Marvelling in Varanasi
A long-cherished dream comes true - an artist residency in Varanasi, in one of the oldest and holiest cities in the world. Living here for a month, making art, photographing and marvelling.
Photos will be posted here regularly, on the following topics, among others:
°Sacred Places - what does a place or object need to be perceived as sacred?
°Sadhus - is it possible to make visible in the photo the energy/aura that distinguishes a real sadhu from a "fake Baba"?
°Kolams/Rangolis in urban space, as a counterpart to western street art.
°Women in urban space
°Jobs/Work Spaces
°And what else I come across that is so astonishing...
There will be regular updates on the art project here:
Tag 28 – Last day, early in the morning a long farewell to Ganga...
Day 26 – A rainy day today. To the potter to get the object firing going, then to the cremation ghat Manikarnika. Very strange experience to witness fire in two such contrasting contexts - in the creative process and for final extinction...
Day 25 – Feelings of farewell set in, one last time here or there. Finishing the art project, organising things etc. I could easily stay longer... I won't miss the traffic, though, with all the honking and chaos and exhaust fumes!
Day 24 – Today, again with Ajay, I walked a few stations of the Jyotir Linga Yatra, the 12 temples of the pillars of light around Kashi. Very old, very lively, very powerful and highly energised. The Kedarnath temple in particular is extremely impressive. The photos speak for themselves...
Day 23 – The long-awaited full moon light festival, Devdipawali. And it's simply packed, you can't imagine. By midday, nothing is moving, there are six people travelling in a tuktuk. For mysterious reasons, the police have cordoned off all the larger streets and squares, which has the effect that the crowd pushes its way through the labyrinthine lanes, which are no more than 1 metre wide, in both directions, past the cows that lie calmly in the way. It's hard to believe that mass panic doesn't break out. I have to walk home because there are no free tuktuks. But the lights themselves are great...
Day 22 – Only a few photos today because the city is so crowded due to the full moon festival of lights tomorrow that the temple tour we had already started was cancelled because there was absolutely no way through. But even the vegetables are beautifully draped, and the scaffolding here is always something to marvel at anyway...
Day 21 – In the morning to Sarnath, the gazelle grove. This is the place where the Buddha gave his first teachings after his enlightenment and set the "Wheel of Dharma" in motion. A very peaceful atmosphere, groups of monks and their disciples sit everywhere and chant, even though whole busloads of tourists are being carted in.
Day 20 – Evening atmosphere at the Ganges. The way there is the usual madness, but now shortly before Devdipawali, the festival of the lights of the gods, the city is bursting at the seams, if that is still possible at all. At the ghats, there is also an impressive collection of "fake babas", but in between there are also real ones. And another Bollywood shoot with lots of fuss and incredibly important people. And there are actually people who fish in the extremely holy, but unfortunately also extremely slurry Ganges...
Day 19 – Another tour with the wonderful Ajay Pandey, the purest happiness to be shown around by someone like this! First we admired the small and large sculptures, symbolising the son of Ganga, which the women are sculpting out of clay these days, singing in memory of a story from the Mahabharata. Then we travelled by boat along the city's waterfront at sunrise and in the morning mist. And finally on foot through the other part of the old town with its many marvellous temples and small alleyways and the stories that go with them.
Day 18 – In the morning at sunrise to the ghats - I don't need to worry about kitsch here... Very beautiful light of course, lots of private morning prayers, some real sadhus and other meditators. And lots of "fake babas" who "dress up" every day to be photographed by tourists and then charge money for it - a lucrative business. A Bollywood shoot of a dance scene with very important bodyguards and set runners. And the cremation ghat, Manikarnika. Not so busy so early in the morning now "in winter", as many people bring their deceased from outside and it is too cold for them to walk. But it still leaves an impression...
Day 17 – To Benares Hindu University. The Alice Boner Gallery there, which I wanted to visit, is being renovated and the museum is rather mediocre. But the art faculty is right next door, and I take a walk around the sculptors' grounds. Very concentrated and relaxed atmosphere, and very young students. The whole campus is very relaxed, with all kinds of faculties, old trees and colonial-style buildings. Somehow out of time. There is also a large clinic here. There are long queues outside, the entrance area is full of beds with sick people on them and families around them waiting to be treated. The campus is huge, one of the largest in Asia, and of course I get lost and can't find the exit for ages...
Day 16 – We set off early in the morning with Ajay on a special temple tour. The streets are still empty, a completely new experience here. The water festival continues this morning at sunrise. In the Shiva temple there are many women holding a puja, a prayer, and there is a lake where puja is held. Masala chai there with the Kathak dancer Ravi Shankar Mishra with his marvellously sparkling eyes. Then into a wonderful little Shakti temple, with marvellous murals and just in time for the puja. The sound of the priest's sonorous voice together with the bell echoes off the walls, very intense energy, vibrating, awe-inspiring and uplifting. And then into a temple of the Naths, dating back to Gorakhnath and Matsyendranath, the "forefathers" of yoga. There, in the basement, a sanctuary of the goddess, pink walls and flashing fairy lights and yet very dense, rather dark energy. And again and again these beautiful, glowing faces telling stories.
Day 15 – Chaat puja, the water festival. A festival for women. Everyone is beautifully dressed, mainly in orange and red. There is singing, and fruit and bamboo fronds and fire are offered. The men carry everything. And above all, they stand knee-deep in Ganga for a prayer. And it is FULL. This time I am smarter, arrive just before the masses and leave before everyone leaves, so that I am back in the residency oasis without a collapsed lung, heart attack or hearing loss....
Day 11 - 14 – Studio retreat
Day 10 – And again in the evening at Assighat, for sunset and then Aarti again. Because it's still Diwali, it's getting even more crowded, and today it's the fourth night of firecracker concerts in a row. Beautiful houses, a lively atmosphere. And an "astrology professor" who read my hand and my eyes and my aura and my karma and so on. Including the indispensable advice, among many others, of course, to put a bowl of rice pudding on the roof for the full moon so that the full moon is happy and therefore favours me! All at a fair tourist price, of course, but I have rarely been ripped off in such an entertaining way...
Day 9 – Public holiday, the residency employees are off, almost all the shops are closed, the streets are almost shockingly empty by local standards. In search of bread for dinner, a few impressions - small street temples, trees are also an expression of the divine and are worshipped. And the "neighbourhood" with its buildings and a few businesses that can't afford the holiday.
Day 8 – In the evening on Assighat, the big Diwali celebration, with an extensive fire ceremony, the Aarti. Everywhere the small oil lamps, the deepas, and fire lanterns carrying the wishes into the room, Akasha. Loud mantra chants over giant boxes, competing with the double drums, the damarus, with full physical exertion. And everyone in their festive outfits and exuberant, celebratory mood. Marvellous! At the end, long queues to take a blessing from the fire. For the second night in a row, the firecracker concert continued until the morning, less marvellous...
Day 7 - The studio week has begun - information about the project here: https://www.andreabreuer.org/points-of-consciousness
Tag 6 – Got up early again and walked through the old town to the Ganges with the wonderful residency guide Ajay. There were magnificent faces to marvel at, and temples without end, and the atmosphere in general. And there was even a rooftop terrace with a cool breeze and a view of the Ganga scenery from above, which was quiet enough for a conversation about the plausibility of the concept of rebirth. And a flower market on the way back.
Day 5 - Today is a studio and garden day. Yesterday afternoon, the enormously knowledgeable and helpful residency guide and I were able to organise all the material, this time "to be on the safe side" with a bicycle rickshaw instead of a motorbike. This was also combined with a highly interesting visit to one of the local clay sculptors from a family that has been sculpting clay for several generations. I can get the clay for my project from him and possibly also fire it there. I've already got the clay bowls for my various powders - so now I can finally get started!
Day 4 - Got up really early today, in fact rather in the middle of the night, for a walk through the old town to the Ganges. The whimsical baskets on the poles are not for the birds, as I first thought, but for the ancestors. They are temporarily installed around the Indian "Sunday of the Dead" and are pulled down by their strings every morning, filled with fresh offerings and then pulled up again so that the "spirits" of the ancestors can feast on them. I was touched by the washerman, who really wanted to be photographed with his Shah Rukh Khan gesture and not just washing - of course there was a Bollywood song on top.
Tag 3 – Everything is gearing up for Diwali, the festival of lights. As a fan of India, I had actually thought I was comparatively resistant to kitsch by now, but now even my eyes are bleeding...
Day 2 - Unexpectedly, I took a death-defying ride to the Ganges - the friendly residency guide and walking info point for everything from getting my mobile phone working again to getting materials such as Ganges clay, kumkum, holy ashes etc. and answering special cultural questions took me there on his motorbike. Of course, like everyone else, without a helmet and other "gadgets" and through the middle of the pre-Diwali rush hour, with beautifully flashing traffic lights as decoration...
The way back was almost as death-defying - to find one of the hundreds of eagerly endeavouring tuktuk drivers in the midst of the hustle and bustle of people who I, as a newcomer here, trust to actually get me home again with my ears ringing from the honking, but otherwise in one piece. The spontaneous offer of help from a friendly young Indian woman from the USA, although only here for the second day herself, was more than welcome...
Day 1 - Exploring the area around the residency. It's hot and noisy, but still relaxed. The many small businesses are particularly noticeable...
