View allAll Photos Tagged existential
Here we've got an existential classic from the id-iom stable. Just as I was getting a little bored during the spring clean of my 'studio' I came across the old 'How can I tell her?' stencils and thought putting that on canvas for a little street drop is a far better use of my time than actually doing any cleaning. I think my favourite aspect of this picture is his desperation at his inability to tell her that they aren't really lovers and are, in fact, just stencils. Life can be tough, can't it?
Cheers
id-iom
“Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark in the hopeless swamps of the not-quite, the not-yet, and the not-at-all. Do not let the hero in your soul perish in lonely frustration for the life you deserved and have never been able to reach. The world you desire can be won. It exists.. it is real.. it is possible.. it’s yours.”
Before I headed up to Maine this weekend to spend some time with my darling Sarah Loreth, I had been having a couple of particularly hard weeks dealing with who I was as an artist and where I really wanted to go in life. Coming back and spending some quality time reading Alan Watt's stuff has given me more insight about myself and the person I want to become. I'm still going to go through lots of struggles but at least I know that there's a way out.
Thanks to the wonderful Sarah for her help :D
I was getting an artistic shot of the flowing leaves of the marsh cattails, and this swallow showed up just at the right time, hovering over grass and probably looking for more insects to eat :))
These are the moments where one's soul is full of joy, an existential beauty in witnessing such spontaneity and wonder!!
Hence the title 'Like a Dream'--
Please enlarge for the best view...
Another purported purchase from West Russia, the M-103 is a fierce electronic warfare platform capable of disrupting the ground-, air-, and spaceborne radar and telecommunication systems NATO employs to maintain security not only in Europe, but across the globe. This translates to the M-103 being yet another existential threat for NATO since the organization's heavy investment in intelligence gathering and battlefield network management was meant to keep the alliance one step ahead of its foes; however, the presence of the Chislobog and the M-104 Ozhwiena in Eastern Europe (and likely Southeast Asia) means that the West's cutting edge is dulled significantly. With the ability to jam AWACS, UAVs, low-orbital satellites, and radar-guided munitions, the M-103 and M-104 act as a not-so-scifi forcefield protecting Yugoslavia and its cohorts. This has caused tremendous angst in NATO as the alliance is forced to reassess how it plans and executes missions in its own backyard.
In fact, during NATO's intervention in Ukraine during the Second Eastern European War, the West had to resort to oldschool, low-tech espionage techniques to locate the M-103s and M-104s deployed by the Yugoslav-backed Block Cross units. Since both systems--especially when working in tandem--are able to scramble essentially any electronic signal, the West was often operating blind during the early days of the conflict. That isn't to say the West was totally impotent during the waking hours of the conflict; however, its overall effectiveness was incredibly muted compared to what was expected from the world's most advanced collection of armed forces. Hence, special forces (e.g. Britain's SAS) were put on the ground not only to reinforce failing Ukrainian regulars, but also to expand NATO's maneuvering space via the neutralization of the Black Cross' EW suites. Ultimately, at least one M-103 and three M-104s were destroyed or damaged during these targeted operations; nevertheless, many others escaped as Yugoslavia/the Black Cross shrewdly withdrew them from the front once the ball got rolling in NATO's favor.
To this day, the M-103 haunts the dreams of many an AWACS crewman. Although the M-103 is often mockingly referred to as the Babushka by these crews, the Chislobog has taken on the status of a Lovecraftian monster in the mythos of the Western intelligence community. Since the Second Eastern European War, NATO and its associates have emphasized the immediate elimination of any and all EW systems that may be present on a given battlefield. Additionally, NATO has once again invested heavily in HUMINT instead of relying on purely technical intelligence gathering techniques like SIGINT, IMINT, etc. By investing in advanced technology of its own, Yugoslavia has managed to make war a much more human experience again rather than one fought by machines and computers.
Once again, shoutout to the homie Lego Pilot for rendering and editing this bitch!
This celebration/ outing was staged by a small rural community in conjunction with the owner of the retirement home.
About 30 to 40 cars drove around, in front of both buildings, several times honking their horns, playing music and cheering the elderly survivors of COVID-19.
Photograph published in News Junkie Post on 5/30/2020
newsjunkiepost.com/2020/05/30/climate-crisispandemics-and...
Photograph also published in The Duran on 5/31/2020
theduran.com/climate-crisis-pandemics-and-bad-governance-...
I'm ending this year's galaxy season with the ultimate existential crisis!
Seen here as the fish hook shape is what is known as "Makarian's Chain", a group of galaxies with an average distance of 50 million light years from Earth. These galaxies are all a part of the Virgo Supercluster, which the Local Group (containing our own Milky Way galaxy) is all a part of. But those aren't the only galaxies in this image. Every fuzzball in this picture that doesn't look like a star is a galaxy, each with 100-400 billion stars, and statistically speaking, many of those stars will have a solar system. As a little bonus, I framed the beautiful spiral galaxy M88 in the lower right corner.
Here is the annotated version of my image. Every labeled item is a galaxy: i.imgur.com/5ykHvyd.jpg
Equipment:
OTA: William Optics GT81 w/0.8x reducer (382mm fl at f/4.7)
Mount: Orion Sirius EQ-G (HEQ-5)
Guidescope: Orion 50mm guidescope
Guiding camera: Orion StarShoot Autoguider
Imaging camera: ZWO ASI1600MM-Cool
Software:
SGP
PHD2
CdC
PixInsight
Acquisition:
Location: Atoka, Oklahoma (Bortle 3), and Fort Griffin State Historic Park, Texas (Bortle 3)
Dates: 4/10/2018, 4/14/2018, 4/15/2018, 5/5/2018
Gain: 76 Offset: 15
Camera temp: -20C
L: 167x180"
R: 43x180"
G: 40x180"
B: 50x180"
Total integration time: 15hrs
64x darks per calibration
30x flats per calibration
200x bias (master bias in library)
Preprocessing:
Batch PreProcessing script to generate calibrated images
StarAlignment to register all frames to a reference L
LocalNormalization on RGB frames
ImageIntegration
DrizzleIntegration
DynamicCrop each master
DBE on each master
LinearFit G and R to B
RGB processing:
PhotometricColorCalibration
SCNR green 50%
ArcsinhStretch for a small stretch
HistogramTransformation x2 to finish the stretch
SCNR green 100%
ExponentialTransformation w/ mask to push the galaxies slightly brighter
CurvesTransformation for saturation
ColorSaturation to target blue saturation
L processing:
Deconvolution
HistogramTransformation x2 to stretch image
Duplicated the image to create a starless version, using a starmask and several iterations of MMT and MT. Then pushed the faint nebulosity in the starless version using PixelMath expression: "1-(1-$T)*(1-$T)"
Combined the starless version with the image using PixelMath expression "F=0.4; (1-(1-$T)*(1-s)*F)+($T*~F)" followed by the same expression with F=0.2 (s=starless photo).
HistogramTransformation to move blacks in
LocalHistogramEqualization to improve contrast within galaxies
MultiscaleLinearTransform for slight sharpening
Combined L and RGB with LRGBCombination tool
CurvesTransformation to neutralize background color
ACDNR for slight noise reduction
HistogramTransformation to move black point in
Resampled to 40% for web posting
I'm not sure if i've ever suffered an existential crisis on the level that this man is currently having to deal with. Sure, I've had some strange notions from time to time but this guy's desperation at his inability to tell his lovely lady that they aren't really lovers and are, in fact, just stencils is somewhat heartbreaking. The swirling maelstrom of his thoughts is reflected in the somewhat random background. Just how is he going to break it to her? Life can be tough, can't it?
These are on A3 paper and will look lovely once framed. Drop us a line if you're interested...
Cheers
id-iom
Amid the quiet hum of a barangay center in Iligan, Mindanao, a lone goat rests atop a weathered rock, a makeshift plywood cushion softening the hardness beneath. Its tether, anchored to the earth, speaks of quiet restraint—a moment of stillness shaped by unseen boundaries. Sunlight catches the rough texture of its fur, the muted tones of stone, and the contrast of freedom just beyond reach.
Taco Cat is having an existential crisis ... (Is he a palindrome? Or a t-shirt design? Or both?)
For the shirt.woot derby
Puesto que el hombre en su totalidad es sólo el fenómeno de su voluntad, nada puede resultar más absurdo que, partiendo de la reflexión, querer ser algo distinto de lo que se es. El Problema radica en que no se que es lo que soy !
Feel free to interpret the photo [what does it mean?] in comments left below. Or feel free not to. Whatever you do, remember that you will be defining your essence by the way in which you respond. If you ignore the issue while being aware of it, you will enter a state of bad faith.* It's all up to you.
*in a state of bad faith one denies one's own consciousness or awareness in the face of changing reality
This image represents THE TOTALITY OF REALITY UP TO JANUARY 16, 2011.
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click to activate the icon of slideshow: the small triangle inscribed in the small rectangle, at the top right, in the photostream;
clicca sulla piccola icona per attivare lo slideshow: sulla facciata principale del photostream, in alto a destra c'è un piccolo rettangolo (rappresenta il monitor) con dentro un piccolo triangolo nero;
Qi Bo's photos on Flickr Hive Mind
www.fotografidigitali.it/gallery/2726/opere-italiane-segn...
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This year I asked myself, like so many Sicilian and non-Sicilian photographers, where to go to take pictures for Good Friday, to discover one of the many popular traditions scattered throughout Sicily, in fact Easter in Sicily is a cathartic moment for those in search of traditional popular events, to be able to tell with words and above all (for those like me) with photographs, a research that may appear not without contradictions, for example for that great Sicilian thinker who was Leonardo Sciascia, for he Sicily cannot be called Christian, which he defined the Sicilian festivals, at best it is only in appearance, in those properly pagan explosions, tolerated by the Church; Sciascia deals with the topic as an introductory essay in the book "Religious feasts in Sicily" (a volume that is still found on flea markets at ever higher prices), illustrated with photographs of a young and still unknown Ferdinando Scianna (in the first edition they made a mistake also his name, Fernando Scianna can be read on the cover), a book that did not fail to raise some controversy precisely because of the introductory note of the Sicilian thinker, appearing in open controversy with the sacredness of that popular devotion (so much so that the book was the subject of a criticized by the newspaper of the Holy See, The Roman Observer), Sciascia writes “What is a religious feast in Sicily? It would be easy to answer that it's anything but a religious holiday. It is, above all, an existential explosion; the explosion of the collective id, where the collectivity exists only at the level of the id. Because it is only in celebration that the Sicilian emerges from his condition as a lonely man, which is after all the condition of his vigilant and painful superego, to find himself part of a class, a class, a city ”. Going back over the thought of Gesualdo Bufalino, Sicilian writer and poet, we find interesting indications on the meaning that the Sicilians give to these traditional popular events, he says "during Easter every Sicilian feels not only a spectator, but an actor, before sorrowful and then exultant, for a Mystery which is its very existence. The time of the event is that of Spring, the season of metamorphosis, just as metamorphic is the very nature of the ritual in which, as in a story from the “Opera dei Pupi” (Puppets work), the fight of Good against Evil is fought. The Deception, the Pain and the Triumph, the Passion, the Death and the Resurrection of Christ are present”.
In short, Easter in Sicily is a recurrence deeply felt throughout the island since ancient times, it has always had the moving participation of the people as its fulcrum, with representations and processions that have become rites and traditions that unequivocally characterize many Sicilian towns, which recall the most salient moments narrated in the Gospels and which recall the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, with processions formed by the various brotherhoods (sometimes with theatrical re-enactments) which have in themselves contents and symbols often coming from the Spanish domination, which in Sicily between the 16th and 17th centuries.
Returning to my question, expressed at the beginning, I had several suggestions from friends and acquaintances, among these a nurse friend of mine, originally from Leonforte, Vincenzo, managed to tickle my interest in a particular way, hence the photographic story that I present, made this year, is that of the Good Friday procession of Leonforte.
The procession begins in the late morning, which proceeds from the Oratory to the Mother Church, through the Piazzale Matrice, during the short journey the Stations of the Cross are meditated on; the procession that advances towards the Cathedral (which will represent Golgotha, because it is there that the Crucifixion of Christ will take place) is started by a large Cross, behind it proceed two long lines of sisters and brothers, there are those who carry cushions with nails, the crown of thorns, and the sheet of the deposition with a "Red Rose" on it; then we find Christ with an uncovered face supported by five brothers, followed by the Virgin of Sorrows, carried on the shoulders of the confraternity of the same name. At noon, inside the Mother Church, once in front of the Cross, the statue with jointed arms is "crucified". When dusk comes everything is ready for the procession, which starts from the Mother Church with the rite of the deposition of Christ down from the Cross, which is taken care of by the priests; the procession winds along an estimated route of just over 7 km, involving the 13 churches of Leonforte (thirteen as there are stations of the “Way of the Cross”), a procession called "'U Mulimentu", a term that indicates the sepulcher which it guarded for three days the body of Christ before his Resurrection (The procession of the “'U Mulimentu” can be dated around 1650). This itinerary also includes the lighting of a huge bonfire placed in the square in front of the " Great Fountain of Leonforte" (built on the remains of an ancient Arab fountain), from whose 24 spouts water does not come out only on Good Friday, as a sign of mourning the death of Christ.
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Quest’anno mi ponevo la domanda, come tanti fotografi, siciliani e non, dove recarmi a realizzare fotografie per il Venerdì Santo, alla scoperta di una delle tantissime tradizioni popolari sparse in tutta la Sicilia, la Pasqua infatti in Sicilia, è un momento catartico per chi è alla ricerca di eventi popolari tradizionali, da poter così raccontare con parole e soprattutto (per chi come me) con fotografie, una ricerca che può apparire non priva di contraddizioni, ad esempio per quel grande pensatore Siciliano che fu Leonardo Sciascia, per lui la Sicilia non può dirsi cristiana, che definiva le feste Siciliane, al massimo lo è solo in apparenza, in quelle esplosioni propriamente pagane, tollerate dalla Chiesa; Sciascia affronta l’argomento come saggio introduttivo nel libro “Feste religiose in Sicilia” (volume che si trova ancore sui mercatini dell’usato a prezzi sempre più alti), illustrato con fotografie di un giovane ed ancora sconosciuto Ferdinando Scianna (nella prima edizione sbagliarono anche il suo nome, sulla copertina si legge Fernando Scianna), libro che non mancò di sollevare qualche polemica proprio per la nota introduttiva del pensatore Siciliano, apparendo in aperta polemica con la sacralità di quella devozione popolare (tanto che il libro fu oggetto di una stroncatura da parte del quotidiano della Santa Sede, l’Osservatore Romano), Sciascia scrive “Che cos’ è una festa religiosa in Sicilia? Sarebbe facile rispondere che è tutto, tranne che una festa religiosa. E’, innanzi tutto, un’esplosione esistenziale; l’esplosione dell’es collettivo, dove la collettività esiste soltanto a livello dell’es. Poiché e soltanto nella festa che il siciliano esce dalla sua condizione di uomo solo, che è poi la condizione del suo vigile e doloroso super io, per ritrovarsi parte di un ceto, di una classe, di una città ”. Andando a ripercorrere il pensiero di Gesualdo Bufalino, scrittore e poeta Siciliano, si trovano indicazioni interessanti sul senso che i Siciliano danno a questi eventi popolari tradizionali, egli dice “durante la Pasqua ogni siciliano si sente non solo uno spettatore, ma un attore, prima dolente e poi esultante, per un Mistero che è la sua stessa esistenza. Il tempo dell’evento è quello della Primavera, la stagione della metamorfosi, così come metamorfica è la natura stessa del rito nel quale, come in un racconto dell’Opera dei Pupi, si combatte la lotta del Bene contro il Male. Sono presenti l’Inganno, il Dolore e il Trionfo, la Passione, la Morte e la Resurrezione di Cristo”.
In breve, la Pasqua in Sicilia è una ricorrenza profondamente sentita in tutta l’isola fin dall’antichità, essa ha sempre avuto come fulcro la commossa partecipazione del popolo, con rappresentazioni e processioni divenuti riti e tradizioni che caratterizzano inequivocabilmente numerosissimi centri Siciliani, che rievocano i momenti più salienti narrati nei Vangeli e che ricordano la Passione, la Morte e la Resurrezione di Gesù Cristo, con cortei formati dalle varie confraternite (a volte con rievocazioni teatrali) che hanno in se contenuti e simbologie spesso provenienti dalla dominazione Spagnola, avvenuta in Sicilia tra il XVI ed il XVII secolo.
Ritornando alla mia domanda, espressa all’inizio, ho avuto diversi suggerimenti da parte di amici e conoscenti, tra queste un mio amico infermiere, originario di Leonforte, Vincenzo, è riuscito a solleticare il mio interesse in particolar modo, da qui il racconto fotografico che presento, realizzato quest’anno, è quello della processione del Venerdì Santo di Leonforte.
La processione inizia in tarda mattinata, che procede dall’Oratorio fino alla Chiesa Madre,attraverso il piazzale Matrice, durante il breve tragitto vengono meditate le stazioni della Via Crucis; ad inziare la processione che avanza verso il Duomo (che rappresenterà il Golgota, perché è li dentro che avverrà la Crocifissione del Cristo) è una grande Croce, dietro procedono due lunghe file di consorelle e confrati, ci sono coloro che portano i cuscini con i chiodi, la corona di spine, ed il lenzuolo della deposizione con sopra una “Rosa Rossa”; poi troviamo il Cristo a volto scoperto sorretto da cinque confrati, segue la Vergine Addolorata, portata in spalla dall’omonima confraternita. A mezzogiorno, dentro la Chiesa Madre, giunti dinnanzi alla Croce, la statua con le braccia snodabili viene “crocifissa”. Quando sopraggiunge l’imbrunire tutto è pronto per la processione, che inizia dalla Chiesa Madre col rito della deposizione del Cristo giù dalla Croce, della quale se ne occupano i sacerdoti; la processione si snoda lungo un percorso stimato in poco più di 7 Km, interessando le 13 chiese di Leonforte (tredici quante sono le stazioni della Via Crucis), processione chiamata “’U Mulimentu”, termine che indica il sepolcro che custodì per tre giorni il corpo del Cristo prima della sua Resurrezione (La processione del “’U Mulimentu” è databile intorno al 1650). Questo percorso prevede anche l’accensione di un enorme falò posto sul piazzale antistante la “Gran Fonte di Leonforte” (costruita sui resti di una antica fontana araba), dalle cui 24 cannelle non esce acqua solo il giorno del Venerdì Santo, in segno di lutto per la morte del Cristo.
According to Robert Frank's existential argument for monochrome. Black & White are the colours of photography. To me they symbolise the alternatives of hope and despair to which mankind is subject.
However I have uploaded both versions of the Dancer in the darkness to explore tones, textures, shape, form, and saturation. I think the monotone version has a bit of a nostalgic feel and appeal.
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“The Cross is not a Roman pole, but the wood on which God wrote his gospel”.
“La Croce non è un palo dei romani, ma il legno su cui Dio ha scritto il suo vangelo.
(Alda Merini)
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or…. Press the “L” button to zoom in the image;
clicca sulla piccola icona per attivare lo slideshow: sulla facciata principale del photostream, in alto a destra c'è un piccolo rettangolo (rappresenta il monitor) con dentro un piccolo triangolo nero;
oppure…. premi il tasto “L” per ingrandire l'immagine;
www.worldphoto.org/sony-world-photography-awards/winners-...
www.fotografidigitali.it/gallery/2726/opere-italiane-segn...
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Good Friday is an anniversary which in Sicily acquires a cathartic meaning for those who are searching, not only photographically, for popular traditions (we find them widespread throughout Sicily), which are nothing other than a social, cultural event, which merge into a single past and present; from the web "popular traditions are a historical memory linked to customs and rituals that have given shape to the values and beliefs of that culture". Easter in Sicily can be a source of research, it can appear not without contradictions, citing the thoughts of that great Sicilian thinker Leonardo Sciascia, for him Sicily cannot be called Christian referring to the Sicilian festivals, at most it is only in appearance, in those properly pagan explosions tolerated by the Church; Sciascia addresses the topic as an introductory essay in the book "Religious celebrations in Sicily", illustrated with photographs of a young and still unknown Ferdinando Scianna, a book that did not fail to raise some controversy due to the Sicilian thinker's introductory note, thus being in open controversy with the sacredness of that popular Sicilian devotion (the book was criticized by the Holy See newspaper, the Osservatore Romano), Sciascia writes: “what is a religious festival in Sicily? It would be easy to answer that it is anything but a religious holiday. It is, first of all, an existential explosion; the explosion of the collective id, where the collectivity exists only at the level of the id. Since it is only during the celebration that the Sicilian emerges from his condition of a single man, which is the condition of his vigilant and painful superego, to find himself part of a class, of a class, of a city". Another Sicilian thinker, writer and poet, Gesualdo Bufalino, provides interesting indications on the meaning that Sicilians give to these traditional popular events, he says "during Easter every Sicilian feels not only a spectator, but an actor, first sorrowful and then exultant , for a Mystery that is its very existence. The time of the event is that of Spring, the season of metamorphosis, just as the very nature of the rite is metamorphic in which, as in a story from the Puppet Opera, the battle of Good against Evil is fought. Deception, Pain and Triumph, Passion, Death and Resurrection of Christ are present."
In short, Easter in Sicily is a deeply felt anniversary throughout the island since ancient times, it has always had as its fulcrum the emotional participation of the people, with representations and processions which have become rites and traditions which unequivocally characterize numerous Sicilian centres, which they recall the most salient moments narrated in the Gospels and which recall the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, with processions formed by the various brotherhoods (sometimes with theatrical re-enactments) which have within them contents and symbols often coming from the Spanish domination, which took place in Sicily between the 16th and 17th centuries. This year, on the occasion of Good Friday I went to the pretty town of Licodia Eubea (in the province of Catania), I'll start by saying that in this procession a unique character comes to life in statue form that cannot be found anywhere else place in Sicily, it is called "Ciurciddu" (translated "Circello"), he pulls Christ with a rope tied around his neck while he carries the Cross, this bad character has a profound symbolic-allegorical meaning, he represents "the Evil that exists in the world, the refusal towards the Truth announced by Christ", causing him suffering by pulling him with the rope tied around his neck. The boys and men "carriers of the floats" gather together, preparing for the moment when, once the procession has begun, the "'a Giunta" will take place around 10:00 a.m., or rather the very painful "encounter" between Christ ( who carries the Cross, linked to Ciurciddu) and His Mother of Sorrows (with her heart pierced by a sword, an iconic image of Spanish origin), during the meeting "the bow or greeting takes place" between the two floats, it is the Greeting that Mother and Son do in one of the most characteristic moments of this procession. While the two vares are brought to an ancient church, another event takes place which strongly characterizes this tradition, the "auction of the Cross" takes place, the ability to carry the Cross, weighing 70 kg, on one's shoulder, up to Churc of Calvary (a long uphill journey to reach the upper part of the town), is put up for auction, the highest bidder wins this possibility, after which an extraordinary event occurs: the devotee who wins the auction is embraced by numerous villagers, with great transport and affection, this is because those who participate in the auction certainly do so out of devotion but also possibly because they have had someone in their family with more or less serious health problems, and this is why people hug them and encourage them by showing their closeness . In the afternoon the procession resumes, now the Christ is dead, he is in the vara with the Urn, and is called "'u Signuri' a cascia" (by which term means "the Lord in the coffin"), the two vare (the dead Christ and His Mother of Sorrows) are carried in procession up to the Church of Calvary, where the heavy and ancient Cross carried on the shoulder by the devotee was hoisted; here, even if Christ is dead, the Crucifixion takes place , the mystical moment is accompanied by ancient songs-lamentations by the singers of the SS association. Crucifix; subsequently Christ is placed from the Cross in the urn, and descends back into the center of the town, where in the church of the Capuchin Fathers the devout people "make peace with the Lord", an act of reconciliation and request for forgiveness before the figure of Christ Died. Subsequently, late in the evening, Christ and his Mother are led into the Mother Church.
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Il Venerdì Santo è una ricorrenza che in Sicilia acquista un significato catartico per chi è alla ricerca, non solo fotografica, delle tradizioni popolari (le troviamo diffuse in tutta la Sicilia), che altro non sono che un evento sociale, culturale, che fondono in un tutt’uno passato e presente; dal web “le tradizioni popolari sono una memoria storica legata ad usanze e ritualità che hanno dato forma ai valori e alle credenze di quella cultura”. La Pasqua in Sicilia può essere fonte di ricerca, essa può apparire non priva di contraddizioni, citando il pensiero di quel grande pensatore Siciliano che fu Leonardo Sciascia, per lui la Sicilia non può dirsi cristiana riferendosi alle feste Siciliane, al massimo lo è solo in apparenza, in quelle esplosioni propriamente pagane, tollerate dalla Chiesa; Sciascia affronta l’argomento come saggio introduttivo nel libro “Feste religiose in Sicilia”, illustrato con fotografie di un giovane ed ancora sconosciuto Ferdinando Scianna, libro che non mancò di sollevare qualche polemica per la nota introduttiva del pensatore Siciliano, essendo così in aperta polemica con la sacralità di quella devozione popolare Siciliana (il libro fu oggetto di una stroncatura da parte del quotidiano della Santa Sede, l’Osservatore Romano), Sciascia scrive: “che cos’ è una festa religiosa in Sicilia? Sarebbe facile rispondere che è tutto, tranne che una festa religiosa. E’, innanzi tutto, un’esplosione esistenziale; l’esplosione dell’es collettivo, dove la collettività esiste soltanto a livello dell’es. Poiché e soltanto nella festa che il siciliano esce dalla sua condizione di uomo solo, che è poi la condizione del suo vigile e doloroso super io, per ritrovarsi parte di un ceto, di una classe, di una città ”. Altro pensatore, scrittore e poeta Siciliano, Gesualdo Bufalino, fornisce indicazioni interessanti sul senso che i Siciliani danno a questi eventi popolari tradizionali, egli dice “durante la Pasqua ogni siciliano si sente non solo uno spettatore, ma un attore, prima dolente e poi esultante, per un Mistero che è la sua stessa esistenza. Il tempo dell’evento è quello della Primavera, la stagione della metamorfosi, così come metamorfica è la natura stessa del rito nel quale, come in un racconto dell’Opera dei Pupi, si combatte la lotta del Bene contro il Male. Sono presenti l’Inganno, il Dolore e il Trionfo, la Passione, la Morte e la Resurrezione di Cristo”.
In breve, la Pasqua in Sicilia è una ricorrenza profondamente sentita in tutta l’isola fin dall’antichità, essa ha sempre avuto come fulcro la commossa partecipazione del popolo, con rappresentazioni e processioni divenuti riti e tradizioni che caratterizzano inequivocabilmente numerosissimi centri Siciliani, che rievocano i momenti più salienti narrati nei Vangeli e che ricordano la Passione, la Morte e la Resurrezione di Gesù Cristo, con cortei formati dalle varie confraternite (a volte con rievocazioni teatrali) che hanno in se contenuti e simbologie spesso provenienti dalla dominazione Spagnola, avvenuta in Sicilia tra il XVI ed il XVII secolo.
Quest’anno, in occasione del Venerdì Santo mi sono recato nel grazioso paese di Licodia Eubea (in provincia di Catania), inizio col dire che in questa processione prende vita, in forma statuaria, un personaggio unico che non si trova in nessun’altro luogo della Sicilia, si chiama “Ciurciddu” (tradotto “Circello”), egli tira con una corda legata al collo il Cristo mentre porta la Croce, questo tristo personaggio ha un profondo significato simbolico-allegorico, egli rappresenta “il Male che c’è nel mondo, il rifuto verso al Verità annunciata dal Cristo”, creandogli sofferenza tirandolo con la corda legata al collo. I ragazzi e gli uomini “portatori delle vare” si riuniscono tra loro, preparandosi al momento in cui, iniziata la processione, si realizzerà attorno alle ore 10:00 “ ‘a Giunta”, ovvero “l’incontro” dolorosissimo tra il Cristo (che porta la Croce, legato a Ciurciddu) e Sua Madre l’Addolorata (col cuore trafitto da una spada, immagine iconica di origine spagnola), durante l’incontro “avviene l’inchino o saluto” tra le due vare, è il Saluto che Madre e Figlio si fanno in uno dei momenti più caratteristici di questa processione. Mentre le due vare vengono portate in una antica chiesa, avviene un altro evento che caratterizza fortemente questa tradizione, ha luogo “l’asta della Croce”, il poter portare in spalla la Croce, del peso di 70 kg, fino alla Chiesa del Calvario (un lungo percorso in salita a raggiungere la parte alta del paese), viene messo all’asta, il maggiore offerente si aggiudica questa possibilità, dopodiché avviene un fatto straordinario: il devoto che si è aggiudicato l’asta viene abbracciato da numerosissimi paesani, con grande trasporto ed affetto, questo perché chi partecipa all’asta lo fa certamente per devozione ma anche possibilmente perché in famiglia ha avuto qualcuno con problemi più o meno gravi di salute, ed è per questo che le persone lo abbracciano e lo incoraggiano mostrandogli la loro vicinanza. Nel pomeriggio riprende la processione, adesso il Cristo è morto, si trova nella vara con l’Urna, ed è chiamato “ ‘ u Signuri ‘ a cascia” (col quale termine si intende “il Signore nella cassa da morto”), le due vare (il Cristo morto e Sua Madre l’Addolorata) vengono portate in processione fin sopra la Chiesa del Calvario, dove la pesante ed antica Croce portata in spalla dal devoto è stata issata, qui, anche se il Cristo è morto, avviene la Crocifissione, il mistico momento è accompagnato da antichi canti-lamentazioni ad opera dei cantori dell’associazione SS. Crocifisso; successivamente il Cristo viene deposto dalla Croce nell’urna, e ridiscende nel centro del paese, ove nella chiesa dei Padri Cappuccini il popolo dei devoti “ fa ‘ a Paci co’ Signuri”, atto di riconciliazione e richiesta di perdono innanzi la figura del Cristo Morto. Successivamente, in tarda serata, il Cristo e Sua Madre vengono condotti nella Chiesa Madre.
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A free Spirit
Mirit Ben-Nun was born in Beer- Sheva in 1966. Over the years she has presented in solo exhibitions and participated in group exhibitions in Israel and around the world.
When she was six, her father was killed in a car accident, leaving behind his wife and two daughters, Mirit and Dana.
Ben-Nun had difficulty concentrating on studies, which caused behavioral problems, and at the age of fourteen she dropped out of the education system and went to work. The colors and writing tools gave her a quiet private space and her own way of surviving. Creativity eased her tumultuous soul.
Until her early 30’s she worked as a telemarketer and for the next fourteen years she doodled and doodled. While talking to customers she filled thousands of pages with lines and dots that resembled hundreds of compressed eggs and seeds which she threw away.
In a large portion of each page she would pick a random word and would write it down over and over while concentrating on her hand movements.
Even then she noticed the rising of her need and obsession as she practiced the endless doodling and writing.
Ben-Nun testifies that the lack of artistic training to paint "correctly" freed her from adhering to the rules of painting and allowed her freedom and spirit of rebellion.
In 1998, she received a bunch of canvases and acrylic paints as a gift from her sister.
She brought the acrylic into her world of lines and dots; she went back to painting women and masks that appeared in her childhood paintings and flooded them with lines and dots without separating body and background.
This is also the moment when Ben-Nun began to refer to herself as a painter.
and when art became the center of her life.
The intense colors in Ben-Nun's paintings sweep the viewer into a sensual experience. The viewer traces the surge of dots and lines formed in packed layers of paint. The movement leads to a kind of female-male hormonal dance within the human body and to a communion with an artistic experience of instinct, passion, conceiving and birth.
Contributing to this experience is the wealth of characteristics reminiscent of tribal art. Ben-Nun merges these with a humorous and kicking contemporary Western Pop art. In the language of unique art, Ben-Nun creates an unconventional conversation between past and present cultures.
It is evident that the paintings emerge from a regenerated need and desire, a force that erupts from her soul, a subconscious survival instinct to which she cannot or does not want to resist.
Ben-Nun places women at the center stage where they are her work focus. The paintings obsessively deal with the existential experience of being a woman in the world. A few of the women's paintings carry feminist slogans stressing the women's struggle in society, a critique for being held to perfection and being required to perform as a model of "beauty, purity and motherhood". Feminism pulsates in Ben-Nun's psyche, through her diverse female images and the play between beauty and unsightliness; Ben-Nun assimilates the consciousness of feminine possibility, of not being "perfect", of being powerful, influential, and outside social norms. This mandates a departure from acceptable limitations where Ben-Nun creates a new world of free spirit for women.
Mirit Ben-Nun is a mother of three and the grandmother of three grandchildren.
Mirela Tal
It was one of those existential cries to the Universe asking for some kind of sign to be shown that I would know who I am and why I was living my life…to do what? I was up in the air, flying to Europe and feverishly writing in my journal as thick salty tears poured from my eyes onto my notebook. It was a time in my life when I had to let go over and over. These were the years of grieving the loss of my husband, changes in my work and feeling tremendous tension around the next part of my life. As words poured out on the page, I distinctly remember challenging the Great Unknown to prove to me that I’m not deluding myself on my journey of constant self-exploration and that we are indeed connected to every point in space. I wanted proof in that moment so desperately. When I was done,
I closed the notebook and slipped it into the pocket of the seat in front of me. I sat back as the light in the cabin was dimming and a large movie screen descended slowly. Those were the days before the personal digital devices so everybody watched the same film. I settled back in my chair and started to relax. Usually there was a short featurette of some kind to warm up the audience and my heart skipped a beat when I heard what it was about. The pleasant rolling voice of a woman spoke as the camera focussed on a beautiful elephant being prepared for a sacred ceremony. The voice said:
“Today we will take you to India to meet a special elephant named “Prem”. He is being prepared for a ceremony to celebrate the Goddess Ganga and to take a dip in the river of the same name. Who is Ganga and what does she stand for? We will explore this in the following film.”
Cue Twilight Zone theme.
Prem means Love in Sanskrit. The elephant was an embodiment of Love itself. Love has its own profound Intelligence and leads us to unknown heights. In a time of a world pandemic and massive unrest, each of us is never alone. When we cry out to the Great Mystery and we deeply listen, an answer comes like a still small voice and in some rare cases even a whole movie.
I wish you courage and strength friends xxxooo
Dieu est un fumeur de havanes
Je vois ses nuages gris
Je sais qu'il fume même la nuit
Comme moi ma chérie
Serge Gainsbourg
I have been going through an "origami existential crisis" lately, because I basically was rusty at first and it really scared me, blah blah blah, anyway. Actually being able to finally fold and completely assemble both of the Quadra-Hadra-Pudra-Phedron and the Ditrigonal Dodecadodecahedron was a huge thing for me and it helped me actually get my self-esteem to a normal level (aka way too high). BUT AGAIN, I'M RAMBLING. I just wanted to say that for some reason I preferred folding the Woven compound of 5 octahedra, even though it was waaaaay harder for me to wrap my head around the weaving. It just feels solid, dense, and it's way more stable than both the QHPP and the DDD.
But hey, they still have all been a lotta fun to fold.
[all models designed by Daniel Kwan ]
"This oddly existential question was meant to push the beverage not just as a business, but as a lifestyle". 1910 Advertising slogan for MJB Coffee.....
Sound familiar ??
Alberto Giacometti 1951
"Alberto Giacometti A Line Through Time" Exhibition at the Vancouver Art Gallery summer 2019. This is must see. Giacometti lived 1901-1966 with his primary studio in Paris.
The post-war era in Europe lead to an overwhelmingly existential crisis embodied in the feeling of fragility, isolation and alienation in the works of artists like Giacometti.
SHE WRITES TO ME ABOUT the experience of being in several places when she is walking through a city. The physical space, but also the overlapping spaces of dreams, memories, and desires. She observes that the possibilities of any city are infinite, often frightening in the variety of combinations they present.
SHE SENDS ME A PHOTOGRAPH ON THE THRESHOLD OF HERSELF , about to become someone else, someone other. Do all the borders crossed cancel us out, reducing us to zero?