Since time immemorial, we have condensed our collective thought, knowledge and self-image into narratives and passed them on from generation to generation.
These narratives included the respective wish images, worries and fears flowed in, the successes of the respective group were thematized in an identity-forming way, the stories were embellished, myths were created.
We know such myths from the most different cultural areas; prominent examples are the Nordic sagas, the biblical stories, the Chinese mythology, the Greek god sagas and many more.
In many of these narratives, research gradually reveals the historical site so that a "true core" can be verified around which the narrative was then fleshed out. Similarly, almost all myths have been reproduced in pictures since time immemorial. They have always inspired artists to visualize what is told.
Myths are particularly well suited for this purpose because, in addition to the factual core, there is a great deal of creative space for the respective interpretation and a personal view can be brought in, albeit in the respective cultural context.
This aspect is still attractive for artists today, to take up traditional myths again and to make them visible anew with a personal interpretation in the knowledge of their historical role.
If we revisit the remarks from above, we quickly suspect that even in our enlightened age we maintain narratives that can remind us of the myths of our ancestors.
Not so long ago, neuroscientists questioned whether we can make our own decisions or whether our brain has not already made the decision when we think we are deciding.
We believed to know that our destiny is determined by genes, we are, so to speak, only handmaidens of selfish genes.
Today we tend to think that these attitudes have been myths, that we are very capable of making our choices, and that we are capable of shaping our own thinking.
In genetics today, we would rather describe our personal genome as an option space and believe that we help shape what we become through our own actions. The related science of epigenetics has many explanations to support this view.
So far so good. So we are learning. Does that mean the myths are passé?
No way.
Having just learned that we can influence our physiology through our lifestyle and behavior, we now dream that we can reinvent ourselves with it, if only we do it right. We like to hear that we can greatly push our limits, we can live to be 100 with a personalized diet, that gender is a continuum, and that with the proper approach we can achieve almost any condition we aspire to.
So we work with great zeal on new myths, always on the border of knowledge and desires, combined with the search for personal happiness in the social framework that fits today.
The occupation with the myths of mankind thus remains topical, since the border from knowledge to non-knowledge is shifted by the scientific progress ever further, at this threshold however still today a dreamed world is given a shape.
Often these dreamed-up worlds become spiritually charged, and then the path from myths to mysticism is not far.
Nutrition, sport and the preoccupation with one's own gender identity can take on religious overtones, since myths and mysticism have a strong identity-forming character.
Thus, the artistic examination of the myths of mankind is a major theme for us, completely independent of whether they are millennia-old myths or narratives from the present day.
Currently, we have dedicated our exhibition within the framework of "Art in Licher Barns" to this theme.
We show pictures that contrast mystical Christian symbolism with the Soviet dictatorship, pictures with biblical and Nordic motifs, as well as interpretations of today's astronomical knowledge about the vastness of the universe.
The pictorial quotations shown are intended to create images in the mind's eye of the viewer that connect to their own spiritual experiences and set them off on a very personal journey.
Myths are thus not only an exciting matter for historians.
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