Nādas @ The Life of Buddha
Sound installation for exhibition at Nieuwe Kerk, Amsterdam.
Installation
Nāda Yoga, meaning ‘union through sound’, is a yoga, a unification, of sound. It is an ancient Indian system, a science of inner transformation through sound and tone. Nāda Yoga is based on the premise that the entire cosmos and everything in it (including humans) consist of sound vibrations, or nādas. By focusing on the actually non-existing border between sound and silence, one can find a space in which the depth of one’s own silence grows greater. In this way, sound can make people aware of the profound silence – and richness – lying within themselves.
Exhibition
Ancient and modern are spectacularly combined in the exhibition Buddha’s Life, Path to the Present at De Nieuwe Kerk, which was opened by His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama.
Admire a wealth of thousands of years old objects and contemporary art from artists including Ai Weiwei and Yoko Ono. The earliest object dates from the third century A.D. and the most recent from 2018, since some of the installations are being created especially for this exhibition.
The exhibition recounts the life of the Buddha. Born a wealthy prince in the fifth century BC, he chose at the age of 29 to adopt a completely different way of life. The various phases in his life – his birth, renunciation, enlightenment, first sermon and death – symbolize Buddhist belief and form the narrative of this exhibition. The essence of Buddhism is enlightenment, attainable via a consciousness of the here and now.
Date and location:
16 September 2018 till 3 February 2019
Nieuwe Kerk, Amsterdam
Links and press
Nieuwe Kerk
Background story ‘The Life of the Buddha’
Trouw - ‘Tentoonstelling wil een brug slaan tussen oosters en westers boeddhisme’ (dutch)