Never Never Land of Arts

T. S. Eliot: “The only way of expressing emotion in the form of art is by finding an ‘objective correlative’; in other words, a set of objects, a situation, a chain of events which shall be the formula of that particular emotion; such that when the external facts, which must terminate in sensory experience, are given, the emotion is immediately evoked”

Dream about a city where every shade of green embraces an endless variety of misty grey offering chains of sensory experiences of the kind Eliot suggests. A city not only repeatedly hit by fierce cloudbursts but also caressed by a warm sun – at those rare moments when it shows its face. A city guarded by hills where magnificent castles lurk in the darkness as if they want to hide their secrets forever. Here it is Edinburgh – the specific aesthetic experience of getting lost in narrow, declivitous streets inviting you to dive into a mystical excursion taking place as much in the concrete outer world as in your soul.

In the countryside around the city, there are more of these Eliotian “external facts” waiting to “terminate in sensory experiences”. Artworks strewn all over a land, where nature generously accepts what is given. Follow your path. It will take you to Jupiter Artland.

I visited this peaceful place of beauty during the Atelier for Young Festival Managers, a weeklong marathon of creativity through the collective mind of 51 people coming from 28 countries, a unique and demanding encounter of the once-in-a-lifetime type. Very intense, I can assure, and – to tell you the truth – in the middle of the week to take a day off for a trip to the outskirts of Edinburgh, was a brilliant idea. After a half-hour drive my mind and I were ready to enter this never-never land of arts proving that Edinburgh is not only the home of a bunch of renowned festivals.

Jupiter Artland is founded by Robert and Nicky Wilson in Wilkieston where the couple bought a Jacobean house surrounded by 100 acres of gardens and woodlands. As Robert told us, it is not only the wish to establish a sculpture park that has brought forward Jupiter Artland, but even more the vision to create a land where artworks unite with the nature. A perfect concept for Edinburgh’s secrets!

In response to the impaired relation between the poetic landscape and human creativity, there are 24 sculptures carefully placed in the woodland. Among the trees, accompanied by a whisper like the song of wind – which I even recorded – you might walk through the silky “Life Mounds” by Charles Jencks, which stands surrounded by gleaming pools.

You might also take a long pace to reach Marc Quinn’s “Love Bomb”. This giant 12 metre high orchid is welcoming each passer-by with a seductive glory together with its neighbours: not surprisingly grassing local lambs! A real “situation” again recalling Eliot’s words.

I don’t know how Quinn felt when he installed his work on the land but this scene brought to my mind the talks we had at the Atelier. What I saw there was the answer to my questions growing from all what we spoke about in those plenary sessions and group discussions.

It has been a unique experience to be together with people from all around the world, with different expectations, colourful cultural identities and a strong wish to cultivate their inner world. It was an adventurous voyage to explore ‘us’ and ‘others’ on an individual and collective level. A kind of shared wisdom comprised of curiosity, understanding, having the courage to ask. Questions, the ones standing out amongst others; bold opinions, that were constantly shared. A celebration of creativity and thoughts that fearlessly expressed; while being shy to yourself you paradoxically trust the others. Like Bernard Faivre d’Arcier stated in his presentation “Art is looking for something different” – so did we.

As for me, all those enormous amount of ideas, inquiries, colours, perceptions, feelings, and brainstorming came together in one picture; a frame in which a man-made giant orchid representing us, today’s humans, who are desperately in search of unison with earth.

My further walk took me to Laura Ford’s “Weeping Girls”. A bit creepy I must confess, but definitely melancholic, as the artist described it. You feel the urge of caressing the girls’ hair to comfort them.

Their positions, the way the artist has sought to hide them behind the trees, are exactly what we do when our souls are haunted by shadows. Don’t we want to run in the forest, to get lost, to leave behind us the darkness and the cold hand on our heart? Confronting one’s own soul is touching and shaking as Eliot said. He is right, this is what art is – beyond all personal judgements, common beliefs and values; just a pure touch of humanity.

Let me end – leaving all those great works not mentioned for you to discover – with a last glimpse into the woods and with the work of Ian Hamilton Finlay entitled “Xth Muse”. I agree with Finlay; if there is Xth muse, it must be Sappho, the great female poet of ancient Greece.

Starting my lines with a poet, I find it appropriate to end them with Sappho’s. Meeting her in Scotland showed me, that she, in her wise verse, was right.

“you may forget but
let me tell you
this: someone in
some future time
will think of us”