Artur Matuck

I accept that the production process is an integrate part of a work of art. Therefore I consider that I can be as free as in the beginning in any part of this process. I have learned that it is in the production process that I have my mind more stimulated, more challenged. Because what I do is art, my works have an exploratory nature, which means  that they stress experimentation in ideas and also in the language in which these ideas are transmitted. I consider that new ideas are enough to cause a shock,mainly if they challenge a whole set of established thought. If, besides that, the work puts into discussion the language used and the medium, the possibility of a misunderstanding is higher. Any real experimentation in human communication takes the risk to be rejected or misunderstood.

This is so because any experimentation, that eventually could lean to human advancement, must  deny a whole body of established beliefs. We cannot really advance our thought if we don't have a flexible attitude in relation to our established beliefs.

Anyone who have been eating meat all his life and that now receive the message that men should  not kill animals, will tend to reject this idea simply because the idea challenges a part of his identity. However exactly in this moment a real moment of communication is happening. His mind is obliged to check attitudes it has before his own ideas and ideas coming from outside. The purpose of my works has been the producing of these moments in which new visions of the world could arise.

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The purpose of "Ars Memoria" is to discuss the present role of man as predatory animal. To kill animals in  order to survive has been an adaptative behavior for man through history. With a simple technology he had no other choice for a long time. If this is true to a great number of human cultures, it is not true to all of them. In India the Jainists have  developed a great sensibility to the sacrality of life. Buddhism also has stopped animal sacrifices that were common in ancient times. The point that we should stress today however is related to science and technology. To understand how human values, like ethics and morals, can be significantly related to science and technology  should be one of the main concerns of our time.

Man using his scientific technique to disseminate horror and death is one of the most regrettable facts we have been witnessing in our time. If however we could use our intellectual capability allied to ethical  and moral concerns science could lead us to spiritual evolution. Science could today create new ways to feed human beings avoiding animal slaughtering.

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Reading Ars Memoria

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"Ars Memoria" demands a long and patient reading. It cannot be understood if it is seen as a message whose meaning must arise immediately at the first sight. Only after an analysis, an interested interpretation of its meaning will arise. The same occurring to any artwork that stress new ideas transmitted in a new language. This is clearly an obstacle to a greater number of people and will necessarily limit the audience of the work. Another obstacle is the variety of languages used, which includes English, and French in captions; and English, Sanskrit, Esperanto and Latin in the works associated with images and used as titles. I tried to choose mainly words from Latin that had become roots for words in English, French and Portuguese. The idea is that with a little effort a person whose native language is English, French, Portuguese or even Italian and Spanish would be able to understand. Because Latin is not the main source to English, English‑speaking people will have more difficulties.

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Following is my own interpretation of the work:

"Emanatio/Profanatio"

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These works are printed two times in the cover, one time with the order inverted. They establish the overall meaning opposing profanation to emanation. They connote the idea of sacrality. Profanation can be understood as man's invasion on the sacrality of life, while he kills animals for political, scientific or simply for nutritional purposes. I see a process of emanation as an enlightenment process that will lead men to overcome their present predatory role over animals and nature.

The purpose of the magazine is to tell the development of the process of enlightenment. The image of Man drawn by da Vinci is associated with two expressions ‑ TRA DAEMON and RATIOETHICA. The emanation process is the passage from the first stage Man as Daemon, as Devil to the second one, Man using his intelligence with ethical considerations. The three texts included must be carefully interpreted. They share some characteristics and give some important keys to the overall meaning of the work. Each one is a series of twelve works, which repeats itself until the space is full in the page. The 7th, the central work in all three texts is IDENTIDEM, which means identity. It is the only work that appears in the three texts.

The subject of the magazine is identity of men and animals, When man finds his real identity he finds his sacrality, his identification with the universe and all living beings. Identity is central to man but it is hidden inside him. We could establish an analogy, the word IDENTIDEM is central to the text but it is hidden in it.

Associating works like Ratioteknika to the brutal images of machines created to make the killing processes  better I intend to put into discussion the unethical use of human reason, in my view, a failed reason.

Using "Space of the Victorious Beast" as the title of a blueprint of a slaughterhouse also has the purpose of emphasizing this idea. The set of four pages, which begins with History and ends with Hystery, forms a unity in content  and graphic arrangement.

Recent history can reveal that men are also able to have a hysterical, abnormal behavior in relation to animals. An economical crisis whose solution is to kill animals for no productive ends shows dramatically the dismay that man has for animals. The man has their eyes "closed" to what they are doing. They are not in touch with their identities.

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The central page represents a human transformation ritual. Fire, the element of transformation is indicated by the terms, Agnis‑Ignio. The text can be seen as a ceremonial one which will lead man from one stage as a predatory to a harmonic and enlightened one.

The two pages with the words "Sanguis Spiritualis" and "Sacrilegium" show a men burying animals that he just kill in a protest against the low price of meat. This is not however clear to the reader.

The absence of a caption was here a mistake. I consider these two pages as a reason for the misunderstanding of the work. The following set of three pages shows the imprisonment and killing of cows. The word‑caption Brahminicide means killing of god Brahma is God, the supreme deity in Hinduism. The message is that when we kill

animals we are killing God that is present in them.

The next three-page set presents rabbits under a scientific experiment. Two works are associated: Satyam, which means the Truth, in Sanskrit, and Macrokancer which clear meaning is Great Cancer. Sacrificing animals in laboratories is an expression of a large-scale social cancer.

So far in the magazine the animals have been shown under man's power, facing a direct profanation of their lives in an environment that is created to imprison them, equipped with tools destined to restrain their movements, to experience with them, and also to kill them.

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The opposition to this idea will appear at the last three pages of the work. Lumina Tenue, which means Soft Light, is the title of a photography of an old woman experiencing her last days. Here the experience of death can be seen as peaceful and poetic. Anima means soul and is the root for the work animal, and animate, indicating everything with life. Pr'anima relates Pranan, the spirit in the air, in the breath, with the word Anima. The last text, being the last stage on Man's transformation connotes only positivity, and it is clearly opposed with the first one, which connotes only negativity. The last page carries the only image where man does not subjugate the animals, but they are in harmony with the environment. Alter Lumina means Other Light suggesting that men should try to overcome his own darkness and in an emanation process overcome his predatory behavior.