Ritual art /RA/

 

“Ritual art” is a movement in art created in the second decade of the 21st century which is best known forputting the rituals at the base of the artwork. The main center of Ritual art is The Old School art residency – Gorna Lipnitsa, Bulgaria.

The beginning of Ritual art is set in 2012. The idea for its creation is a result of continuous search for a modern and conceptual vision of art that integrates the principles of rituals and ancient knowledge. At the heart of Ritual art are the ideas of the Manifest 2012 of the Old School Circle for the Beginning of the New World.

The principles of Ritual art are created in 2013. They are the following:

/1/The artist uses the methods of ritual* in creation of the work, its exhibiting /presentation to the audience/ and its future movement in time and space.

/2/The particular work is only the outer expression of a concept, and the ritual of its creation, presentation and future movement in time and space is its actual substance. But everything in this process is connected and one part of the whole cannot exist without the other.

/3/Therefore – a piece of art must be not only the particular work, but also the process of its creation, presentation and future movement in time and space.

/4/The actions of the artist – during the descripted process – should have symbolic meaning.

/5/The final result – ritually created piece of art /seen as described above combination/, should aim at achieving a specific and clear public significant purpose.

 

In 2014, the universal essence of Ritual Art was developed by creating the idea of Star Ritual Art.

 

In 2015 the concept of Ritual art was completed with the addition of new features of RA:

Ritual art is essentially a Slow and Thoughtful art.

Although the particular creative act happens at the present moment, it is in a constant connection with past and future.

In creating Ritual art the Artist perceives the various manifestations of Time and Space and uses them accordingly so that he can achieve its ultimate goal of public significance.

According to Fritjof Capra** there are several main principles of the new thinking in science which can be applied also to the way we think about art and Ritual art in particular:

The Universe is seen as a dynamic web of interrelated events which includes the human observer as an integral component. What you see depends on how you look. All parts of this web are just relatively stable pictures. None of the properties of any part of the web are fundamental; they all follow from the properties of the other parts, and the overall consistency of their mutual interrelations determines the structure of the entire web. All scientific concepts and theories are limited and approximate. Science cannot give a complete and final knowledge. There is a shift from truth to approximate description. In every single thing we must seek to move from behavior of domination and control to behavior of cooperation and non- violence. What must happen will happen.

In 2017 – we worked on the idea of Ritual Art as a Road which means that creating a ritual artwork is a conscious ritual journey.

Creating a ritual art work is a process of movement. The way to its creation starts from point A and ends at point B. How long will it take to walk the path to the ritual art work, and whether we will ever reach it depends on different dimensions. The choice of the direction and the process of thinking is extremely important for its creation (when on our road to a ritual art work, we have reached crossroads and we have to choose a direction). The desire, the will for creativity and the artistic endurance of the ritual artist are also significant.

In other words, the process of creating a ritual art work is a conscious ritual journey. Travelling by itself is a work of art. The created art work aims to change the traveller, the places he/she passes through, the people he/she meets /the observers of the journey/. Thus, changing the micro cosmos /the matter between points A and B/, the ritual artist eventually changes the macro cosmos. This result of the journey is expected, but also a surprise in itself. Because it may be that point B is the beginning of a new path.

In 2018 – we perceived the idea about The Ritual Art Revolution  and how through art we can achieve an artistic rebellion, which aims at changing the ambient reality in a creative way.

*  Ritual is inherently an action or series of actions, aimed at achieving a particular goal. Ritual itself has a magical effect. The strong necessity of it appears at a time of transition and disequilibrium. Balance could be restored by practicing ritual actions, words and signs and thus chaos is being turned back in its next world, beyond the limits of human space. The ritual has as its basis the beginning we call “sacred”. Ritual is a creative activity of a man, as a continuation of divine. It plays a role of a bridge from one world to another. The participant in this act is the one that build the bridge. These participants acquire supernatural power to reach other lands and become mediators between “our” and “the other” world. They play the role of wizards that balance between good and evil, arrange the Universe along with the small human world, society, home and personality. The ritual presents and recreates the initial time, the earliest creation, the cause to existing of forms and colors of the formless and colorlessness, called chaos and darkness. Through ritual the man leaves, “destroys” one time period and cross safely to the next.  

                                                                                              Stavreva, Liliya. Bulgarian magic and divination –  2007

**  Kapra, Fritjof. The Tao of Physics -1997