The ND-CULT
 

Transitoriis quaere aeterna
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The ND CULT is a religious architecture.We define physically a space in which spiritual, mystical and religious states can be experienced. This space reproduces spatially that which is induced in the body at the time of death, i.e. during those few seconds when the brain is progressively deprived of oxygen as a result of cardiac arrest. Blood provides the oxygen necessary for the brain to function. The oxygen requirements of the brain are constantly replenished by the heart, which circulates blood containing oxygen breathed in from the outside air. The depleted oxygenation of the brain that occurs at the time of death can be compared to an extremely rapid gain in altitude. The person who dies in Zurich climbs, in a few seconds, from an altitude of 409 metres above sea level, where the oxygen content of the air is 20.5 %, to an altitude similar to that of Everest for example, where the oxygen content is less than 10 %. As the ascent continues, the ratio of oxygen continues to fall. The dying person eventually reaches the stratosphere, where the oxygen content is effectively zero. This virtual ascent corresponds precisely to the reduction of oxygen in the brain when the heart stops beating. The lack of oxygen, known as hypoxia, causes very strong physiological reactions. Hallucinations frequently occur among mountaineers who climb to altitudes in excess of 6000 metres without an oxygen mask. They can take the form of somaesthetic illusions (such as false perceptions of the body or its position in space, the sense of the presence of an imaginary person, or out-of-body experiences). They may also take the form of visual hallucinations (animals, human figures, splashes of colour, complex scenes) or auditory hallucinations (human voices, the sound of bells or music). These symptoms of extreme hypoxia that are known to occur at very high altitudes are very similar to those reported by people who have undergone a near-death experience. The moment when vision darkens due to a reduction in the supply of oxygen to the eye is recounted by such people in terms of a "dark tunnel" or a "dark space". Similarly, we can understand the diverse manifestations that follow (feelings of joy or terror, encounters with light, perceived buzzing or ringing of bells) as the hallucinatory effect of a lack of oxygen corresponding to a virtual altitude, which can be estimated at more than 10 000 metres. With oxygen in such short supply, the human metabolism is on the verge of organic death, at life's boundary.

ND CULT is a materially defined spiritual space, in which the oxygen content of the air is reduced to 6 %. It provides a space on the borderline of death, where perception and consciousness are modified in a way probably close to that of mystical states. Under these extreme physical conditions, the experience is extremely dangerous. Irreversible brain damage is possible and the risk of death is real.
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Décosterd & Rahm, associés
expert: Urs Boutellier, Professor at the Exercise Physiology, ETH Zurich, Associate Professor at the University of Zurich.

MIGROS MUSEUM für gegenwartskunst, Zürich
Exhibition "Bewitched, bothered and bewildered - Spatial emotion in contemporary art and architecture"
Curators: Heike Munder, Adam Budak
from March 22 - May 26. 2003

BATHHAUS Centre for Contemporary Art
Gdansk, Poland
From 11th July to 7th September 2003
 
 
 
 
 

Link: http://www.migrosmuseum.ch/ausstellung/fs_ausstellung.php3?object=ausstelltext&key=159&lang=en
 
 

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