Mond, humanimal, die Künstler*in Tejal Shah und Friederike Nastold im Gespräch.
Die zeitgenössische, indische Künstler*in Tejal Shah entwirft utopische und zugleich dystopische Welten: Jedes Erkennen läuft ins Leere, vermeintlich bekannte Kategorien geraten ins Wanken: Die Grenzen zwischen Frau* und Mann*, Natur und Mensch, Sonne und Mond verlieren sich in einer poetischen Bilderwelt.
Im Rahmen des KLIRRRRR-festivals wurde das Video „Some kind of nature“ (2015) von Tejal Shah gescreent. Anschließend sind wir über ein assoziatives Fabulieren mit den Protagonist*innen des Videos in ein Gespräch getreten.
Ein Rückblick:
Tejal Shah
„One of the ways in which I can think of Conflict – when differences (such as those of class, caste, species, race, gender, religion, age, ability etc) are capitalised or instrumentalised into differentials that promote exploitation, then conflict arises. Most humans perceive and conceive subject and object as independent entities. Such duality for me is the root of all conflict. As long as notions of ‚us‘ and ‚them‘ are retained, we will continue to experience conflict within and without. Here I am grateful for the proposal of reality as posited by the Buddhist Middle Way philosophy and practice living tradition.“
Tejal Shah
„I am also interested in the history of mirrors and their use in technological innovations. What Is perhaps most fascinating about reflections to me is that reflections are a form of illusion. They appear to be the thing that they are reflecting but they are not the thing. This question of what is illusion and what is reality – is there something besides our conceptualisation of things?“
Tejal Shah
„Past few years I have been researching and studying different non-dual, eastern philosophical and practice traditions which happen to be predominantly oral traditions. There is a rich legacy of songs/poems of spiritual realisations. My study and practice allows me to access these poems from a different register. There is a collection of Rumi’s poems called 365 Days with Rumi which was on my bedside while I was in the process of shooting Some Kind of Nature. I often use this book as a tarot deck and work with it by free association. Making any work demands a lot out of me since I don’t have a very scripted method of working or consistent formal language. One night I felt compelled to check what Rumi had to say to that day and the quote that appears at the end of the film is what it had to say. I was very moved by reading it and it brought me back to the centre and the work is also doing that – attempting to find its centre, inviting audiences to each find their centre.“