Indy Johar

Architect Indy Johar is co-founder of the 00:/ (zero zero) project and many other innovative projects like Impact Hub Westminster where the Encounter with OUBEYs painting took place. He is director of the Global Hub Association, heads a variety of research projects including the Compendium for the Civic Economy and he also acts as a consultant for the Earth Security Initiative. Working in association with the Young Foundation, he supports the building of networks for developing pioneering concepts of social organization.

Architecture played a special role in OUBEYs life and work. His early artistic work was done from 1979 to 1983 at a time when he was still studying architecture at the University of Karlsruhe. And even if in 1983 he decided to branch out and live his life as a free artist, what he learnt from his architectural studies always remained an important pole of reference for him. So an Encounter between one of his paintings and an architect has figured on the Encounter Project’s wish list from the very beginning.

The first contact between the MINDKISS Project and the architect Indy Johar took place back in 2012 when an interview with him appeared in the issue of we-magazine devoted to OUBEYs art. In August 2014 one of OUBEYs paintings travelled to London to encounter the man.

Choosing which of the paintings to take for the Encounter with Indy Johar was no easy task. I finally decided on an unpublished painting with a highly unusual format which in itself gave this Encounter an especially tentative experimental flavor. This exploratory side was also underlined by the fact that Indy Johar was the very first of all the people encountering the paintings to touch on the pioneering approach adopted by the MINDKISS Project itself which he characterized as “The Real Art of Tomorrow”. As the various comments he made were filmed on camera, they have also been incorporated into the Encounter video alongside his response and reactions to the painting.

Surprisingly enough, this Encounter also signaled a special crossing of ways as Impact Hub Westminster is located on the first floor of New Zealand House in London. And as just a few months earlier OUBEYs paintings had travelled to New Zealand for the fourth stopover of the Global Encounter Tour this was a kind of re-encountering New Zealand a bit, too.