THE ÜBERMENSCH AND THE DEEP STORAGE PROJECT

Wolf-Günter Thiel


What does it mean when artists begin to define themselves by collecting objects, rather than creating them? Artists simulate scientific research by exhibiting things they have gathered, categorized, documented, counted, archived, stacked and stored by analogical thinking as Michel Foucault puts it.

Others are documenting, counting, and archiving aspects of their lives and making objects that record these processes. Kristian von Hornsleth plays on this idea and deconstructs it by mystification of the act of archiving as well as the way of storing the archives. The idea is to create a story like Homers Illiade and make people part of a story which people may tell in the future to understand our times from a future perspective. Hornsleth claims the position of an artist as an "Übermensch".

Kristian von Hornsleth is collecting blood samples and dna of people who are dedicated Hornsleth Art Lovers. In earlier times of civilization we would call it a tribal ritus. A ritus in order to manifest the tribal existence in a far away mythological future. Hornsleth himself as the shamane of his own people conserves their cultural existence.

His artistic act is a synonym for the cave paintings, which show tribal hunting scenes in the pre historical times of human existence. The wish is the documentation of existence as "deep storage" of dna as part of the individual blood prove. The technological believe in progressive natural sciences evokes the idea of another cycle of existence in a far away future. The believe is that future science can evoke the today human individuals through their dna. Hornsleth himself speaks of this possibility of a second existence. Earlier civilizations would have respected an approach like this as "übermenschlich".

Friedrich Nietzsche, the german philosopher, wrote in 1883 the book Thus Spoke Zarathustra. The book's protagonist, Zarathustra, contends that ‘man is something which ought to be overcome’: All beings so far have created something beyond themselves; and do you want to be the ebb of this great flood and even go back to the beasts rather than overcome man?

Übermensch: The German prefix über can have connotations of superiority, transcendence, excessiveness, or intensity, depending on the words to which it is appended. Mensch refers to members of the human species, rather than to men specifically. The adjective übermenschlich means beyond human strength or out of proportion to humanity. Zarathustra first announces the Übermensch as a goal humanity can set for itself. All human life would be given meaning by how it advanced a new generation of human beings.

The modern idea of all men are created equal and the base of modern idea of democratic rights are clearly contradicted by Nietzsches and Hornsleths approach. Instead the people get a share of eternity or inhabit a right to eternal life, through taking part in Hornsleths action. This knowledge provides a glance of the "Übermensch" already.

The monumental sculpture of Hornsleth is an incorporation and memento of this knowledge and of this consciousness. An elitistic relieve under the sea.

Relieve.
1.to ease a burden
2. to free from an unpleasant situation
3. to provide physical relief from pain
4. to free someone from obligations.
As a matter of fact all that is incorporaterd and provided through Hornsleths shamanism.

Another aspect of Nietzsches concepts is of importance to the understanding of Hornsleths "deep
storage" project: The eternal recurrence of the same. We like to understand this concept like this:
The eternal recurrence replaces the Übermensch as the object of serious aspiration. The Übermensch exists in the future, no historical figures have ever been Übermenschen, and so still
represents a sort of escatological redemption in some future time.

This promise of beeing part of this future time and existence is the promise Hornsleth suggests. The Übermensch of this future times is to create new values, untainted by the spirit of gravity or
asceticism.

Hornsleth and his own ‘created mythology’ hints clearly at Nietzsches concepts and suggests a way out of the contemporary desasters of modern times and their human individuals. As long as you believe in Honrsleth you believe in a future and in a human value system. This will be documented or monumented through the Deep Storage Project. It will be stored at one of the deepest places on earth the Mariana Trench. At the same time as it is a sign for Memento Mori it is a sign for future believes in individual exiestences.

Wolf-Günter Thiel, art historian, Berlin 2009

译者\ 孙婧

2009年10月，一个巨大的钢铁雕塑（5x5x5米）将永久安置于被称为“全世界最深的地方”的马里亚纳海沟11000米深处，距离日本与菲律宾间的关岛200英里。 5000滴血液和头发样本将伴随该雕塑永久沉入太平洋海底，这些样本采集自全世界30个国家和地区的“深度储存库”艺术项目参与者。

如果艺术家开始用采集标本而非创造客体来定义自己，这个命题意味着什么？它标志着艺术家们选择模仿科学研究的方法，通过对事物进行收集，分类，纪录，计算，存档，推积和储存，用类化思维方式来表现事物，如同哲学家米歇尔·傅柯做的那般。

当其他艺术家正在孜孜不倦地纪录和存档生命的各个侧面，并创造艺术作品来记载生命的进程，丹麦人克里斯蒂安·冯·霍斯莱特（Kristian von Hornsleth) 把这个想法推向更深处，他不仅神秘化存档这一标志性行为，更赋予储存数据的方式以神圣的涵义，从而解构了生命储存的概念。这个创意是想要构造出荷马史诗伊利亚特般的宏伟神话，把当今现实中的普通人置身于这个创造出来的神话当中，留给后人去述说，去解读，去追怀我们的时代。如霍斯莱特所说，艺术家就是尼采口中的“超人”。

霍斯莱特从他的忠实 “Hornsleth ”艺术爱好者当中采集血液和DNA样本，这在人类文明早期被称作“部落圣礼”。圣礼的举行是为了表明部落对神秘未来历史存在的信仰，而在艺术拥趸心中，霍斯莱特就是他们的萨满祭司，是文化存在的守护者。

如同洞穴绘画把人类史前的部落狩猎场景镌刻在岩洞墙壁上，霍斯莱特的艺术试图把人类血脉保存在DNA的“深度储存库”中。这种对循序演进的自然科学的技术信仰唤醒了人们在遥远未来实现重生的遐想，期待未来的科学通过储存的DNA把人类从自然历史的沉睡中唤醒。艺术家把这种可能性称作“二次存在”，而早期文明则把它尊崇为“超人的”。

德国哲学家弗里德里希·尼采在1883年完成了他毕生最重要的一本著作：《查拉图斯特拉如是说》。书中的哲学先知查拉图斯特拉预言：“人类是应该被超越的”。他警醒人类，“所有生物都已经创造了超越他们本身的东西，难道你还愿意沦为这洪水消衰的退潮，重回野蛮时代，而不愿成为超人？”

超人：在德文中，前缀über可以根据它后面的附加词被解释为优势，超越，过度，极度，或者强烈等；Mensch指代的是人类中的所有成员而非特指某个个体。形容词“超人的”意味着超越了人类力量或物理边界并直指人性。

查拉图斯特拉第一次提出“超人”说，把它定义为人类为自己设定的一个目标，所有的人类生命都应该在新的生命轮回和演进中被赋予涵义。尼采的学说以及艺术家霍斯莱特的艺术方式显然与现代观念中关于人类“生而平等”的概念和民主权利的理论基础相互矛盾。霍斯莱特的艺术实践给予人们的是一种对不朽来世理想的分享，是一种实现重生的权利。

霍斯莱特具有纪念碑意义的钢铁雕塑是这种理念的融合，是人类自我轮回意识的纪念品，是一种潜入海底的精英主义的解脱。

解脱

1.放下包袱

2.摆脱不愉快的现状

3.脱离身体痛苦

4.从个人义务的桎梏中获得自由

所有解脱都寄存于霍斯莱特的萨满主义之中。

尼采哲学中的另一个概念对解读“深度储存库”至关重要：生命的永恒轮回。我们可以把生命的永恒轮回理解为取代“超人”的人类深层渴望的目标。超人存在于未来，没有任何与人类相关的历史数据，所以它代表的是未来某个时间维度中的一种末世轮回。

霍斯莱特用他的艺术作品传达给人们这样的承诺：你可以成为未来时间与存在的一分子。 “超人”在未来时间中创造出新的价值,这种全新的价值将不再受向上的引导力量和禁欲主义的宗教精神影响。

霍斯莱特和他的“创造的神话”清晰的表达出对尼采“超人”说和永世轮回概念的认同，他提出的是一种摆脱现世中时间与个体桎梏的途径。只要你对艺术家霍斯莱特具有信仰，你就拥有了对未来和人类价值体系的信仰。这一切都将被记录在“深度储存库”中，潜入世界最深的马里亚纳海沟。

想象遥远的未来，这个深藏海底的雕塑被发现，里面储存的DNA样本创造出了新的生命体。未来的人类一定会发出这样的疑问：这些生命体是怎样被联系在一起的呢？除了共同的对霍斯莱特艺术的热爱，他们之间又有着怎样的联系呢？文化的，抑或政治的 。