« THE ONLY WAY OUT IS IN »
Henrik Sørlid and Maija Liisa Björklund
“For this exhibition, we have focused on work that deals with different ideas of language, signs and symbolic meaning in relation to nature mysticism and various other ways of dealing with the widespread perception that humans are integrally part of nature but still estranged in some way from it. We imagine that this perceived estrangement from nature is perhaps more of an estrangement from ourselves, in a spiritual or at least psychological sense.
We started out from experimenting and teaching ourselves the practice of rune yoga, a modern meditative practice originally known as rune gymnastics. The practice of rune yoga centres on forming your body into various letters, who have a range of symbolic interpretations. This symbolic grammar is supposed to enable a direct communication – through your own body and senses – with primordial or cosmic forces.
Rune Yoga was invented by the German esotericist Friedrich Marby during the 1920’s. Marby was later imprisoned in Dachau concentration camp for “bringing the holy Arian heritage into ridicule and disrepute”, and was one of the few non-antisemitic runologists in Germany at the time.
Our experiments with rune yoga also reflects more broadly on our own experiences with various spiritual practices, philosophies and groups that both invoke something primordial and “authentic”, while at the same time being blatantly syncretic, modern/post-modern and totally “made up”-“
The exhibition was supported by Nordic Culture Point
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