single channel video, HD, color, stereo, 8:26min., 2018-2020
Staying is accompanied by non-staying. Not staying anywhere - Muju(무주, 無住) in Zen-Buddhism means to leave all forms of obsession, and at the same time to change without sticking to oneself. With the narration reflecting the interpretation of Zen-Buddhism philosophy and anarchism on the theme of the center and periphery, the video induces meditative appreciation and eventually leads to an artificial nature. While presenting different technical images of the desert, the question remains in between temporality and the continuity of the wandering mind.
“Muju” text / video by Hana Yoo
Sound: “Infinite rhythmic marimba clusters” by eli.fieldsteel, extracted from Supercollider Code
Found footage: “10 HOURS Desert Wind Sounds”
Back from the desert
Publication - Come back from the desert, Being Muju
Published in 2018
1. What is Muju?
Staying is accompanied by non-staying. Not staying anywhere - Muju(무주, 無住) in Zen-Buddhism means to leave all forms of obsession, and at the same time to change without sticking to oneself.1 Muju does not mean wandering in the desert. Rather, like a grain of sand in the desert, it does not claim the ownership of the desert. Hakim Bey named T.A.Z(the Temporary Autonomous Zone) as a form of temporary spaces that elude formal structures of control.2 The idea of Muju places the Zone of T.A.Z to Mu(無, Nothingness), thus, psychic nomadism entails the process of emptying. Nomadism without emptying is merely moving, which carries its burden of life each time. Muju is being a guest in your house, whether it is in the desert or in the mind. We are guests of our house, guests of our country, and guests of this planet. Being a guest is temporary. In that sense, T.A.M(Temporary Autonomous Muju) is a continuation of temporality(Zeitlichkeit).
Muju people, all of whom are guests, do not need their masters. Likewise, a non-resident mind does not need a 'subjective mind'. The mind of Muju is not wandering from the subject but is just a trait that does not stay anywhere. This trait is also temporary, however in Muju, which is free from the desire to be continued, the boundary between the temporality and the continuity becomes meaningless.
1Byung-Chul Han, Philosophie des Zen-Buddhismus (Reclam, 2017), 82
2Hakim Bey, T.A.Z. The temporary autonomous zone, ontological anarchy, poetic terrorism (Autonomedia, 1991), 104
︎
Examining the Edge - Peripheries of the mind and the city, 06-08.2018, Schloss Biesdof, Berlin
Living/Leaving - Berlin art week, 09.2018, Kunstraum, Berlin
Musrara Mix Festival 2019 - Screening 5.28 - 30. 2019, Jerusalem, Israel