benedikt steiner – week 1 – tuning in/-to the blue (gates)
July 19, 2022
hello everyone,
my name is benedikt steiner and i live in vienna as an artist, writer and leader of workshops. my work is situated in the fields of language, image and space and at their manifold interfaces. i see poetry as a sculptural, cross-media process of creating world(s), constantly oscillating between sensuality and meaning; between chance and necessity. in my practice the unfolding of the poetic potential of inner and outer spaces plays a crucial role
tuning in:
in the first five days of the residency my daughter was together with us. before, i already spent one week in basel with her, the city where i grew up. in these first days at sasso i asked myself (once more) how to connect my artistic practice with my role as a father. since a crucial part of my work is daily notes, the fragmented way of collecting and producing text went along very well with the regular interruptions and rather short free time periods i was confronted with. furthermore i started to paint together with my daughter in the mornings. in the afternoons we went down to the lakeside for swimming and building sand castles. since i like the direct way of taking photos with the mobile phone, this was also a good way to punctually create fresh imagery and document the first days. the artist group and my daughter got along very well, so there arised a beautiful atmosphere from that constellation
slowly approaching:
being at a new place and having a lot of time to develop a new work is wonderful and challenging at the same time. everything is possible, but what to chose and why? since improvisation and intuition are the main approaches of my work anyway, i tried to consequently follow these two guides and letting each day unfold slowly, following the meandering ways of my interests. for me, one basic structure to navigate in such open fields is writing. another important approach – especially at a new place – are trips and explorations; leaving the place of stay and discovering the site and region. making photographs, writing, collecting objects, implement small spacial interventions etc. so i tried to approach my surrounding by many different mediums and letting myself being guided by what i found out. since i’m attracted by dusk as a spacial and emotional state i begun leaving the house in early evening to stray around with no strict plan or concept – coming to meaning through the sensual step by step. a first line i detected and want to continue with is as follows
gates:
in the forest nearby i came across a concrete water reservoir. i got afflicted by its atmosphere, by the human-made form in the midst of the density of the grown. the sound of the water rushing and dripping coming out of the building intensified that strange mood of anonymity and sensuality at the same time. the entry was designed like that of a temple and since it was early evening, in all of a sudden a fine beam of light wrapped the scenery in a warm atmosphere. that’s when i took the photograph
at the same spot there is a tiny freight cableway for a small remote hotel up in the hills. its cables lead steeply up the woods and regularly pass big hexagon structures. the first one seems to float high up in the forest and attracted my attention from the beginning. again it’s a human-made form in the midst of a grown environment. through its abstract appearance it becomes a form on its own, independent from the context of the cableway. thereby it becomes open for many associations – i read it as a gate
back in vairano i passed a third variation of gates. next to a construction company there are three garage-like empty spaces, divided by concrete walls and covered with a roof. the back wall is formed by brown rocks. another space where the made and the grown come together, maybe in the most direct way of the three. the almost empty spaces create an atmosphere of abandonment and shelter at the same time
gates to where? from one world, from one space to another? gates to the unknown, the unseen, the inbetween, the unperceived, the new per se; gates to the other; gates as zones of transition and transformation; gates as rather open or closed spacial situations; gates as connecting but also separating situations. imagining a poem as a gate too – a gate to another person’s world, perception and construction of meaning – i want to end this post with a recent poem i wrote these days
…
diese zeiten
containerzüge, die langsam durch die dörfer fahren
ein schlafendes kind im raum
sternenhimmel am ufer gegenüber
kiefernduft
erfahrenes lässt sich nicht aufzählen
auch nicht als modell
den zunehmenden verlust der einzelheiten
zur sprache bringen, so gut es geht
die distanzen überbrücken
zwischen stumm und zeichen
die schiffshörner, die steintreppen ins wasser
ernst nehmen. ernster werden
und dabei etwas häufiger lächeln
widmung, mindestens einer sache gegenüber
und sich dem, was als kommendes bleibt
nun zärtlich zuwenden
…
these times
container trains slowly passing through the villages
a sleeping child in the room
starry sky on the opposite shore
the scent of pine trees
the experienced cannot be enumerated
not even as a model
bringing to speech
the increasing loss of details as well as possible
bridging the distances
between mute and sign
the ship’s horns, the stone stairs into the water
taking them seriously
becoming more serious
and smiling a little more often
dedication to at least one thing
and turning tenderly towards
what remains as coming
…
for more information about my work you can visit my website or my instagram-account:
https://www.instagram.com/_benediktsteiner
