After the jump is a reportage in the newspaper: “Tagesspiegel” about me at the “Über Lebenskunst” festival in Haus der Kulturen der Welt. It is in German and I would like to Anna Pataczek for making it.

Reportage über IVAN CIVIC während des Über Lbenskunst Festivals in der Haus der Kulturen der Welt und seiner performance: “WELCOME HOME”. – Reportage von: Anna Pataczek

Echte Überlebenskunst beweist Ivan Civic. Aber was ist schon echt? In einer Performance, die exakt 101 Stunden dauert, wird er nie den weißen Raum im Kellergeschoss verlassen. Tag ein, Tag aus werden die Neonröhren erbarmungslos brennen, so dass der junge Künstler seinen eigenen Schlaf- und Wachrhythmus bestimmen muss. Er wird nichts essen, nur Wasser trinken und nicht reden – außer in Gebärdensprache, die er sich extra für die Aktion beigebracht hat. Am ersten Tag sei das Fasten noch ein Spiel, am zweiten produziere der Körper immer noch in Vorfreude auf etwas zu essen Magensäfte. Am dritten Tag dann, stelle er die Verdauung ein. „Und dann beginnt die Energie nach oben ins Hirn zu wandern“, sagt Ivan Civic. „Man sieht schärfer und man hört besser.“ Das würde beim Jagen helfen – wenn wir denn noch in der Höhle lebten. Auch auf diese radikale Weise kann man Ressourcengewinnung verstehen. Für Civic, 1979 in Sarajevo geboren und ehemaliger Meisterschüler von Performance-Ikone Marina Abramovic, geht seine Botschaft aber über das rein Physiologisch-Biologische hinaus. Wir haben wertvolles Wissen und Werte unserer Vorfahren verloren, findet er, in uns vergraben, überlagert von unserer Konsumgeilheit. Und deshalb präsentiert Civic in seiner Performance, die rund um die Uhr besucht werden kann, eine hochglanzpolierte, stylische Oberfläche. Auf dass es einen schaudert. Danach kann man mit dem Solarboot ablegen und über die Spree tuckern und alles ist wieder gut … Besser.

bis So 21.8., Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Infos: www.ueber-lebenskunst.org

Ganze Festival reportage unter folgenden Link: REPORTAGE

Here an interview with me and RBB radio for the program: “kultur radio” with reporter Zimmer. It is in German… hope my German was good enough. But be the judge of that. Thank you so much to Patrick J. Thomas for adding the visuals to the radio interview.

Love,

Ivan

ph. Omid Hashemi

I am now also posting videos on VIMEO

Love,

Ivan

ivan civic "welcome home" last day

Dear Family and friends,

“WELCOME HOME – ancestors speak! We forgot how to listen!” has come to an end. It was a heck of a ride! I feel like I have woken up from a long and interesting dream. I had to wait a couple of days after finishing the performance to write this post because I firstly needed to rest and rehabilitate myself to “normal” life again. I was extremly weak after five days of fasting, drinking only and exclusively water and being accessible to the public 24/7, day and night, always! And indeed I was always surrounded by people. During the day time there was never a moment when I was alone in my performance space. At night I had some rare moments of loneliness, but even then the very careing and gentle security was always in my room taking care I was safe if I were to fall asleep and lose control over my body.

The visitors in general were more or less all cautious and respectfull of what I was doing. I limited the access to my space to a maximum of 10 visitors per time. So there were often cues outside my space but it was necessery in order to achieve the highest amount of concentration possible.

It was difficult to perform 101 hours but it was amazing. It did indeed open many doors inside me and it did move me in many ways. I still lack words to describe it properly. This has been the most intense performance I have done to date. The visitors had many questions. Some did not understand what I was doing in the room, others got it right away… Others needed some hours to understand, but still, they stayed in my space so long and the longer they were there with me and the longer we connected and exchanged energy and emotions. It was very moving.

Omid Hashemi helped me a lot because he filmed and photographed the entire process and we will keep working on the follow up project to “WELCOME HOME”, but more about that is to come in the future. For now there is only the result of my efforts. What remains is memory. Frank Schönwald, the talented stage designer of my performance wrote me the other day that just one day after my performance ended, my room was dissassembled and looked grey, dull and sad and I answered him that that did not matter at all. The reason I did this performance was indeed to create a strong memory vision in the viewers minds and to make a blueprint pattern inside them of the entire experience. Now, who has seen and felt the performance, will always carry it with them, inside them. They will not need the physical space, I performed in, to relive the emotions of the performance again. All they will need to do is remember it and all those emtions will arise again. I want the memory to be crystal clear, pure and white.

Aycha Araya’s costumes helped me a lot achieve my goal. I wanted to have clear lines that frame and pronounciate my actions as exponentially as possible. And she did a darn well job! Especially considering that this was the very first time we collaborated.

Patrick J. Thomas was an extreme help. Without him I wouldn’t have had the strength to go through with it!

The way I structured the performance was an alien arriving/ landing on to a foreign planet. On this planet I visit it’s past. And each day I go more back into the worlds past, till I get to its end and during this travel I collect the stories, emotions, morals, structures of the planet until I get ready to leave on the last day and go back to my own world…

The first day was my arrival with a present to my hosts.

The second day I went back to visit the pleasures of people killing other living beings, hunting them and making an art out of it.

The third day I went back in time and observed the structure people adobt when they believe in god or gods and the gods giving people will and will power and how this willpower is used by people and the fear poeple had or still have of god or gods destroying what they create. And what humans create is not always for a greater good. In fact it is mostly for destruction. Then I went to a time when gold was a purity symbol and an arcaic element. Gold as purity of soul and mind as well as a reason to kill one another to obtain more power. After gold comes silver, on weapons, costumes and superstitions.

The fourth day was a trip to a land before time when man was not yet and dinosaurs ruled the world. It was a stiller time with more magic in the air.

The fifth day was the day of my departure. I needed to say goodbye to all I had experienced and seen and it was time to go away, to go back home. The last day was a very intense one and a very hard one for many reasons. It was the day of abbandonment… the hardest lesson to learn as a human…

This is a merely tiny tiny tiny resumé of what happened those five days. For the rest the pictures speak for themselves as well as the videos…

I do not know now what repercussions this work will have on me and all of us together. I know only that time will tell. A lot of blood, swet and tears went into it and I must say that I am happy with it. It is way too soon to say what fruits it will carry. I do know that whatever we do and whatever actions we take, all have consequences. We need to stop and think before we do or say anything because everythng we do will get a reaction in return.

We must also not forget that we are not individuals that live alone on this wonderful planet. We are all a part of one big beautiful organism and only when we realize that and when we stick together and help each other can we really grow and shine in a crystal clear space surrounding us and warming us.

All this experience has been so overwhelmingly beautiful that I truely need more time to let it sink down into me and let it permeate my soul so that one day I can communicate in words what I truely feel. In fact, not speaking at all for five days felt extremly right and appropriate. Words are not enough to communicate truely. Words facilitate a fast communication but through them we lose so much intention and emotion and we lose a lot of reality as well.

We forgot how to feel.

Love,

Ivan

Ph. Omid Hashemi

Ph: Omid Hashemi

ph. Omid Hashemi

ph: Omid Hashemi

ph: Omid Hashemi