In Ekenberg, Norrköping, we can find hundreds of rock carvings made by
man 4000 years ago. There are drawings of ships, cup-marks (planets and
stars), men, animals... One carving stands out the others: a series
of concentric circles with a long sword. This drawing tells us about the
Earth-crossing comet Encke during a solar eclipse at 1596 BC.
In 2013, 21st November, comet Encke return again.
The stars are the same. The comet is the same. Everything goes in circles.
But Man has changed.
Thanks to science and technology, we have accumulated more
knowledge about our environment. Many astronomical
phenomena can be explained.
We now know:
That the Earth is spherical.
That the Earth moves.
That we are not the center of the Universe.
That the Sun is not a god.
That there is not only one sun. There are millions.
That the stars are other suns.
That there are stars that have already disappeared.
That we see the Sun as it was 8 minutes ago and
That the closest star as it was one year ago.
That the life of the Sun is 4600 millions of years.
That there are about 200 billion stars in our galaxy, the Milky Way.
That we can measure the distance between two stars.
That the speed of light is the fastest speed in the Universe.
That the Universe expands faster than before.
That the temperature is the same for all parts of Universe.
That there is not only one Universe, there are several universes.
Thanks to all this knowledge, the result of 40000 generations of ancestors's
search for wisdom, we have come to discover the coordinates of our existence
in time and space. We have more knowledge about the Universe than ever before. However , we look at the sky with the same questions:
WHY AM I HERE?
WHAT AM I?
WHAT IS MY DESTINY?
WHERE ARE WE GOING?
HOW WILL I BE?
IS THERE SOMETHING MORE?
Today, all people are connected. Everyone can communicate with anyone from anywhere on Earth. We think that our planet is smaller. We depend on technology to survive and not to loose our way of living. In this connected world, the city dweller has lost his connection to the Earth. We have lost the sense of our oneness with the Universe. The Sun and the Moon are not our travel companions. They have been replaced by the digital media. We must cover up the city lights to look at the sky and see the stars. We will feel a primitive sensation of to be part of nature, while we keep asking us where we come from and where we go to. Because, despite all that current advances, we don't know it.
Not only the return of comet Encke reminds us of past historical times, but it also "reminds" us of the future.
It's necessary to create a Urban Eclipse if we want to look up towards the sky in our cities. Turn off the actual environment where most of mankind lives. Take your time to ask the stars, and, in conjunction with their silence, imagine an answer as Man did it long time ago to become today’s Man.
We can look at them to understand ourselves.
My artistic practice has brought me to Stockholm. It's fundamental in
my work to know the space where I live. I walk around my life world
to take experiences. I lose myself to find myself.
On these wanderings, I have discovered the art of Swedish Bronze
Age and its meaning. My research was done at KKH, and the project
must be realized here where I have been living and the comet was discovered. There is a platform in the waterline close to Hus 28.
The platform is an old crane base with geometric shape like an octahedron
conical base pointing to the sky. I have built a room without
ceiling to look towards the stars, a space to generate an Urban Eclipse
which can carry us into another time, cyclic and infinite.
And we look up to the stars,
And we feel the same feelings that our ancestors felt,
And we ask the same questions they did,
And we know that
The answers are in the stars
We can look at them to understand ourselves.
