feel at home where we happen to be, no constraint. What
is time: You pay for time with your presence, for your absence with money.
Heritage, handicraft, history and tradition of Empire and relationship.
Beginning of processing (another 5 years), hundreds of hours sound(raw material
for 10 records and for hours of radio programmes), 120 hours video, film,
thousands of photos and slides, one ton of diaries (gigantic projects),
installations, paintings. We appear to be at the end and hope to be able to
delegate the ninth phase of the project to our grandchildren and their
contemporaries.
January 1984 - second arrival in India - the truck drives from Delhi to Bombay. February - first concert in Bombay / Birla Matusri Hall. March - truck = sculpture / industrial design (Bodybuilding) truck fitted with two new containers to be used for living, working and transport, design for 24 flaps, collapsible system of cases made of steel, and aluminium / life and work in the factory / Hofmann, Sellin, Dudesek, Müller.
In the seclusion of Mandva Jetty we prepare for the concert, exhibition and performance / filming at the seaside. Meeting with Federal Chancellor Fred Sinowatz in the Taj Mahal Intercontinental in Bombay. April - inauguration of exhibition in the German Cultural Institute in Bombay - sculptures, collages, drawings, videos, theater performance: Europe Asia - the three instances of unresolvedness and the monument body. Concert in the TATA Hall of the National Center for Performing Arts (Jazz India, NCPA, Max Müller Bhavan): Music of Reality. Economy and the Arts: Visits to Indian artists and businessmen. Truck continues to Puna, Concert Puna: Music of Reality and offensive theater in both directions in the Khale Hall of the Ghokale Institute. Cultural service, test office and open air exhibition with truck and tent in front of the institute of journalism and communication of Puna University till April 30. May: Auction of the galvanized sheets at the metal bazaar of Puna. Drowning the stone in the Ganges near Hardwar. Without truck to Nepal - Kathmandu, Bhaktapur paraethnological videographs of strange days (Archives Asia).
June / July: t Europe team arrives in Delhi, video accompanied lecture in the Lalitkala Academy in Delhi/Hentz, Couty come to Nepal, reunion and one month seclusion at Teamsam Fewasee / Work on Archives Europe - Archives Asia, cremation of a floating sculpture, procession, video work, musical sparring, drafting two proposals for strongrooms of data bank Nepal: Anapurna or Mount Everest base camp. August / September: Couty, Hentz return to Europe.
October and November excursions to various mountain valleys, documentation on Buddhist Sherparites, inventory of sound material. December: India Seclusion - In Igatpuri and Satnath instruction in Indian mind body techniques. Benares - meeting musicians, Ganges - data bank consideration, tourism phenomenology, pilgrimage.
January 1985: Meeting Dr. Bruno Kreisky in New Delhi. January 18: Multimedia show in the German Cultural Institute / New Delhi: Slides, video, music, performance, lecture, scent, overhead. February: first notes of a script for a film in the Rashomon technique developed in the Nepal seclusion. Video work in the desert (Rajasthan). March / Delhi: Large paintings, oil on canvas, renting a studio. April / Northern India: film documentation on Tibetan Lama dancing. Yoga. Studies of Tibetian medicine and philosophy in the Tibetan library, documentary on Tibetan School of Tanka. May Kullu Manali - preparation of the expedition and ascent into the massif of the Human Tibbamit safe, installing it for the first philosophical data bank above the Beaskund glacier. New Delhi: continuation of picture project. Preparations for travelling to Europe, visiting the stone and underwater ceremonies at the stone in the Ganges. New Delhi: SIKH - action filmed in Gurudwara. June: return to Europe.
June - October: seclusion and processing of raw-material in Challaings /
France. November: lectures at German and Austrian universities.
Österreichische Filmtage Wels (Austrian days of the film).
