The Medieval Monks Who Lived on Top of Giant Pillars

Stylite, Constantinople, 11th century

To our modern eyes, this is a profoundly weird image – but it would have been a recognisable, even iconic, one if we were living in the early medieval Middle East. To explain how we got here – and how that guy got on that pillar - we need to step back and tell the origin story of one of the most recognisable characters in medieval life: the monk.

First, let’s wind the clock back all the way to the mid-third century. Rome is still the bustling, million-strong metropole of a continent-spanning empire. Legionaries are off fighting battles against the Goths along the Danube. Christianity is a curious minority sect clinging to life despite often-ferocious persecution from the emperor’s officials. And in the wealthy province of Egypt, a young man, barely 18, who we will come to know as Anthony makes an unusual decision. Mourning the recent death of his parents, he finds inspiration in Christ’s teaching that the perfect man will give everything he has to the poor. Once he’s set aside a little of his money to provide for his younger sister’s welfare and chucked her in a convent, he departs for the endless desolation of Egypt’s desert interior (We have no idea, by the way, what the sister made of all this business. I suspect she was less than impressed).

Eventually, Anthony pitches up in an old, abandoned tomb in the desert, to live a life of isolation and mortification (a religious concept, meaning to deny the desires of the flesh), eating and drinking only just enough to keep his body at bare minimum functionality. Did this make him a devoted servant of Christ who accessed a level of connection with his god unprecedented for a mortal man, or a total bore? Your mileage may vary.

Unfortunately for Anthony, his dream of a life of solitary contemplation didn’t work out as planned. He quickly became a local celebrity, with countless Egyptian Christians making proto-pilgrimages to visit the home of a man they came to believe had a unique connection to the Almighty. This only got worse when Emperor Constantine legalised Christianity in 313, and Anthony moved further into the desert to avoid his admirers. 

Aran Prince-Tappé

More : https://weirdmedievalguys.substack.com/p/the-medieval-monks-who-lived-on-top

St. Frigo

Jimmie Durham (1940-2021), St. Frigo, 1996,Refrigerator, 132 x 60 x 60 cm. 

 

"I don’t really destroy things, I just change them, I change their shape, just like any sculptor does. I chose the refrigerator. I stoned it for a week, every day, until I got the shape really changed. I chose it because I wanted to throw stones at something as sculptural work, but I wanted an object that no one would care about. I thought that if I stoned a TV or an automobile, everyone would be glad and care in some way or another, and I thought that a refrigerator was completely neutral. It was, until I started stoning it and then it wasn’t neutral anymore. Then it started being brave, so that in the end I called it Saint Frigo, because it was a martyr. I saved its life by making it a martyr. It was going into the trash, now it’s eternal, now it’s art.”

 

#JimmieDurham #Sculpture #refrigerator #stoning #trash #martyr #monuments

 

 

Castalian Fountain

Η Κασταλία πηγή. Δελφοί, 1903. 
Castalian Fountain, where Pilgrims bathed before consulting the Oracle 

#ΚασταλιαΠηγη #Delphi #Δελφοι#underwoodbrothers #oracle #fountain

Το Bauhaus δεν είναι το σπίτι μας; Το «πνεύμα» της ελεύθερης οικονομίας στην συγκρότηση της σχολής της Βαϊμάρης

Τι θα συνέβαινε αν αντικαθιστούσαμε τον όρο «λιτότητα» μ’ εκείνον του «ασκητισμού»; Σκέφτομαι πως σε ό,τι αφορά το σχεδιασμό στο Bauhaus δεν θα άλλαζαν και πολλά πράγματα. Αν και το ασκητικό στοιχείο αναδεικνύει την ανάγκη του «αφαιρείν» και της «εγκράτειας», αυτό σε καμία περίπτωση δεν εναντιώνεται στη λογική της μαζικής παραγωγής και της τυποποίησης που χαρακτηρίζει την σχολή της Βαϊμάρης. 

Ο παραπάνω λογισμός επιτρέπει να συλλάβουμε τη σημασία της θρησκευτικής επίδρασης στο σχεδιασμό. Από αυτήν την άποψη, έχει ενδιαφέρον να δούμε πώς η συγκρότηση του Bauhausσυνδέεται με τη χριστιανική ηθική για να διαπιστώσουμε επιπρόσθετα πως το διεθνές στιλ(international style) της ιστορικής σύζευξης, δηλαδή της μοντέρνας ευρωπαϊκής με την αμερικανική αρχιτεκτονική, σχετίζεται με την εφαρμογή αυτών των ιδεών στον χτιστό πολιτισμό. Πρόκειται για μια απόπειρα που αφήνει για λίγο την ερμηνεία του καπιταλισμού με εργαλείο την υλικοτεχνική δομή και θέτει ερωτήματα γύρω από τις αξίες πάνω στις οποίες αναπτύσσεται ως οικονομικό σύστημα.

Η ερμηνεία που περιστρέφεται γύρω από τη σχέση του καπιταλισμού με τον χριστιανισμό, ειδικά αυτή που ορίζει την προτεσταντική ηθική ως γενεσιουργό αίτια της οικονομίας των καιρών μας, είναι σχεδόν το ίδιο παλιά όσο και η μαρξιστική (1867). Η ανάλυση αυτής της συγγένειας εμφανίζεται στις αρχές του 20^ού αιώνα και οφείλεται προφανώς στη μελέτη του Μax Weber«Η Προτεσταντική Ηθική και το Πνεύμα του Καπιταλισμού», που εγκαινιάζει την οικονομική κοινωνιολογία.

Αν ο καπιταλισμός, ως ένας τρόπος ορθολογικού σχεδιασμού του συνόλου της ζωής, αφορά περισσότερο από κάθε άλλη οικονομική θεωρία την συσσώρευση και προτάσσει τον ασκητισμό στην καθημερινή συμπεριφορά, τότε μήπως η σχολή του Bauhaus αποτελεί την ακριβέστερη μεταφορά αυτής της αρχής στην αρχιτεκτονική παράδοση; 

Μπορεί ο οικονομικός ρασιοναλισμός να δημιούργησε τις προϋποθέσεις για τη θρησκευτική απομάγευση και τη μετατροπή του bourgeois σε αστό, όπως και για τη σταδιακή αντικατάσταση της υπαίθρου από τη μητροπολιτική εμπειρία, όμως ο προτεσταντισμός ως μια κυρίαρχη έκφραση του σύγχρονης χριστιανικής ηθικής ήταν και παραμένει ενεργός σε όλες τις ιστορικές διαδρομές του νεωτερικού βίου. Αν, μέσα στο οργανωμένο πλαίσιο της νεωτερικής κοινωνίας, χρέος και προορισμός κάθε πολίτη είναι η δικαίωση μέσα από το επάγγελμα, αυτή η εργασιακή υποχρέωση προϋπάρχει και επιβραβεύεται στον προτεσταντισμό. 

Το μορφολογικό πρότυπο του Bauhaus και οι ηθικές του προεκτάσεις δεν αφήνουν πολλά περιθώρια για να θεωρήσουμε τελείως αυθαίρετη τούτη τη σύγκλιση. Όμως αυτό δεν φαίνεται να γίνεται συνειδητό σε όλους όσους η νεωτερική παράδοση αποτελεί αντικείμενο έρευνας. Σκληρή και επίμονη δουλειά, με πλήρη και αποκλειστική προσήλωση στο αντικείμενο, εν ολίγοις ένας ασκητικός βίος, στον οποίο ο καθένας διαλέγει τη δική του «συσσώρευση πλούτου», όταν μάλιστα αυτή η «συσσώρευση» δεν σημαίνει αποκλειστικά την συγκέντρωση χρήματων. Το εν λόγω μοτίβο δεν απουσιάζει από την πρακτική που βλέπουμε καθημερινά γύρω μας. 

Αυτές οι επιλογές σχηματίζουν ένα είδος «προδιάθεσης» στα θεμέλια της μοντέρνας αρχιτεκτονικής. Θα λέγαμε πως προλογίζουν ένα αισθητικό μόρφωμα, το οποίο επικροτεί την αφοσίωση στη δομική επανάληψη, τη γραμμική αυστηρότητα και τη λιτότητα στη φόρμα, την εξίσωση της απλότητας με την άμεση χρηστικότητα. Ο Tom Wolfe, στο γνωστό του λίβελο FromBauhaus to our house, κάποια στιγμή αναφέρεται έστω και αποσπασματικά στην «πουριτανική» αφθονία των ουρανοξυστών από γυαλί και ατσάλι. Δεν σχολιάζει, όμως, περαιτέρω την πιθανή σχέση του πουριτανισμού με τις αρχές της μοντέρνας αρχιτεκτονικής.[i]  

Πολλά χρόνια νωρίτερα, ήταν και πάλι ο Max Weber εκείνος που εξέτασε το πώς η τάση για ομοιομορφία στη ζωή αντανακλάται στην τυποποίηση της παραγωγής, εκεί όπου το ανθρώπινο υποκείμενο υποτάσσεται στην ιδέα του «καθήκοντος»: «Ο άνθρωπος είναι μόνο ο διαχειριστής των αγαθών που ήρθαν σε αυτόν με τη χάρη του θεού. Πρέπει όμως ο δούλος της βίβλου να λογοδοτήσει για κάθε λεπτό που εμπιστευτήκαν σε αυτόν, και είναι τουλάχιστον επικίνδυνο να ξοδεύει κάτι από αυτό για ένα σκοπό που δεν υπηρετεί τη δόξα του πάρα μόνο την απόλαυση».[ii] Στην επόμενη πρόταση, ο Weber απευθύνεται άμεσα στον αναγνώστη και τον ρωτά: «Ποιος, που έχει τα ματιά του ανοικτά, δεν συναντάει εκπροσώπους της αντίληψης αυτής σήμερα;».[iii] Η διατύπωση του Γερμανού οικονομολόγου αναφέρεται βέβαια στις αρχές του 20^ού αιώνα. Όμως και στην 4^η βιομηχανική επανάσταση που βιώνουμε σήμερα η εισχώρηση του ασκητισμού στην εγκόσμια καθημερινή ζωή είναι αναμφισβήτητη.

Αν και το ύφος του Βαuhaus αφορά την αποφυγή της σπάταλης ή της χλιδής, που άλλες αρχιτεκτονικές σχολές θα ήταν αδύνατο να αποφύγουν, το πρόσταγμα για μια αισθητική της ολιγάρκειας σε συνδυασμό με το εγκόσμιο καθήκον της εργατικότητας κάνει τους μισητούς όσο και ποθητούς κύβους από γυαλί και ατσάλι να αντιστοιχούν στους συγχρόνους ναούς της πνευματικής άσκησης και προσευχής του συγχρόνου επιχειρηματία και των επαγγελμάτων της οικονομίας και γραφειοκρατίας γενικότερα. 

Ασφαλώς είναι αρκετό να κοιτάξουμε τους πρώτους «πελάτες» της σχολής του Bauhaus για να εξακριβώσουμε τις ομοιότητες αναμεσα στο καπιταλιστικο ήθος και την οικονομική τάξη και πως η τελευταία ανταποκρίνεται στην αρχιτεκτονική παραγωγή που αναπαράγει αυτές τις αξίες. Επιπρόσθετα, δεν  πρέπει να ξεχνάμε ότι η ιδέα της «άνεσης» περιορίζεται από τις δραστηριότητες που είναι επιτρεπτές, τη διεκδίκηση ενός ύφους ζωής που είναι αντίθετο προς την απληστία. 

Εθισμοί –με την έννοια της σταθερής θέλησης– στη βάση ενός ασκητικού βίου, όπως ο αυτοέλεγχος, η εγκράτεια, η υπακοή και η δέσμευση στον επαγγελματικό ρόλο με την έννοια του καθήκοντος δεν βρίσκουν αναλογίες στην υλική συνθήκη του Bauhaus και του «διεθνούς ύφους»; Πασίγνωστες δηλώσεις του Mies van der Rohe όπως το “Less is more” ή το “God is inthe detail” δεν μαρτυρούν μιαν αντίστοιχη κοσμική ηθική;

Η δύναμη της πουριτανικής ηθικής αναπτύχθηκε σε όλα τα επίπεδα της καθημερινότητας και εισέβαλε ασφαλώς στις πιο απόκρυφες γωνίες των ιδιωτικότητας, ευνοώντας τη μετρημένη απόλαυση των αγαθών μέσω του ασκητικού εξαναγκασμού για αποταμίευση, και του αναπόφευκτου σχηματισμού του κεφαλαίου. Η ανάπτυξη μιας οικονομικά ορθολογικής ζωής ως καρπού της επαγγελματικής αφοσίωσης αντιμετωπίστηκε ως ευλογία του θεού. Έτσι και το Bauhaus κατά κάποιο τρόπο είναι από τις πιο «ευλογημένες» παραγωγικές επενδύσεις του κεφαλαίου στο χτιστό πολιτισμό. Αυτή η σύγκλιση λειτουργεί  ανεξάρτητα από τη γνωστή αθεΐα ή αγνωστικισμό των αρχιτεκτόνων που ακολουθούσαν το «διεθνές ύφος». Εξάλλου, όσον αφορά το Bauhaus, στην πλειοψηφία τους οι συντελεστές του είχαν προτεσταντική καταγωγή.

http://avgi-anagnoseis.blogspot.com/2019/10/bauhaus.html 

100 years BAUHAUS

Dirty Country Boy (Bauhaus Is Not Our House Series)  2004
Wood, plywood, acrylic, wax candle
94 x 170 x 40 cm 
Installation view, Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam

16 May @ 18.00, a lecture about Bauhaus and its relationship to the ethics of Christianity, especially Protestantism through the values of hard work, accumulation ( easthetics of stinginess) and asceticism. 

100 years BAUHAUS – a series of events, co-organized by the School of Architecture Engineers of the Technical University of Crete, the Goethe-Zentrum Chania and the Regional Unity of Chania, with scientific and organizational supervision by Amalia Kotsaki, Associate Professor at the Architecture School of the Technical University of Crete.
The entrance is free and there will be simultaneous translation in Greek.

WHERE: Cultural Center, Chania 

The BAUHAUS 100-year event will take place from 13 to 16 May at the Cultural Center of Chania and includes a conference with lectures, Bauhaus research presentations, film screenings, exhibitions and workshops for children.Beginning: on Monday 13th May at 17.00 with a workshop for children.
– Tuesday 14th 19.30  event on “Why the Bauhaus today? Art and everyday life “.

– Wednesday 15th May  18.00: a screening
– Thursday 16th May  17.00  keynote speech by Dr. Regina Bittner, Director of the Bauhaus International Program at Dessau and Vice President of the Bauhaus – Dessau Foundation.
Also at 7.20 pm will be inaugurated.

The character of the events is international and is part of the larger event cycle entitled “100 Jahre BAUHAUS”

www.bauhaus100.com 

coordinated by BAUHAUS Architecture School in Dessau.

The Dancing Lares and the Serpent in the Garden Religion at the Roman Street Corner

The most pervasive gods in ancient Rome had no traditional mythology attached to them, nor was their worship organized by elites. Throughout the Roman world, neighborhood street corners, farm boundaries, and household hearths featured small shrines to the beloved lares, a pair of cheerful little dancing gods. These shrines were maintained primarily by ordinary Romans, and often by slaves and freedmen, for whom the lares cult provided a unique public leadership role. In this comprehensive and richly illustrated book, the first to focus on the lares, Harriet Flower offers a strikingly original account of these gods and a new way of understanding the lived experience of everyday Roman religion.

Weaving together a wide range of evidence, Flower sets forth a new interpretation of the much-disputed nature of the lares. She makes the case that they are not spirits of the dead, as many have argued, but rather benevolent protectors—gods of place, especially the household and the neighborhood, and of travel. She examines the rituals honoring the lares, their cult sites, and their iconography, as well as the meaning of the snakes often depicted alongside lares in paintings of gardens. She also looks at Compitalia, a popular midwinter neighborhood festival in honor of the lares, and describes how its politics played a key role in Rome’s increasing violence in the 60s and 50s BC, as well as in the efforts of Augustus to reach out to ordinary people living in the city’s local neighborhoods.

A reconsideration of seemingly humble gods that were central to the religious world of the Romans, this is also the first major account of the full range of lares worship in the homes, neighborhoods, and temples of ancient Rome.

The Dancing Lares and the Serpent in the Garden Religion at the Roman Street Corner by  Harriet I. Flower

Chapter 1: 
http://assets.press.princeton.edu/chapters/s11203.pdf

Lighthouse

Lighthouse, 2017

Concrete, wood, acrylic, oil, iron 

240 x 27 x 28 cm 

Christ's Womanly Wounds

Christ’s Holy Wound from the Prayer Book of Bonne de Luxembourg.
Attributed to Jean le Noir, before 1349

Excerpt:

There are medieval religious instructions for praying with this type of illuminated manuscript which invite the viewer to caress and kiss the lacerations. In one existing manuscript, the pigment has been rubbed off of the lips of the wound’s opening by an especially devote patron (Monti). Other illuminated books feature an actual cut in the paper that runs the length of the wound; the viewer is invited to penetrate the slit, fostering a transcendent viewing experience whereby the sensual allows access to a spiritual moment (Monti). Thus, Christ’s vaginal wounds are the ‘‘object of adoration and love but also the object of violence’’ (Lochrie, 190). They are fetishized as mystical parts of a perfect whole and abruptly isolated into bloody ailments subjected to profane treatment. This duality is often apparent in the treatment of women in the contemporary era: they are reduced to the somatic, yet specific body parts are idealized; their beauty is revered, but their sexuality is debased. The fascination with and fear of the female form is a longstanding truth of the human, especially male, psyche. Female sexuality and desires have been dismissed or demonized, as the vagina dentata evidences in its visual incarnations from the Gothic to contemporary periods.

Text by Liz Lorenz 

http://cargocollective.com/lizlorenz/writing-1/Christ-s-Womanly-Wound

https://issuu.com/lizlorenz/docs/recycled_origins_essay

The Spiritual Canticle (fragment)

Songs between the soul and the Bridegroom

Bride

Where have you hidden, Beloved, and left me moaning? You fled like the stag after wounding me; I went out calling you, but you were gone. 

Shepherds, you who go up through the sheepfolds to the hill, if by chance you see him I love most, tell him I am sick, I suffer, and I die. 

Seeking my love I will head for the mountains and for watersides; I will not gather flowers, nor fear wild beasts; I will go beyond strong men and frontiers.

Saint John of the Cross

Το όραμα για το «Tάμα του Εθνους»...

Η πολιτική επικαιρότητα των ημερών έφερε ξανά στην επιφάνεια ένα ζήτημα που γεννήθηκε λίγο μετά με την ίδρυση του σύγχρονου ελληνικού κράτους. Η ιστορία του «Τάματος του Εθνους» (ακριβέστερα, η φιλοδοξία ανέγερσης ενός ναού για τον Σωτήρα) μετρά κοντά 190 χρόνια ζωής. Με εκκίνηση την περίοδο του Καποδίστρια, το θέμα αναδύεται ιδιαίτερα στις μεγάλες επετείους της Επανάστασης του 1821 (όταν εορτάστηκαν, για παράδειγμα, τα 50 και 100 χρόνια), καθώς και σε στιγμές που πολλοί θεωρούν ότι ο Ελληνισμός απειλείται και ότι οφείλει να επιστρέψει στις ρίζες του για να αναγεννηθεί. Αυτό υπογραμμίζει ο πανεπιστημιακός Δημήτρης Αντωνίου, ο οποίος έχει αφιερώσει τα τελευταία χρόνια στην αρχειακή και εθνογραφική έρευνα της υπόθεσης, φέρνοντας στο φως νέα στοιχεία.

Από την Μαργαρίτα Πουρνάρα

http://www.kathimerini.gr/898057/article/epikairothta/ellada/to-orama-gia-to-tama-toy-e8noys

Beyond Immaterialism: Parallels between Judeo Christian doctrine and Contemporary Art.

Human culture is shifting from material to immaterial. I am going to suggest that this is related to man's fear of nature. This fear, has got a pattern. It becomes more obvious in periods and areas with scarce resources or under strain. Less apparent in groups of people emerging from crisis. It manifests itself as an aversion to material objects. This text will try to explain how this phenomenon substantiates in the field of modern art and by comparing art with other faces of culture, will make a case that the art world is largely unaware of this condition.

Revolution against Nature

Let’s take a look into the Bible, the bestselling book of all time. What's groundbreaking about the bible is that it provides its readers with a new way of living. A way, rid of material pleasures and pains, a way more economical and efficient. A common pattern throughout the Old and New Testament is swapping the material with the immaterial. The material is usually represented as evil and the immaterial as good. The examples are many. In Genesis a world of plenty (Eden) is swapped with a world of scarcity. The source of temptation is an animal. From the very beginning there is an association of Nature with the unattainable, but also an association of nature with evil(snake). A counteract to man’s sense of futility upon confronting the natural world.

In Leviticus a manual for social operating (or God’s contract with Israel if you prefer), there is a list of animals that are considered unclean. In the Book Of Job, Leviathan, a crocodile (or hippo), represents the darkness of the physical world. In Jonah, one of the most popular tales, the hero is swallowed by a giant fish and surviving the encounter with the animal provides the supernatural core of the story.

“And they shall no more offer their sacrifice unto devils… “

Leviticus 17:7

In this particular verse, “devils” is a translation of the Hebrew word sairrim which literally means wild goats.* In order to make the swap from material to immaterial more effective, the editors of the Bible (composing the Old Testament at around 400b.c.) borrowed a concept from the Persians. Good and evil.

“… the Persians had become the dominant nation in Asia, and Persian thought would be expected to be very influential among all nations which, like Judah, were under Persian rule. Persian religion had just been systematized by a great prophet, Zarathustra (Zoroaster), at about the time of the return from Babylonian captivity, and the earth rang, so to speak, with the new doctrine. Zoroastrianism offered a dualistic view of the universe. There was a principle of good, Ahura-Mazda (or Ormuzd), and a principle of evil, Ahriman, which were viewed as virtually independent of each other and very nearly equal.”**

The dualistic good-evil concept made life easier to explain and added an element of excitement and drama in storytelling. Nowhere before 1 Chronicles is Satan mentioned, but after that he regularly appears introducing worldly vices to various characters, including Jesus Christ.

Text by Teo Michael

Published on the June 2011 issue of online art magazine kaput.gr

More : http://theomichael.com/Beyond-Immaterialism

Open Chapel

Mathias Goeritz, Capilla abierta, Parque de las Estrellas, Jardines del Bosque

 1957-1958 

In the garden known as Parque de las Estrellas, Mathias Goeritz created the Open Chapel, a project where he once again brought together the ideals of spirituality and architecture. He conceived the idea of a space of visual contemplation connected to metaphysics, a space that was at once contained, container, and open. Bounded by four walls approximately seven meters in height that are not joined at the corners, visitors could enter from any of the four sides. Inside, in the center, the void is complete , an absence of all and presence of nothing, only the tectonics of the materials where the roof is replaced by the sky, as the fifth facade. This work displays the spiritual aims of Goeritz: entering into the sacred enclosure , the view is drawn upwards, towards creation, a tangible emotion, and isolation form the outside world. Unfortunately these intentions were lost altogether when the chapel was renovated. Architecture and ideals alike were radically transformed, and it is currently a civil registry office.

Text by Christian del Castillo, David Miranda

Capilla abierta

Capilla abierta, Tlalmanalco, Mexico State

http://www.arqhys.com/construccion/capilla-abierta.html

Catholic Priest who was Dead for 48 Minutes Says God is a Woman

http://dailynaijanews.com/catholic-priest-dead-48-minutes-says-god-woman/

Santa's real workshop: the town in China that makes the world's Christmas decorations

Santa’s workshop … 19-year-old Wei works in a factory in Yiwu, China, coating polystyrene snowflakes with red powder. Photograph: Imaginechina/Rex

Text by Oliver Wainwright

http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/architecture-design-blog/2014/dec/19/santas-real-workshop-the-town-in-china-that-makes-the-worlds-christmas-decorations 

Sporting activity in the thought of Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI

http://www.laici.va/content/dam/laici/documenti/sport/eng/magisterium/sporting-activity-in-the-thought-of-ratzinger-benedict-xvi.pdf

The First Day of Creation

Michel Wolgemut and Wilhelm Pleydenwurf, The First Day of Creation, 1493

Nothing biblical in factory farming

Something has gone badly wrong in relations between human beings and other animals, and it is not just animal welfare and animal rights organisations that say so. Large swathes of the public are troubled too.

Even people who take their lead from Genesis, from its assurance that God has granted us dominion over the beasts in order to feed ourselves, suffer nagging doubts whether factory farming and a food industry operating on an industrial scale to turn living animals into what are euphemistically called ''animal products'', are quite what God had in mind.



So it is not unreasonable that animal rights organisations are increasingly seeking to give voice to the (by definition) voiceless victims of the food industry, targeting factory farming, while not ignoring other practices - the use of animals in laboratory experiments, for example, or the trade in wild animals, or the fur trade - that might equally be condemned as cruel and inhuman.

The transformation of animals into production units dates back to the late 19th century.

Since that time we have already had one warning, loud and clear, that there is something deeply, even cosmically wrong, about using industrial methods to kill fellow creatures on an industrial scale.

In the middle of the 20th century a group of Germans had the idea of adapting the methods of the industrial stockyard, as pioneered and perfected in Chicago, to the slaughter - or what they preferred to call the processing - of human beings.

When, belatedly, we found out what the Nazis had been up to, we cried out in horror. ''What a terrible crime, to treat human beings like cattle.'' we cried out. ''If we had only known beforehand.''

But our cry should more accurately have been: ''What a terrible crime, to treat living human beings like units in an industrial process.''

And our cry might have had a postscript: ''What a terrible crime, come to think of it, to treat any living being like a unit in an industrial process.''

Animal protection groups work for the amelioration of the conditions under which animals spend their lives. In a longer time frame, some work towards the elimination of factory farming.

In the case of Voiceless, the animal protection group founded by the Sherman family in 2004, this is done not by direct action but by persuasion. Its persuasive efforts are directed at the vast majority of the public who know and don't know that there is something bad going on, something that stinks to high heaven. It offers such people practical options for what to do next after they have been revolted by a glimpse of the lives factory animals live and the deaths they die.

Factory farming is a new phenomenon, very new indeed in the history of animal husbandry. The good news is that, after decades of untrammelled expansion, the industry has been forced on to the defensive. The activities of organisations such as Voiceless have shifted the onus on to the industry to justify its practices; and because its practices are indefensible and unjustifiable except on narrow economic grounds, the industry is battening down its hatches and hoping the storm will blow itself out. Thus, in so far as there was a public relations war, the industry has already lost the war.

The task of animal rights organisations is to show ordinary people that there are alternatives to the animal-products industry, that these alternatives need not involve sacrifices in health and nutrition, that there is no reason why these alternatives need be costly, and furthermore that the sacrifices they are being called on to make are not really sacrifices at all - that the only sacrifices in the whole scenario are being made by non-human animals.

In this regard, children provide the brightest hope. Given half a chance, children see through the lies with which advertisers bombard them (the happy chooks that are magically transformed into succulent nuggets). It takes but one glance into a slaughterhouse to turn a child into a lifelong vegetarian.

Text by J. M. Coetzee, The Sydney Morning Herland, 5 dec.2011
Source:www.smh.com.au

The 2003 Nobel Laureate for Literature J. M. Coetzee is patron of Voiceless and chairman of the judging panel of the Voiceless Writing Prize sponsored by Australian Ethical Investment. The Herald is media partner of the prize, which seeks to advance public understanding of the relationship between humans and animals.
voiceless.org.au

Christ is taught how to pray

It is an iconography from Jonkoping, that represents the young Christ being taught how to pray by the holy Virgin sitting on a low bench. It is not necessary to be an architect in order to imagine that the depicted place is the interior of a palace and the bench is the kind of furniture used in the Classical Rome.The child Jesus is guided by his mother and it is surprising that even the discipline of Christianity is preceded by its own leader .

Broadsheet,Jonkoping, Sweden, 1837.

Au hasard Balthazar

Au Hasard Balthazar (1966)
Dir: Robert Bresson
Here is the final scene, very painful especially for all those viewers that have seen the film in the past.