EAST/WEST SCHIZOPHRENIA
joerg vogeltanz (2006)

". . . there are periods of history when the visions of madmen and dope fiends are a better guide to reality than the common-sense interpretation of data available to the so-called normal mind. this is one such period, if you haven't noticed already." (robert anton wilson)

let´s face it: our world is complex. too complex for most of our fellow-citizens to fully understand its implications. each minute, each day of our existence we are overflown by mass-media indoctrination and information. the new world order after the end of the cold war, especially since september 11, 2001, is not as simple as we hoped it would be without the big, bad russian bear and his nuclear teeth. our basically monkey-powered brains switched to “panic / economy mode” just in the moment the twin towers fell. and, although every single frame of the cnn-report smelled like fake and hollywood, one big part of human civilization (often called “the free world”) joined the president of the one and only remained superpower in his new crusade against the necessary new enemy: islamistic terror.

shortly after george w. bushs proclamation of a holy war against the “forces of evil” nobody could or wanted to differentiate between “islam”, “muslim”, “islamism” and “terrorism”. dualism sells and the shadow men which stood behind the international- terrorism-propaganda (and – of course – the shadow men who stood behind some terroristic organisations and intelligence services of several interests and nations) had not the slightest interest in thoughts of all shades. they wanted us to think black and white as usual.

now, only five years after the new pearl harbor our world is standing at the edge of an extremely dangerous conflict once more. the often evocated clash of cultures seems to cry for blood in its cradle. the muslim world has fallen in the trap that was set by arms dealers and conflict-profiteers. the western world is becomig a big gated police-state in which “terrorism!” is the word that the boy who cried “wolf!” nowadays is crying. Yet george orwells 1984-dystopia is coming close. drop by drop, step by step, extremism, politics of fear, racism and social darwinism including all their ugly and reptile-minded protagonists are becoming common sense. political slogans never heard in public since world war two are yelled by election campaign posters in not-so-very-democratic european countries, islamistic rabble-rousers on one side, nationalistic right-wing bawlers as well as incited catholics and protestants on the other side are throwing more and more verbal incendiary shells over the higher growing fences. it´s a fertile climate for simplifyers, agitators and neurotics.

but because “everything is very complicated” (like an austrian politician once said) we all become more and more schizophrene... for a common history and culture is not completely reversible.

maybe the concept of monotheism and its techniques of suppression, monoculturalism and silly ideas of omnipotence has finally reached the end. maybe religion should no longer be seen as a saviour-strategy but as a way straight to extinction. an old german saying says (in free translation): “to believe means not to know”.

maybe christianity and islamic world should understand that the fact that we are all one genetic pool, evolved out of a few female primates, outweighs the priest-caste based illusion of spiritual differences (though some people rather believe in adam and eve). there is no “natural” discord between human beings. all differences are born in cultural errors and misinterpretations of prehistoric spiritual teachings. and even if there is a god or some architect of creation (s)he would be the god of every single (wo)man... excluded creatures are heresy.

some thousand years of theocracy, feudalism and genocides should be enough. if we won´t be able to stop this regressive process our children maybe won´t even understand the meaning of “humanity” and “freedom”.

the stencils i made for “exociti” reflect this schizophrenia by uncovering prejudices such as in those that are using the well known trahison des images – slogan  “ce(ci) n’est pas...” by rené magritte.

the stencil-technique appears to me as one of the most influencial and interesting form of present artistic expression, primarily because of its serial character and the power of recognition therefrom. stencils are fast, easy and cheap to handle and produce and are able to reach an huge amount of people directly, on the streets, in public space. it´s a chance to de-program people, for the straight stencil-look hits the eye using the iconography of advertising and propaganda which is already deeply imprinted in the mind of the masses.

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