Heike Kaltenbrunner / FOUND SOME MAGIC 12. 06. 2008 - 12. 07 ...

Heike Kaltenbrunner / FOUND SOME MAGIC 12. 06. 2008 - 12. 07. 2008
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Heike Kaltenbrunner / FOUND SOME MAGIC
Odprtje Opening: 12.06.2008
Trajanje Duration: 12.06.2008 - 12.07.2008
Heike Kaltenbrunner A
Koprodukcija z Co-produced by Hiša fotografije House of Photography, Slovenia
Projektni vodja Project Manager: Bojan Radovič
Koordinator projektov v APT APT project coordinator: Danijel Brezovar
Antropologija kozmičnega. Človeška zavest v očeh Heike Kaltenbrunner.
Irina Tchmyreva
Z umetnostjo Heike Kaltenbrunner sem se prvič srečala pred nekaj leti na razstavi Portfolio Review v Bratislavi.
Bilo je nekaj posameznih fotografij, razstavljenih na mizi. Kamni? Struktura granita? Morda so žile ali
mikroskopski fosili, povečani do razpoznavnosti; morda gre za živ organizem in ga dojemam kot mrtvo stvar
le zaradi negibnosti fotografije? Morda pa so to v času ujete sledi premikanja množice nebesnih teles, ki me
s svojo podobo le spominjajo na živ organizem? Že v naslednjem trenutku so se mi pričele porajati številne
asociacije na Dune in podobne znanstveno-fantastične filme. Začutila sem, da sem končno naletela na podobe,
v katerih se znanost in umetnost združita v celoto.
Strukture, ki so zrasle v črno-belih fotografijah Heike Kaltenbrunner, so posledica njenega navdušenja za
znanost in njenega dojemanja kreativnosti na način laboratorija. Je to duh dvajsetih let dvajsetega stoletja?
Nemara bi kdo lahko rekel, da v teh delih zaznavamo navdušenje za kibernetiko in digitalne modele vesolja
z obdobja od šestdesetih do osemdesetih let preteklega stoletja. Na tem mestu bi bilo prav tako primerno
priklicati si v spomin alkimiste in zdravnike izpred tisoč let, ki so dojeli (izkusili?) popolno enost človeka in
kozmosa, povezanost in medsebojne odnose med dvema modeloma in so se zavedali, da je človek model
vesolja na mikrokozmičnem nivoju, istočasno pa makrokozmos v odnosu na procese, ki se odvijajo v njegovem
tkivu, kosteh, v zemlji in prahu, prav tistem prahu, iz katerega je nastal človek.
Naslednji projekt Heike Kaltenbrunner, ki sem ga videla, je bil inštalacija, narejena s TV ekrani. Zvok, ki
‘’stiska’’ sliko v svetlobno točko, zvok, ki dobesedno uničuje mehanično srce naprave, ki prenaša sliko. Ali pa
se, obratno, zvok poraja v procesu razničenja slike, ko se podoba spreminja v ozek trak (žarek) svetlobe? Ton;
globok ubran notranji basovski zvok, dobro uglašen in temačen, nedoumljiv, kot zvok vibracij živega organizma
ali pa celo zvok vesolja. Spominja na pradavne rituale šamanov, ki vpliv na svojo okolico udejanjajo z zvokom.
Občutljive vibracije svet spreminjajo v ekran in vračajo zvok v točko njegovega nastanka, medtem pa slika na
ekranu, kot nežna školjka zadrhti od zvoka, se v nekem trenutku zruši sama vase ter tako nakaže prehod med
vidnim in tistim, kar je onkraj meja vidnega.
Gledano s stališča zgodovine umetnosti, delo Heike Kaltenbrunner brez dvoma nadaljuje tradicijo Nam Jun
Paika in avstrijskega umetnika Franza Xaverja, ki ju umetnica navaja kot svoja duhovna učitelja.
Toda njena inštalacija razmerij med zvočnim signalom in svetlobo, ki se seseda sama vase kot svetloba v
črni luknji, na zaslonu ustvarja nekakšen zaključek na novem nivoju. Zvok, ki ga slišimo ob inštalaciji, je
človeškemu ušesu celo nekako prijazen, podoben tistemu, ki ga proizvajajo oddaljene zvezde, kadar jih s
pomočjo sodobne tehnologije uspemo poslušati v astronomskem observatoriju. To je zvok vesolja, ki človeka ne
odbija in zavrača, saj tudi človek izvira iz kozmosa. Toda ta zvok, ki v svojo kozmično harmonijo vključuje tudi
človeka in ga sprejema (tu se uresničuje Pitagorovo upanje, da se bo nebesna glasba nekoč spustila v zemeljske
sfere), je izredno neljub in nevaren napravam, ki jih je naredila človeška roka – ta zvok jih preprosto uničuje.
Slika se na zaslonu naprave ‘’sesede vase’’ tako hitro po zvoku, da teh dveh procesov v času ne moremo
medsebojno razločiti. Nizkofrekvenčno vibrirajoče bučanje postane zvok smrti naprave – tako vzrok in posledica
tu zamenjata svoji vlogi.
Ko govorimo o stroju, kot delu človeških rok, lahko le obžalujemo dejstvo, da ta stroj v večini svojih pojavnih
oblik, celo androidnih, še zdaleč ni podoben svojemu stvaritelju. Seveda razumemo logiko zasnove in oblike, ki

sledi funkcionalnosti naprave in se udejanja v njeni mehanični zgradbi in zunanji obliki, povzemajoči notranje
organe stroja in zasnovane glede na njen tehnični namen. Če torej na tak način projiciramo zunanjo odvisnost
podobe človeka od njegove notranje strukture, lahko dojamemo, da po vsej verjetnosti tudi človek po svoji
pojavi in videzu še zdaleč ni podoben svojemu stvaritelju.
In kaj dandanes pravzaprav človeštvo postavlja v ospredje svojega bistva? Zavest. In kakšno obliko sploh
ima človeška zavest? Ali se morebiti ne bi prav lahko izkazalo, da je naša zavest le pojava in videz, in da
njena oblika ni prav v ničemer podobna svojemu dejanskemu praliku? To so sicer misli, kvečjemu primerne za
kak znanstvenofantastični scenarij o oblikah življenja. Toda prav te in take misli se nam porajajo ob ogledu
projekta Heike Kaltenbrunner. In niti ni tako zelo pomembno, če so forme na njenih zaslonih (lokatorji zvoka in
nosilci podobe) pravokotne z jasnimi geometrijskimi linijami ali nežno zaobljene v organske, biomorfne oblike.
Projekti Heike Kaltenbrunner nam govorijo o človeški zavesti, procesih zavedanja in kozmičnih razmerjih med
majhnostjo in velikostjo. Pa še o kozmičnosti, ki je že od nekdaj najpomembnejša tema umetnosti. Nekoč se
je kozmičnost utelešala v religioznih simbolih, dandanes se odeva v tehnokratsko formo in prav mogoče je, da
bo ta tema nekoč, sčasoma, prevzela antropomorfno, človeško obliko. Vendar pa do takrat človeška zavest še
vedno ostaja zaprta v ustaljenih konvencionalnih mehaničnih okvirjih, antropologija pa predstavlja le model
sodobnega umetniškega tehničnega modeliranja.

The anthropology of the cosmic. Heike Kaltenbrunner’s consciousness.
By Irina Tchmyreva
We – the art of Heike Kaltenbrunner and I – became acquainted for the first time at the portfolio review in
Bratislava a few years ago. It all began from separate photographs, laid out on a table. Stones? Textures of
granite? Or veins; fossils of miniscule sizes magnified to the size of the visible; or they are alive, and only
the stillness of the photograph makes them motionless? Maybe they are the traces, captured in time, of the
movement of heavenly bodies, travelling in multitudes and thus reminding one of live organisms? “Dune” and
associations with many other fantasy films flood in instantly, ultimately leaving a strong feeling that one had
come across images in which science and art had become a single whole.
The textures, which have grown in the black and white photographs of Heike Kaltenbrunner – are due to her
enthusiasm for science and her understanding of creativity as a laboratory. Is it the spirit of the 20s of the
20 th century? One can say that there is in this – an enthusiasm for cybernetics and the digital models of the
Universe of the 1960-1980s. It is fashionable to recall the alchemists and physicians of a thousand years ago,
who comprehended (experienced?) the total unity of man and the cosmos, the joining and interrelation of two
models, especially knowing that man is the model of the Universe on a micro scale and simultaneously – the
macrocosm in relation to processes going on in his tissues, in stones and in the earth, in that dust out of which
man is born.
The next project I saw by Heike Kaltenbrunner was an installation made out of TV screens. Sound, “pulling
together” the image into a point of light, sound, destroying the mechanical heart of the machine transmitting
the image. Or is it, the reverse, the process of the annihilation of the picture, transforming it into a narrow light
flow (ray) that gives birth to sound? Musical sound, not cacophonic, but a deep bass, well-tempered profound
internal sound, which can be created by a living organism through its vibrations, or the sound of the Universe.
It reminds one of ancient ritual practices – Bon, shamans, whose influence on the world is practically realized
with the help of sound, the vibration on fine levels, making the world turn into a screen, returning sound to the
point of origin, the screen, which, like a fine shell, begins to shudder from the sound, shudder and… at one
moment the screen is ready to collapse, having shown the possibility of transition between the visible and that
which is beyond its limits.
There is no doubt that from the point of view of the history of art, Heike Kaltenbrunner’s work continues the
tradition of Nam Jun Paik and the Austrian artist Franz Xaver, whom the artist considers her spiritual teachers.

But her installation of the relations between the sound signal and light, curling inwards, like light within a black
hole, on screens creates a generalization on a new level. The sound, which you hear in the installation, is even
pleasing to the human ear, it is similar to the sounds made by the distant stars, when one succeeds in hearing
them in an astronomical observatory. This is the sound of the cosmos, not rejecting man, who – may be of
cosmic origin. And this sound, integrating man into the cosmic harmony (thus Pythagoras’ hope for the descent
of the heavenly music of the spheres onto worldly affairs is being fulfilled), is extremely dangerous for manmade
mechanisms, it kills them. But the process of the image’s “inward curling” on the screen of the machine takes
place so quickly after the sound, that we cannot visually separate them in time. The low frequency vibrating
boom becomes “the sound” of the machine’s death. Cause and effect substitute one another.
Speaking of the machine as the creation of man, we regret that the majority of its forms, even androids, are
extremely far from being similar to their creators. We understand the logic of the design, which follows the
machine’s function, realised in its mechanical structure, the design by the external covering summarizes the
machine’s “internal organs”, arranged in accordance with the engineering purpose. Projecting onto man the
external appearance’s dependence on the internal structure, we must understand that he, created “in the image
and likeness” of his creator, perhaps, is just as far from external similarity with him.
Today, what does humanity define as being its essence? – Consciousness. What form does consciousness have?
Is it not possible that it may turn out that our consciousness is the image and likeness, and the form, into which
it is placed, has no similarity with the prototype? These thoughts are suitable for the scenario of a fantasy
work about the forms of life. But these thoughts – were born from the contemplation of Heike Kaltenbrunner’s
project. It is not so important whether the forms of her screens (the locators of sound, the translators of image)
are right-angled with sharp geometric lines – or organic soft biomorphic ones. Heike Kaltenbrunner’s projects
are about consciousness, the process of consciousness, the relation of cosmically great and small scales. About
the cosmic – the most important theme in art. Once it was embodied in the form of religious symbols, now this
theme has acquired technocratic forms, possibly, this theme may, at some time, acquire an anthropomorphic
form. But for the meanwhile – consciousness is enclosed in the conventional mechanical covering. Anthropology
as a model on the contemporary level of technical artistic modelling.
Translated from Russian by P. Glebov and R. O’Dowd.

Anton Podbevšek Teater
Prešernov trg 3,
8000 Novo mesto, Slovenija
T. +386 (0)7 391 78 10
F. +386 (0)7 391 78 12
www.antonpodbevsekteater.si
info@antonpodbevsekteater.si
Koprodukcija/Co-production:
Hiša fotografije/House of Photography
Slovenija
www.hfs.si