Oubey Mindkiss

Art comes into being first and foremost within the inner space of the artist — in their brain, their mind, their soul. That is where the sources of creative power lie.

We search for life on other planets and explore the possibilities of extraterrestrial intelligence. Perhaps one day we humans will colonize space ourselves?

OUBEY dedicated one of his early paintings to Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz's monadology. I saw this painting for the first time in the summer of 1983.

About 1,500 light-years away from Earth, in the constellation Orion, there is a dark nebula. A dark field that cannot compete with the breathtaking beauty of the “Three Pillars of Creation” in the Eagle Nebula. Nevertheless, its silhouette is no less fascinating. It is named after it: “Horsehead Nebula”  

In the Carboniferous period, ferns that were larger than today formed huge forests together with horsetails and club mosses.

For two years, I dedicated myself entirely to the realization of a dream. Now it has become a reality. And now I'm writing again. About what? Exactly about that.

In his “Monadology” of 1714 Wilhelm Gottfried Leibniz developed the argumentative basis for his thesis that this world is the best of all possible worlds. It is hardly surprising that this thesis has repeatedly aroused controversy and flat contradiction since it first appeared.

Since the 6 July, the largest exhibition in the history of the MINDKISS project, the “Art of Resonance Show” has been taking place in the Mind Museum in Manila. It features 18 analogue paintings by OUBEY together with 8 interactive digital interactions that have emerged from, and correspond with, these analogue paintings. “Why on earth the Philippines of all places? Why Manila?” was a question I was frequently asked in the run-up to the exhibition. There are currently much hotter places for art in Asia. 

With the amazing findings from his research into evolution, Charles Darwin revolutionised our view of our world and humankind in the 19th century. One question, however, remained an impenetrable mystery to him.

An artist travels to three Ukrainian towns. Inmidst the ruins he wants to leave some paintings at the walls of shelled buildings - anonymously. Photos of these paintings start to go viral the next day. Some wonder who might have done this. But the handwriting is unmisunderstandably clear: This was done by Banksy.

...I would currently bet on the multiverse, said Steven Weinberg, professor of theoretical physics at Texas State University in Austin and winner of the Nobel Prize in 1979 for his groundbreaking work in the development of quantum mechanics, who passed away in July 2021. 

How does a work of art come into being? Impulsively and expressively with brush and palette on canvas, spontaneously as a drawing or study with pencil on paper, with hammer and chisel in hand on stone or with fingers on a keyboard? Or as an already finished image in the mind of an artist?

Pictures speak their own language. Even though they are seemingly silent, they do communicate with viewers and create a resonance in them. And although they only come to us as the result of an artistic process, and therefore seem static, they carry the process of their creation within them. It sounds and resonates in them.

When you think of the work of the Russian-French painter Marc Chagall, the first thing that probably comes to mind are his dreamlike or biblical themes or his stained glass windows which bathe some of the world’s church buildings in such a truly wonderful light.

Three weeks ago, “between the years”, as I was once again dipping into the shelves of our collected world of books, I spontaneously reached out for two picture books. They lay across the other neatly lined up books which was very much in character with the artist whose work they contained. Herbert Achternbusch.