блог

#outside_observer: Enjoy Simple Things and Beauty in Present

Del bestial impulso: Why do you decide to do this action in public, how was this idea of ​​catharsis born, when was the first time you did it?

#outside_observer: I was thinking about it for a few years. The first time it came to me when I walked at the territory of Pokrovsky monastery in Kyiv. The atmosphere was very strict for visitors, there was no bench to sit and have a rest. Then I noticed a big round lawn in front of the monastery. ‘If I try to sit right here and meditate, for sure these people will make me leave, they wouldn’t allow me to do it’. From that moment I thought about meditation in public places, but still, the idea was not clear to me. After pilgrimage in India this winter I finally had a vision of a full concept of the project and was ready to start. First time I did it on Victory Day in Kyiv, 9th May 2019.

Victory Day in Kyiv, by Musiienko


Del bestial impulso: Beyond a performance, is there a connection or a spiritual interest when performing a meditation in public? What happens in your mind while you are there, or, do you really think nothing?

#outside_observer: My task when I perform is to dive deeply in meditation. I hear what people say, feel what they do to me: it could be anger, laugh, compassion, flout, anything else. I try to be not attached to these reactions, to realize that what people say or do to me is not about my true self. Thoughts appear in my mind, but I stay focused inside. Every time it’s a new experience and a new trial, and I don’t know if I will go through it or not.

Del bestial impulso: Being a reflection of society is also a reflection of what the human being does not know about himself as calm, peace and tolerance?

#outside_observer: People often show their compassion, tolerance, and understanding as well as negative expressions. I noticed that the most understanding and tolerating audience are the kids. Most of them immediately define yogi, they never tried to move me and usually sit nearby and join the meditation. If you observe children’s attitude to this project, you may connect to your true nature: curiosity, enthusiasm, fantasy, creativity, and eternal joy. 

Ternopil, by Uri Sobi


Del bestial impulso: When you meditate, do you assume that you are not there for people, what has been for you the most peculiar reaction you received from a passerby?

#outside_observer: I’m aware that I’m surrounded by people, aware of their reactions, but I also concentrate on inner perception. I am with people, but at the same time, I’m not amongst them. One of the latest situations I remember: I opened my eyes after the meditation and saw a guy sitting in lotus just in front of me, he was also smoking; then I noticed a wheelchair near him. We were looking into each other eyes for some time, then I continued meditation and concentrated on his heart. It was a huge music festival in Kyiv, we set on the main road and the crowd was passing by. 

Del bestial impulso: When you finish doing your meditation in public, I suppose you have been told negative things, the reactions of people have led you to make some rhetorical judgment about that at the end of the day? Do you take any analysis based on human behavior?

#outside_observer: I write my memories about performances just to catch what has happened. Some things I feel much different than I see on a video later, some things I couldn’t notice because my eyes remain closed. I analyze every new performance but still, it should take much more time and more places to expand. Maybe one day I’ll write a book about it.

Del bestial impulso: You are practically the decoration of a social scene. For how much longer do you intend to do it?
#outside_observer: I don’t have any terms or frames, the idea leads me forward and as long as I should do it, I will.

Del bestial impulso: Do you have a list of the places in which you want to do your meditation? Where would you like to be?

#outside_observer: I don’t have a list, usually, performance is a reaction on a current situation, event or a place, it just happens. Everywhere you can find a place for meditation, that’s the point. I’m open to invitations. I would love to travel around the world and perform in different countries, to show the diversity and common things between people living in various parts of the world. 

Brandenburger Tor in Berlin, by Slava Poliantsev


Del bestial impulso: Some people have called you incendiary? Your public action is symbolic of some social causes, or is it free of interpretation?

#outside_observer: Performance is an instrument of peace, it’s how I see it. I could go to protests, demonstrations or critical situations, meditate there. People are free to interpret my actions as they want, sometimes they come after a performance and ask what’s the idea, then I explain my vision of it.

March for Animal Rights in Kyiv


Del bestial impulso: When I see your photos meditating, I think many things. I am amused to see the bewilderment of the people around you, to think of all the haste they have every day to go from home to work and vice versa ... and to see you there, calm, without time, without any haste. It is a great contrast. Do you think that society needs to think much more about itself?

#outside_observer: Yes, that’s true. We need to stop for some time, just to have time for silence, doing favorite things not for a reward, but just for fun. At this moments time disappears. We experienced it often in childhood but then we grow up and forget how to be naive, enjoy simple things and beauty in present. I combined art and meditation into this project just because I love to do both, and I also have the desire to share with people. I want art to get out from galleries and museums, I want meditation to get out from homes, we should do what we love and share it with the world starting from today. 

интервью
Made on
Tilda