Wu Wei, 2009

Wu Wei is an intervention of nine metal toys shaped liked little boys and girls 15 cm tall, carrying paper placards with one hand on which nothing is written. It took place on different streets of Lyon  in 2009. The toys are so thin that might remind of the two dimensional paper cut - holding hands - girls and boys that children usually do when they first find their ways with simple paper folding. The toys are readymades of shiny bright metal which reflects what it faces, like a mirror.

I named the intervention 'Wu Wei' based on a Tao concept for knowing when to act and when not to act. Wu is translated as 'not have' or 'without'; Wei is translated as 'do, act, or effort'. The literal meaning of Wu Wei is 'without action' and is often included in the paradox wei wu wei: 'action without action' or 'effortless doing'. Wu Wei is commonly explained as natural action, thus knowing when (and how) to act is not knowledge in the sense that one would think 'now' is the right time to do 'this', but rather just doing it, doing the natural thing.

The philosophical background to the concept is found in the Taoist scripture 'Tao Te Ching' and its alluded to 'diminishing doing' or 'diminishing will' as the key aspect of the sage's success.  Taoist philosophy recognizes that the universe already works harmoniously according to its own ways; as a person exerts their will against or upon the world they disrupt the harmony that already exists. This is not to say that a person should not exert agency and will. Rather, it is how one acts in relation to the natural processes already extant.

A related translation from the Tao Te Ching by Priya Hemenway: 


The Sage is occupied with the unspoken 
and acts without effort. 

Teaching without verbosity, 
producing without possessing, 
creating without regard to result, 
claiming nothing, 
the Sage has nothing to lose.

Since Wu Wei has also been translated as "creative quietude," or the art of letting-be, I thought of the 'sage' in the lines above is also a representative of the 'artist', not because that the artist should own a tutor role for the viewer but art of 'now' is a historical stone for the art that will follow. This idea harmonizes my thoughts on the very self process of the artist and art in general with the perception of the Tao as being within all things and conforms oneself to its "way."



On the physicality of the work, the relation of the concept to the form can be explained as follows: as one diminishes doing (here 'doing' means those intentional actions taken to benefit us or actions taken to change the world from its natural state and evolution) one diminishes all those actions committed against the already present natural harmony. Since my little people in the installation are perceived as the little demonstrators on the first look, their appereance has a lot to do with the idea of changing the world, which stands on the opposite side of Wu Wei philosophy. But the harmony of the world is already distrupted with previous actions of the human kind so the little people here only function as a mirror (the reflective quality of the material used) to human kind if one comes to think of Tao in practice as 'clear seeing'. So what the little people do in the street intervention is to pull the people's attention on the street to their appereance as if they are demonstrating, and when the viewer gets closer to see what they are demonstrating on, they only see their own reflections on the little people.