Contemporary art is obsessed with the “next step”: the avant-garde, the unprecedented, the new and unique. But in the hunt for the new, we lose sight of something essential: artistic practice itself. Artistic practice is not only about crossing boundaries. It belongs to those who use art for self-exploration, spiritual practice, healing, therapy, or craft. Yet in today’s culture, especially in the West, we act as though progress were the only thing that counts. At its core, however, art is…
Art Before Theory (short summary) Christoph Kluetsch This lecture is the final one in my winter series. I have given six lectures so far, and I have been challenging myself throughout. Today, I am taking on my biggest challenge yet. I have been exploring topics that interest me—topics that represent a collision between Western art history, Indian spirituality, and postmodern thinking. I find this intersection to be a fascinating space to operate in. In my previous lectures, I have examined…
The spider brings forth its own web. This image from the Upanishad invites deep meditation on how nature brings out a thread that it forms into a complex symmetry. Looking at the spider, the thread, and the web—its function and the source of the complex pattern—we have an image that invites deep speculation about mantra, tantra, and yantra, about art and knowledge, about creation and information. The 5th lecture explores art and scientific visualizations of sacred symmetry in a field…
Auro Art World organized a series of 6 lectures at the Centre d’Art multimedia room in Auroville. These lectures, conducted by Dr. Christoph Kluetsch, explore connections between art, philosophy, and spirituality, bridging Eastern and Western traditions to illuminate the enduring questions of existence, consciousness, and creativity. The series is offered on the first Tuesday of every month. Fourth lecture – Tuesday 7th January 2025 at 5pm Who in our consciousness experiences sensations? How are sensations synthesized? How do matter, vibration, consciousness, and self connect? And how can we share sensations…
The snake in paradise seduced Eve to eat a fruit from the forbidden tree of knowledge that holds the distinction between good and evil. Why was the tree of knowledge a forbidden tree? Why did the snake seduce Eve? What did the fruit taste like? When I asked myself why I want to talk about this, I felt like Eve standing in front of the tree, talking to a snake who attempts to seduce me to eat the fruit. Do…
My morning meditation is becoming something of a routine, though after a handful of sessions one can probably hardly say that yet. It is more a stretch of road, a path, or an exploration. Like hiking in the mountains: with the summit in view, hiking along paths, on ridges, through valleys and rivers, past rock faces, through scree and stone, meadows and forests, and beyond the vegetation line onto glaciers in the snow, the mountains become a metaphor for the…
During the Chola Empire, the layout of Shiva temples became highly formalized. Based on the Agamas and Shastras, the temple was fully developed into a place in space, time, and consciousness where microcosm and macrocosm mirror one another. Studying the Irumbai temple as a smaller temple that follows the strict rules of temple construction and serves as a temple for practitioners shows its central role in a cluster of about two dozen temples in the surrounding area. It follows the…
When I read a book, watch a film, immerse myself in a painting, or take part in a performance, what exactly is happening? It is, after all, the case that I experience something; images, feelings, and experiences are awakened within me. Imagine a film, a book, a play, or a painting about human relationships, action, history, or fairy tales. So you are sitting somewhere and looking at something that tells a kind of story. Now, what is the difference between…
