How serious do we take ourselves Herr Kommandozentrale?

"One is born as an original but you end up as a copy " is one of the sentences that I picked up at the first lunch talk organized today at the Hohensalzburg Fortress. The first in line to break the ice was the artist, painter, lover of music and one of the professors, Hubert Scheibl.

Possibly as his alter ego or somebody that helps him organize himself and his work, in the video that opened the talk, we saw a life size figure, similar to the wax figures in Madame Tussauds museum of the artist himself, Kommandozentrale.I bring him up because I found that this work possibly reflects the artists views on the questions surrounding the lunch talk series. Apart from the focus on the working methods of the teaching artists issues surrounding the notion of professionalism, amateurism or who is a  genius in the art world will be talked about and were talked about today.

The talk was organized in German but I decided not to use a translator. I have everything recorded but I wanted everything around me during the talk to act as a trigger. The movement of the audience and the reaction of the lecturer himself did at certain points make me lean to my new friend and ask her to translate for me. That is what made me think that something important, something interesting is being said at that time.

As an artist who considers the act of painting primarily as a very intimate and personal action, Hubert Scheibl presented his methods of working and his views about what art is today and what a role of an artist  is in a very humble way.But,   what you could also feel today was  his playful nature, his inquisitive mind and his open spirit. Yes, I did get all this and I didn't understand a word.

Once asked by the director of the Summer Academy Ms. Hildegund Amanshauser who led the talk with the artist, if he considers himself a professional or an amateur, Hubert Scheibl answered that he considers himself a playful dilettante. If this is really true or not it was left open for all of us to think about. His works for sure do not look dilettante nor did I get a feeling that he is truly a dilettante himself.I got the impression that the artists was suggesting that maybe we should not take ourselves too seriously but not in the manner that we should not create serious works or be serious but that we should not be closed minded and stubborn in our views.

The questions about who today is a professional, amateur, genius are very difficult questions to ask. To some they may be interesting questions to ask and answer but today I got the feeling that other questions were more important to the artist. The questions about our relationship with nature, with ourselves, the struggles that we are all faced with and the idea that we all need to overcome ourselves to be able to function and move forward seem to be more pressing matters.

"Make sure you watch your paintings because they sometimes can come back and slap you in the face" was another sentence that I now decide to leave you with.