GJ Lischka. Present Mind

We are indebted to the Greeks for the knowledge that "Being" invariably means “present being”. In the Parmenidean search for "knowledge of Being", "Being" may also mean "being true".

This premise informs the works of Bern-based philosopher, Gerhard Johann Lischka in the field of culture, hence the title of the exhibition on his influencePresent Mind. He finds and creates interfaces or hubs from which unfolds a complex network of ideas, images, writings and people: the Lischka constellation that spans from Jean Baudrillard via Niklas Luhmann and Vilém Flusser to Paul Virilio, from James Lee Byars via Marina Abramović and Jürgen Klauke to Andy Warhol et al.

As author and editor, as lecturer and organizer of symposia, as artist and curator of exhibitions, as producer of television films and moderator, as editor of video DVDs etc., he is producer and witness, broadcaster and receiver, detective and archivist, administrator of the past and framer of the present −forever in the mode of thought and reflection.

In the exhibition project, organized on the occasion of the donation of his archive and library, Lischka reminds us that culture is not merely saving, but paraphrase, not only tradition but transgression.