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So, let's do some revealing.
I hope I can do this without changing anything.
Well, it seems to me that this surprise guest has not only something to do with the internet
by being freed from any context but also has something to do with it by virtue of what it is,
because the first thing that comes to mind here is a network, a brain, energy, impulse.
But if I were to take this absolutely seriously,
I would like to put this surprise guest somewhere else within our space.
That's what I'd like to do now.
If you were to ask, "Why does someone put this painting in front of this wall here?" I would say that, for me, there are actually two reasons.
One reason is that, to some small degree, I wanted to demonstrate how defenceless this painting is.
Usually, paintings are embedded in a context of significance.
A museum, a gallery, some other place.
This painting has freed itself from that.
This painting has to make an impression by itself.
So far, it doesn't have anybody to explain the whole thing, and I believe that what's going to happen to the painting
is that it will find an explanation through the network.
It won't find the kind of explanation that other paintings might have found.
Here is a painting that is actually defenceless to a degree that is otherwise practically unimaginable.
This painting no longer has its creator by its side, so to speak.
If an artist actually dies before providing their piece with a frame of reference,
it's quite an interesting symbol for what happens within networks.
This painting has separated itself from its creator, so to speak, without an accompanying context.
It's really rare to come across something that hasn't already some value attached to it by an expert,
by somebody who feels that the whole thing has to be categorised.
And I really like to have it here in front of those laptops
because I think that we have to learn to deal with things in a different way
and that we basically have to become aware that the things accompanying us in our lives
come with less and less of a context, and we are increasingly tasked with creating that context ourselves.
If you will, it's an example of something that is not normal in art
but will be absolutely normal in the world we live in.
And if I then look at this painting with some relative ingenuousness as to its artistic frame of reference,
I, at least personally, get the impression that whoever created the painting
has a high level of fascination across a broad variety of areas.
In a strange way, it's very expressive but very analytical at the same time.
Something is depicted here that I personally feel very close to.
So, if I take a look at this, I'm getting very, very strong associations of a network, obviously, because that's the setting from which I start associating,
and also very, very strong associations of a dynamic that has something to do with the brain.
That means an organic network, a surprising, incalculable network
and really also a network that defies the scope of the painting by far.
Wherever you look, you get the impression that this is not a self-contained wholeness, so to speak,
but rather a snapshot of a very, very large frame of reference
that is far larger than what can be depicted here.
When I look at it, there's always something that I can't really focus on.
Wherever I look, I can't look at a particular spot,
because I realise that the whole thing is an associative network, which, the closer I get and the farther I get away,
is opening up new aspects constantly and is acting very dynamically despite being static,
because there are a couple of aspects that are almost...
Let's say, if we look at it theoretically, from a background of neurophysiology, of the brain, of networks,
that is very, very subtle and characterised by a deep understanding of it.
Because there is something there that doesn't usually exist in a network.
There are undulations that spread systematically from the bottom across the painting.
That means that someone has expressed here in a very astonishing way
that this dynamic network generates a beat that forms a layer on top of the network.
That is the most difficult way I can imagine to express with a static image
that a dynamic is capable of creating structures.
We have here those undulations that go across the entire network
and do so in sequence from the bottom up.
That means that what I'm associating from a theoretical viewpoint is, so to speak, emerging structures on different layers,
and to me that's, let's say, a very advanced understanding of what networks are.
Here, someone is aware that alongside the architecture of the network there are layers that are generated in that dynamic,
and they tried to solve the problem of expressing that fact.
And what's also very fascinating to me about the painting: if I get closer,
I get very, very fine resolution.
And then I suddenly get a sense of, no, this is not a biological network,
that's patterns of cities, that's patterns of cultures.
So it's as if you're looking down at the planet and also... and you can go in quite far.
So if you get very close to the painting, there are still more structures unfolding.
So in that sense, you could say it's fractal.
So this sense of overarching structural patterns
is not only achieved through those layers that are present, through those undulations,
but also when you go in deeper and realise the self-similarity is present on each layer.
So, in my mind, whoever painted the picture probably has a very good understanding of
how self-organising systems move, how nature organises itself
and how all this finds expression in widely different network structures.
So in those terms, it's an astonishing mixture of a creative force on the one hand
and a potentially playful but also possibly highly analytical comprehension of the properties of networks.
And, obviously, what I find the most exciting
is when the frame of reference that is given is not adhered to per se.
In those terms, this painting – excuse my saying so – is a shameless painting,
because it's a painting that does not accept the boundaries of its scope.
And that is actually the peculiarity of networks.
And whatever the spirit was like that created this painting, it was shameless in a good way,
that is, unaccepting of boundaries.
If I picture this person behind the painting even just a little like the picture they painted,
they take a child-like delight in unchecked creativity.
So in those terms, I feel that here I would find an interlocutor
who wouldn't stop at taking delight in breaking boundaries
but who would also ponder the second and actually the more mature question,
namely that of the emergence of structure, which becomes possible in unchecked network generation.
So, well, in a way, a bit of a sage.
So, the most surprising part is the scale, not in terms of centimetres of painted canvas
but the scale that, to me, the painting has in terms of association.
That it really is a picture befitting our time as little else is,
which through its history is a symbol for something that is not only happening in the field of art but stretching far beyond that
and in addition holds so many possibilities for me personally to reflect a part of me.
So in those terms, a very, very good interlocutor.
Well, when you say goodbye to a guest, maybe it makes sense to offer them the best wishes on their way
and there are a couple of things I can say to that effect.
First of all, I hope that this painting doesn't get a frame.
Some paintings don't need a frame, neither in terms of added value nor as a boundary.
This painting doesn't deserve a frame, and I hope it won't get one.
And that is true not just in terms of a physical frame,
where somebody feels the need to build some sort of tasteful wooden frame around it,
but what I mean is the ambiguity of the word.
This painting doesn't need an expert interpreting it.
There are things in the world that are immediate, and the highest level of appreciation
I could offer to any piece of art is immediacy,
which is when nobody feels the need to translate its meaning.
And I believe, in that regard, this painting has a certain anarchic power
that I have been wishing for in the field of art for a long time.
And in those terms, I kind of hope that this painting will have the endurance to exercise some anarchy.
This has really been an intimate look at it, and even if nobody will watch this I would say
it was nice that the painting was here and it's nice that it now heads out into the world,
because I think it's got a mission.