Sun Rite - Maria Dundakova

Statement „The project Sun Rite“

„Sun Rite“ is a cyclical crossover artwork that is, like itself, forever coming into being.
It contains moments of insemination as a result of interaction between natural phenomena and human rhythms of fate.

Every moment is cause and pretext, pretext for that which follows.
The technique of rite contains all techniques with which the human race expresses itself, because the goal is communication of all with all.
„Sun Rite“ is a work that promotes and celebrates the multicultural, the multimedia and interaction. It views art as celebration and celebration as art.
„Sun Rite“ distinguishes itself from rituals that separate different social classes. Instead, it presents a ritual as universal Nature rhythm that unites all humans over all differences.
„Sun Rite“ gives no answers, but attempts to pose the question of reconciliation of the other with the own anew, again and again.
„Sun Rite“ unfolds rituals unintentionally as the archer that hits the target because the goal is contained in his shot.
The project Sun Rite develops itself further on the basis of experience, poetry and desires. Every day it is reinvented.
Vital life rhythms change from universal diversity to individual diversity and then back again to universal diversity.
The idea is not abstract, it is reality.
The idea is not displayed, drawn or shaped, it is lived.
In the process of life, the observer is part of the process and takes part on it, either consciously or unconsciously.
Universe of participation (notion of modern physics): In Sun Rite, universe of participation is the whole in which different rhythms develop and are interrelated.
The public takes part and is conscious of his original share. Subjectivity and objectivity are summarised in the notion participation.
Time is an invention of humankind. The space is a necessity. The form is a moving impetus of energy; the existence of the life rhythms being obvious.
The project Sun Rite and its life stages develop via reflection and through life itself. Why? As answer, as question, as participation, as nothing, as norm, as kind of existence, as form of life, as desire.
The reality of a desire is limited by the speed of its emergence. Desire is attraction inherent in matter.
It is the power vibrating between particles that links or repulses them, that is the quintessence of the life process.
Desire has the transparency of the invisible and the magic of becoming true.
Desire exists in reality in the centre of every particle and is responsible for change.
Desire intensifies the presence.
The intensive fission and fusion is the time that shapes our history.

Maria Dundakova, Biennale Sao Paulo, 1990

LKW: Lebenskunstwerk – LAW: Life Art Work

Life Art Work (LAW) disappoints our longing for the ultimate, proper, coherent Gesamtkunstwerk. This dream will never come true because LAW is part of reality and even if we took ‘LAW’ to mean ‘Lorries at Work’ – knowing that the German abbreviation Lkw means Lastkraftwagen which means ‘lorry’ our thoughts might already be rolling in that direction – lorries transporting large quantities of whatever, it would still be only too clear that the totality of things will fall by the wayside. LAW – of whatever kind – is neither a contradiction-free entity nor a harmonious mosaic. It is only ever a conglomeration, a mixture, a pattern of different pieces – a collectively owned box of building bricks for an aesthetic of living.

Paolo Bianchi

DEVELOPMENT STAGES OF THE PROJECT “SUN RITE”

Sun-Rite is a multimedia, multicultural and cyclical work developing on different locations spread out all over the world.

Diferent stages of development of the multikultural crossover LIVE ART WORK SUN RITE
Sun Rite starsat the lowest point on Eart (Dead Sea) and develops Furter in Ireland (Dublin),Switzerland (Aarau,Basel), Brasil (Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Salvador, Fortaleza), Grand-Duché du Luxembourg (Triangle: Belgium, France, Luxembourg),Belgium(Bruxelles), Spain(Lanzarote), Germany(Berlin), Italie (Milano,Napoli), Sardinia(Caliari), Korea South(Gongju,Seul).

1991 Dublin, Cultural Capital of Europe

An inn keeper has built his house on the mouth of the river Liffey. His wife is called Anna Livia Plurabelle and is a popular hostess. Thanks to her, customers start to build houses round her and settle down. That’s the way Dublin sprang up with its many pubs – so we are told by James Joyce.”

The Irish Prime Minister, Mary Robinson, the Minister for the Environment, Mary Harney and the International Association of Women Art invited eleven women artists of different European countries to create a city-work on the topic of the river Liffey.
The river Liffey, of great cultural and architectural importance for the city of Dublin, is one of the topics in James Joyce’s “Finnegan Wake”.

It is an important life line of the city. For this reason, the city-work “Sun-Rite for Anna Livia, Homage to James Joyce” emerged in form of publicity installations along the river and on the most important bridges. Between advertisement sequences, the phrases “”Liffey runs black” / “Liffey runs yellow” / “Liffey runs blue” / “Liffey runs red” and a video film with music of the Swiss composer Bruno Spoerri are dubbed in alternately on large neon lights panels with running characters.

Thus, the mystic presence of Liffey has become part of everyday life.
In “Finnegan’s Wake”, James Joyce calls Liffey the universal river. I took this over as a main theme and it became the overall notion river or cycle.

Anna Livia Plurabelle ia a mythic being. In the Irish culture she is the symbol of the first woman. As a starting point of the project Sun-Rite I chose the lowest point on Earth still touched by sun beams (at the Dead Sea). I looked for the clear horizon line of the water, emphasising the profile of the earth: the salt line, separating top and bottom. I chose the colour blue as the colour of sky and water.

At the Dead Sea, the white horizon line coincides with the salt line. I placed blue pigments on my body and started to film. I am the river – the slow change of the body’s expression is the depth of the subconscious, the moment just before waking up the readiness to meet the sun.

Yellow is the colour of pollen and reflects the colour of the sun light. I drew paths of light in the landscape with yellow mineral pigments. Thus, the Yellow Mountain emerges, the mountain of the yellow light years. Between these two phases of relaxation and activity, warmth and coolness, day and night, the life histories of the universal living space and its flux are developed: the language of nature and the language of humans are one.
Therefore, this work contains no negative and positive points, no moral content.
The work lives with the expediency and the rhythms of natural laws.

All these records are composed in my video work “Sun-Rite for Anna Livia, Homage to James Joyce” and combined with the music by Bruno Spoerri, the Swiss composer of electronic music.

In the presence of Mary Robinson, the work’s première took place at the Museum of Modern Art in Dublin as the city celebrated being cultural capital in 1991.
“During the opening ceremony of “Art and Nature” along the river Liffey in Dublin, I, not capable of speaking a word of English, noted spontaneous poems and single words by chalk on the free spaces between my posters, using the black beams as bridges.

This was part of the performance. I put the chalk into the hand of people passing by and ask them to join me in writing. They hesitated, stopped, were astonished, wrote a word and got into conversation with each other. Soon I was surrounded by 20 people. A policeman became aware of our activity and wanted to intervene. I pointed to the notice “Homage to James Joyce”. The policeman smiled, saluted and let us have our way.”

Prior to showing my video work “Sun-Rite for Anna Livia, Homage to James Joyce”, I would like to present my thoughts with respect to the “mythological space”.

Photo sequence “Liffey, Blue Ocean and Blue Sky”

Mythological space is being created through space itself.
Mythological space is everywhere where there is the presence of man.
Mythological space is the breath of things – communication between man and his environment.
Mythological space is not a static term, it is subject to the way mankind changes itself.
Feeling is its measuring unit.
Mythological space materializes itself in all forms where human feeling is projected and reflected back by the environment.
The rite is composed of a technique with which mythological space can become visible.
The rite is the happening which is projected into time.
The rite is an event of being.
The rite is the gesture with which man evaluates human space.
The gesture is experience defined through a meaningful language of symbols and sign.
The language of the rite does not illustrate an idea – it is itself idea.
The technique of the rite can express itself through all the available techniques because it is defined by the desire to communicate.
The rite makes it possible for things to continue to exist in time, which cannot be submitted to a concept like “past – future or presence”.

21a Bienal international de Sao Paulo 1991 Brasil

The central theme of the Biennale Sao Paulo was “The Holistic Global Tendencies of Humankind at the End of the 20th Century”. Based on the personal invitation of the jury of the Biennale, I further developed the project “Sun-Rite”.
I presented it in form of pictures, live-performances with Brazilian dancers and the installation “Echo Wall” for which Bruno Spoerri especially composed the music.
Music and installation are in a continual interaction and interconnection.
The installation contains the happening at the Dead Sea, develops live in Brazil and is a future vision for the Brazilian landscape: “Sun-Rite – Baptism“. The draft of the project “Sun Rite Baptism”, a project for a Thousand People and the Ocean as well as One Man and a Wave received a lot of interest in the newspapers. The whole work “Sun-Rite” was selected as one of the top ten works at the Biennale. The delegation of the young artists, invited from all Latin American countries selected it as the best work.

Sun Rite „Baptism“ Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro, ECO 92

Based on this success, the UN Commission for Culture chose “Sun-Rite Baptism” for the opening of the cultural accompanying program of the International Conference on the Environment which took place in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. In collaboration with the Museum of Modern Art and the city of Rio de Janeiro, I designed the project “Sun-Rite Baptism” and “A Man and a Wave” especially for the landscape of the Copacabana Beach.

I arrived in the dark in Rio and was brought to the Copacabana by the responsible people of the museum in order to decide whether my project could be put into practice here. At the beach I noticed a big heart consisting of yellow roses put into the sand. I was told that yellow is the colour of hope for the Brazilians. Jemanja, the goddess of the sea, is a beautiful woman and she likes the flowers. If you give her a present which she enjoys and make a wish, it will become true. The waves come to get the heart. The waves have to take away all the roses before the wish can become true.

The big celebration “Art and Nature, the Human Being in his Living Space” was intended to start at midnight by the dance event “A Man and a Wave”(12 p.m.) , a project in which the beat of the waves determines the choreography. The wave is the woman, the unpredictable, never ending power of nature and its rhythms. Project Sun Rite “Baptism” starts then at 4 a.m.

The intention was to celebrate the climax of the project by one thousand people. It was to take place before and during sunrise at the beach of Copacabana with its length of 4 km. Before sunrise, the body of the ocean was to be illuminated by big spotlights, making visible its breath, its plasticity.

Four large spotlights were to mark the four directions. The first spotlight in the centre of the beach was to illuminate the ocean from the beach to the infinity, making visible the narrow strip of a wave on the surface, the way of the water. Two further spotlights on each side of the beach were to show the extension of the body of the ocean. They were to illuminate the width of the wave.

Based on a certain light choreography, a dance was to begin between the wave made visible and the darkness. Wave and light were to join in finding their way to the beach. Simultaneously the thousand people were to begin to mark their naked bodies with the yellow mineral pigment, thus giving a sign to the expected sun.

They were to hold their hands, forming a yellow chain of humans over one kilometre. Behind the people, stereo loudspeakers were to be placed. Out of them, the yellow monochrome music of the Brazilian composer Hermeto Pascoal, was to move along the beach.
The sounds of the sea were to dive into the music, likewise the music was to dive into the sounds of the sea and the sounds were to unite. Thanks to the motion of the waves, a dance was to begin between the blue body of the ocean and the yellow chain of humans.

The sun would rise, get brighter and the human chain was to develop into a large spiral, moving backwards over the beach. The music was to lead to the song “Come and Go”, preparing the rhythms of the beginning of the day. The sun would be reflected in the water, the spiral having become a circle, was to dissolve itself, the humans were to go into the water and begin a day like all the others.
Two films were done before this event: A documentary film on the development of the project and a film realisation of the emotional and sensual reality of the project.
Here the scenario:

The night runs
from body to body
from wave to wave
from wave to pulse
the pulse turns into pace
the pace into fatigue
fatigue into a beat
beat upon beat into a scream
the scream turns into echo.
The untiring echo
in the night, infinite and lonely
de-mystifies the warm body
transformed into stone.
The stone into a ray
the ray into warm earth
extends under the blue body of the ocean
the waves become intoxication’s lips
they bring the light
to the bottom.

Project “The Core and the Fruit“, “La Mémoire du Geste (Memory of the Gesture)”, “Summer”, “Solstice”

After the colours yellow and blue, the accent changes to the colour red. In 1993/1994, the project “The Core and the Fruit” was created as a demystification of nature: The core, the earth’s inside in exchange, the heat of the earth and the heat of the body. The cycle relates to the volcanic scenery of Lanzarote, it developed in the crater of a volcano and was realized by performance, drawing in the scenery, electronic music and dance.

LUXEMBOURG Cultural Capital of Europe 1995
Project “La Mémoire du Geste“, Migration, Grain Valley LUXEMBOURG

An further development was the Project “La Mémoire du Geste”, presented in Luxembourg. Europe opened her borders. On this occasion and upon personal invitation of the Ministry for Culture in Luxembourg, I was commissioned to join the three countries with performances in the frame of a land-art project in the region where Belgium, France and Luxembourg meet.

In this region, the earth of “Grain Valley” holds very large iron reserves which have been mined since ancient times. The valley bears the mark of war, battles have left deep marks. The earth is riddled by mines, the iron ore is no more, has been exploited, but people stay in this region, full of slag and worn out.
A motorway, just inaugurated, connects the three countries/France, Belgium, Luxembourg/. It is an important means of communication.
Along this motorway, ecological niches develop. “La Mémoire du Geste” was to celebrate summer solstice, the longest ray of sunlight, on a length of one to three kilometres.
Before sunset, cars coming from different villages of the three countries were to form queues along the streets. They were to park on the stretch of motorway which lies exactly on the triangle. The inhabitants were to use footpaths and meet at a place lying four to five metres below the embankment of the motorway.
A long row of fireplaces would already have been prepared. After sunset, when it got dark, the fires were to be lit up. The radios of the parked cars were to receive a children’s song broadcasted by Radio Luxembourg. This was to serve as a code for action.
As the valley would lose its shape, the light dance was to start. Car head-lights were to be lit, penetrating the smoke of the fire, thus making visible the light beam as direction in the smoke particles. The light of 2000 beams stemming from 2000 car head-lights were to be made perceptible as motion, as score. Each human a light.

In the past century, our Earth has got a new face. Pictures of satellites show big inhabited light areas, where life pulsates in the night. Each fireplace is a house and a life. Urban aesthetic and natural aesthetic interact.

The result thereof is a new, second scenery of light and motion. Film cameras were to record the whole event, one film would be broadcasted on TV as a documentation, another film as a picture choreography. The history of the light, rhythms of stimulation, social and communication structures are shown as a whole.

The project “La Mémoire du Geste” was part of the daily life cycle and in this sense a piece of art created during a lifetime. In spite of the willingness of the inhabitants to participate, the project was stopped for bureaucratic reasons just before its implementation.

PROJECT SUN RITE „RHYTHM/ZERO TIME AS NOW TIME“

Sunrise and sunset at the same time.
BERLIN=TOKIO

Time of change 1999/2000. The moment as an interpretation of exchange.
Sun Rite „Rhythm” is a zero-time position and serves as a meeting point of the “now”.
The “now” as encounter of the three orbit movements sun-earth-man.
The man, living the relativity of speed. From two opposite places on the Earth, the events of sunrise and sunset are taken simultaneously by pictures, video and film (from a minimum height of 1000 m). Both events are cut together on the screen. Both events take the air by satellite communication and become one sole event on both places at the same time.

From two opposite points (Berlin&Tokyo)on the Earth, sunrise and sunset are taken simultaneously, cut together and shown until zero setting from second to second.

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Performance “RHYTHM Berlin&Tokyo”

The two parts ”Rhythm“ and “Berlin Tides“ (video installation) alternate rhythmically. In this rhythmic alternation, images and sequences of urban night life in Berlin join: The simultaneous life giving combination of real light currents and mobility rhythms from daily life in the metropolis of Berlin.

During the world celebration of the year 2000 arises a virtual legible city with communicative game character. The question: “Where am I, if I am everywhere?” (questioning urbanity) as an interaction which offers the two cities the possibility to participate. The answers thereto may be social, economical, urban experience powers of the two cities.

M.Dundakova Project “Berlin Tides“ and “Berlin mon amour“ c.print. Installation video slides and sound installation

1998-2004 Maria Dundakova Project “EVIDENCE” – Hommage à Gilles Deleuze
The cycle is composed of 50 photos, an installation and a performance

12 photos , C print , formate each 35/50 cm

2003-2005 Project „What’s your name?“ polychrome Sunlight live

Project „What’s your name?” Sunlight playing with its own shadow, Video Installation

Project “What’s your name?” Sunlight playing with its own shadow, Video realization

Development:The lens divides light waves in form of a polychrome spectre. The polychrome character of the light is obtained by fluctuation.

I register this light event by video camera. By means of the computer, the light gets new data structures. Due to the digital partition of the light data by the computer and their multiplication in different directions, the light flow gets a new identity. The light lives with its plasticity and gets a body

What’s your name? Video Installation

• Project Sun Rite “Sunlight”
Interdisciplinary coaction of polychrome sunlight and polyphone sound
Sunlight in its polychrome light appearances forms a natural life union in relation to polyphone sound characters. Both kinds of waves influence our living space continually. They penetrate everything.
Each project may act on its own behalf. However, it may also communicate with the other projects, thus mutually building up and increasing the effects.

• Project “What’s your name?”
Moved sunlight-painting and moved sunlight sculpture.

Theme: The ever fluctuating real sun light and its real polychrome character. Universal, live-giving, energetic power of sunlight, coming from an endless wide (light-year). This sunlight may be felt in each life cell in the most intimate way (light fluctuation).
In the project “What’s your name?” the character of sunlight lives itself in its polychrome (spectral) characters of sunlight waves.

Realization:
I experimented with sunlight until I got different characters by polarised light frequencies and could thus form fluctuating flowing movements. I documented this by colour pictures and video. The video material has been cut to 30 minutes in accordance with cuts done in musical compositions. Due to these cuts, the light got fluctuating movements, enabling me to realize a poetic statement “the light plays with its own shadow” (fluctuating light forms are limited by darkness). The polychrome sunlight

1993-2005
• Project “How are you?”, Moved sound sculpture, soundscape, sound “topos” (sound fluctuations)

Theme: Emotional dynamics of polyphone sound waves (human voice) show is our emotional and vibrating body breathing and its vital life presence in the socio-communicative, natural life environment.
By means of the light, colour pictures document the visible life topography in which we are living.
Realization:
Sound topos: ”How are you “-Sound document: I organize human voices from a sound document taken during an anti-war street demonstration as well as from GPS data collected in the street.

Project “SUNLIGHT EVERY DAY”- WHERE AM I WHEN I’M EVERYWHERE?

DAY BOOK, MIGRATION 2004-6 Videos, slides and sound installation