Bondfire

2024

Fire, one of the four classical elements, stands as the primal force behind the emergence of civilisation. From the earliest days of human history, it has been a source of protection, warmth, and forging communities. It was around the flickering flames of the bonfire that our ancestors created bonds, shared stories, and passed down knowledge.The flip-side is its capacity for destruction and death - the element that provides warmth and sustenance can also wreak havoc and consume entire landscapes. There is a delicate balance of fascination and control, mirroring our broader relationship with other powerful forces in our lives and the responsibility that comes with handling it. The awareness of this duality and of the inherent danger is also what draws us in, closer and closer, to the destructive spectacle. There is a latent pyromaniac in everyone, secretly wishing for the flames to spread. Today, our relationship with screens echoes the ancient connection to the mesmerising glow. The moving images captivate us much like the dancing flames once did. When circling around through a darkness, this fire also magnetically draws us in closer and closer - in girum imus nocte et consumimur igni. And like when staring into the fire, the various small digital fires in our palms put us in a trance-like state, gaze fixed, the mind half-way somewhere else, unable to break the spell. In that spirit: fire, walk with me. But also say a prayer to St. Catherine of Siena, who pulled it through the engulfing flames unscathed.