Utopia Of The Ordinary

illustration

The Utopia of a fulfilled and indeed perfect life in the form of life longings (“Sehnsucht” in German) is an intricate human emotion. People long for unattained states and conditions they are not in. Sehnsucht sets man in motion, it motivates us. The longing for change brings us closer together and drives us farther apart as if moved by an invisible energy that comes from the tension between the longing subject and the longed for object. Looking at the future, it is called utopia, while for the past we call it nostalgia.

One of humankind’s core emotions, Sehnsucht is not only directed towards other people but also at nature and at foreign places in the form of wanderlust and thence back again, in the form of home-sickness. Our longings concern the things we don’t have, the lives we don’t live, and the places we cannot reach. The confined space of the present can provoke the feeling of narrowness and absence, while longings inherently reveal the seemingly limitless opportunities of the future. In this surreality, a new life appears possible, aspiring to greater luck, more meaning and complete beauty. Longings break the barrier between the actual and the potential, be it as a means to escape from a depressing reality or simply in order to enjoy a dream. At any rate, it is the pursuit from the finite level of reality to the infinite levels of possibility.

This work shows our perspective on the topic in the form of my interpretations of lyrics from songs about longing, children’s longings for their adult lives, and the contrast between homesickness and wanderlust.

Exhibtion Barcelona 2013