Mail for God

The Prayers Room is an interactive installation created for the exhibition “ID-Contemporary Art Indonesia” in Berlin. It is an outgrowth of the multi-site, multi-disciplinary and ongoing project Birdprayers.

A mailbox was placed inside a narrow, doorless room along with a table and a chair, paper and a blue felt-tip pen. 

The Prayers Room gave people the possibility to interact anonymously, freely and openly by writing individual letters and posting them in the mailbox which we called ‘Mail For God’. 

Here are some of the almost 300 letters people wrote:

Nya Luong and JC Lanca, the directors of the event "ID- Contemporary Art Indonesia", published a little booklet with more of these letters in a limited edition of 300. If you want to get your own copy, look in our shop: http://birdprayers.blogspot.com/p/shop.html

One Song

Every war and every conflict between human beings
has happened because of some disagreement about names.
It is such an unnecessary foolishness,
because just beyond the arguing
there is a long table of companionship
set and waiting for us to sit down.
What is praised is one, so the praise is one too,
many jugs being poured into a huge basin.
All religions, all this singing, one song.
The differences are just illusion and vanity.
Sunlight looks a little different on this wall
than it does on that wall
and a lot different on this other one,
but it is still one light.
We have borrowed these clothes,
these time-and-space personalities,
from a light, and when we praise,
we are pouring them back in.
- Jalaluddin Rumi

Treebute to Yogya

Another project we did, Treebute to Yogya (2009) won the Szpilman Award 2010.
http://www.award.szpilman.de/winner10.html

The Szpilman Award, named after the German art group Szpilman ,is awarded to works that exist only for a moment or a short period of time. The purpose of the award is to promote such works whose forms consist of ephemeral situations.

Since its beginnings in 2003 it is still the only art prize for ephemeral works in the world. The Szpilman Award is awarded annually.

Treebute to Yogya is a public performance which i made in collaboration with Arya Pandjalu. The Treebute for the performance is a very unusual motorcycle helmet. An extension of the helmet forms a plant pot, which contains a small Bayan tree. Five motor cyclists wore these extraordinary helmets to ride around  the streets of Yogyakarta. The motivation behind this work was to create a device that would instantly compensate for the carbon emitted by the motorcycles. 

http://www.award.zpilman.de/best10.nap.0.html

http://www.saranuytemans.net/birdprayers/Treebute.html
http://www.takepart.com/node/238865/actions

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2011/01/potted-plant-helmets-hit-the-streets-of-indonesia.php

Song by Leonard Cohen

"Anthem"

The birds they sang 
at the break of day 
Start again 
I heard them say 
Don't dwell on what 
has passed away 
or what is yet to be. 
Ah the wars they will 
be fought again 
The holy dove 
She will be caught again 
bought and sold 
and bought again 
the dove is never free.

Ring the bells that still can ring 
Forget your perfect offering 
There is a crack in everything 
That's how the light gets in.

We asked for signs 
the signs were sent: 
the birth betrayed 
the marriage spent 
Yeah the widowhood 
of every government
signs for all to see. 

I can't run no more 
with that lawless crowd 
while the killers in high places 
say their prayers out loud. 
But they've summoned, they've summoned up 
a thundercloud 
and they're going to hear from me. 

Ring the bells that still can ring ... 

You can add up the parts 
but you won't have the sum 
You can strike up the march, 
there is no drum 
Every heart, every heart 
to love will come 
but like a refugee. 

Ring the bells that still can ring 
Forget your perfect offering 
There is a crack, a crack in everything 
That's how the light gets in. 

Ring the bells that still can ring 
Forget your perfect offering 
There is a crack, a crack in everything 
That's how the light gets in. 
That's how the light gets in. 
That's how the light gets in. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_e39UmEnqY8

Thanks to Eva McGovern for pointing out this song to us. 

God does not believe in Atheists

Protests in Swiss

Islamic prayer and procession at the Colosseum

La repubblica, January 28, 2009

Birdhouses guide

http://www.birdhouseguide.org

Journey w/ Greg Taylor: Bird Prayers

Bird Prayers
How to pray with the birds:
1. Wake up
2. Walk outside where there's a lot of trees
3. Listen
4. Hear the blending of birdsong
5. Pick out certain ones
6. Count how many different songs there are
7. Listen for rhythm and rhyme of the song
8. Listen for mockingbirds who mimick the others
9. Try to actually see them calling so you can know what type make that call
10. Thank God with them, for the birds are taught by God to sing for him.

This is the reverse in a way of St. Francis of Assisi's sermon to the birds. Rather, the birds are teaching us something. Below are links to St. Francis.

St. Francis preaches to the birds

My brothers, birds, you should praise creator"

Volkskrant september 29, 2007 (in Dutch)