Part 2 of the performance "Elemental transformation ISIS 2"

21. April 2010
West Thebes / Nile

  Essence of water, gold,
  incense and myrrh 

To be able to perform their rituals accordingly and sustaining the cult, the Pharaohs needed the help of elemental substances and their powers. Hatschepsut sent an expedition of 5 boats through the Red Sea to Punt (Somalia, Eritrea) to fetch gold, incense and myrrh from there.

Gold stands for the wisdom of the past. It symbolises the consolidated sunbeams of enlightenment which had clotted to a material element and still shine as “frozen sunbeams”. Incense stands for the present as a point of constant decay and origin. Every time the tree resin burns, smoke and scent arises – its soul spreads and the elemental substance disintegrates. Myrrh stands for the future and the life’s victory over death. It’s also a tree resin like incense and is being attributed to revive vigour.

  The sun's cycle in a mould of warmth

First the idea of the sun barque had been formed and condensed into a copper sculpture. This form that had been developed by Joachim Eckl is like a boat and an altar at the same time. The copper shines in the sun and works perfectly as a heat- and cold conductor.

The aqueous essence was filled into this copper form. The two side parts of the boat remained empty for the present until they filled up with water vapour due to the influence of the temperature of the sunbeams. The cycle inside of the form of warmth was started. Due to the power of the sun evaporated one part of the water inside permanently. An evaporative cooling is the effect. The water vapour condenses and emits heat at contact with the copper form.

In the closed system of this form of warmth originates a full infinite circle which is literally kept in shape. It can be compared to a cycle of climate or weather which is also powered by the sun and kept in shape by the covering of the atmosphere.

  An island in the middle of the Nile -
 the place of action

There’s an island between Karnak- and Hatschepsut –temple (eastern and western riverbank of the Nile) – like a boat – in the middle of the Nile. It’s situated at the connecting axes of both temples where procession of boats had been held 3500 years before.

It had been really shown to me by the sunbeams of the setting sun. This island became the place for our action and the sunbeam the pointer to this place. On our trips to this island as well as to the temple of Karnak we constantly used a boat named ISIS 2 with its captain Gehmet (the unknowing) as a means of transport.

  The journey on the sunbeam

In the beginning there was the idea. The sun barque should consist of water, the basic element of earthly life. In her realisation in different states of the element water – water, ice and water vapour / liquid, solid and gaseous – she would go on her journey to the sun and back to the earth like a natural law. The passages, the doors which lead to the different state of matter of water were conceived to bring the different states of being of the elemental life – and effective powers to life.

The aim was to do an artistic experiment which lets remember the healing forces of essences and ritually processed water by bringing them into reality. (The effect of the water is now being evaluated at the University of Freiburg)

First the shape of warmth had been put on a ship-like form of ice which rested on two clay columns. (Inside the cycle of solid and gaseous status of water was going on) Thus the interaction of warmth and cold as a power for the inner cycle could be accelerated and intensified.

During our action, changes had emerged step by step and new constellations asserted. First a temple like a door of columns of ice as roof had been created. This sun door was adjusted to the sun and became the magic arrival point for the sunbeam made of ice. Behind that the elemental sacrificial substances turned into smoke and scent in the fire of the sunlight. This process released the elemental forces. As an extension to the sunbeam on the Nile a sunbeam made of ice unfolded rapidly. The barque of warmth travelled to the sun door on this sunbeam of ice. The form of warmth travelled in direction of the sun until its setting. Its soul could proceed through the door on the sunbeam on the Nile into the setting sun.