This installation was made in close collaboration with Mala Kline. Mala’s guidance is based on the notion that an image is a particular form of consciousness with its own intention and can be perceived and interacted with as a living being with its own presence, force and direction.

Mala ‘s work is grounded in Saphire®, the practise of inner vision. Mala studied this method at The School of Images of Catherine Shainberg. The School of Images (SOI) is a Kabbalah school founded to advance awareness of imagination as the foremost language for instantaneous insight and transformation. SOI teaches the techniques of work with imagery and dreaming to gain access to the forgotten source of imagination within. The methods of this experiential work are derived from early Jewish, Sephardic and Mediterranean sources and are as such a continuation of the work of the ancient lineage of Saphardic Kabbalah. The work is pure Kabbalah (kabbalah means ‘receiving’), in that one ‘receives’ from one’s inner gazing. SOI’s way of Kabbalah is an exploration of the imaginal field whose language is common to all. Each image exercise is a unique tool for instantaneous vision, transformation, and healing.

The visionary journey that was created for this installation is inspired by the ancient texts about Ishtar, or Inanna, Queen of Heaven and Earth, an old Sumerian goddess (c. 1900-1600 BCE). The hymns from the Cycle of Inanna, written by the Sumerian priestess Enheduanna, transport us by a slow, almost hypnotic repetition, into another realm, into the timeless realm of the gods, the soul, and the origin of life. These old tales are connected to a religious foundation about which, except form the hymns and the artefacts, we have very little factual information. Nevertheless, we can approach these stories as sacred narratives, as spiritual explorations of the place of the gods and the human psyche in the universe. They teach us to pierce right through our contemporary structures and conventions into the very essences of life; As if we are falling out of all the frameworks into a deeper, more eternal soul-place, a place which the mind does not wish to forget about.

CREDITS

CONCEPT & DIRECTION Suzan Boogaerdt & Bianca van der Schoot
TEXT & VOICE Mala Kline
SOUNDSCAPE Remco de Jong & Florentijn Boddendijk
VIDEO Rodrik Biersteker
FIGURES Lotte Goos, Suzan Boogaerdt & Bianca van der Schoot
TENTS Lena Newton & Alexandra van den Akker
LIGHTING ADVICE Theun Mosk

ALL PRODUCTIONS