ZADAR ZEN GARDEN

Description & Statement

Zadar Zen Garden is created with newspaper balls. Each newspaper ball is a pebble -- a pebble of information, a pebble of history. A Zen Garden is a place for contemplation and meditation, a garden that elevates its viewers to a deeper spiritual awareness and helps them gain insight into their inner wisdom.

Zadar Zen Garden uses Zadar's historical information (the old newspapers) as its stepping stones and its pebbles. Through the Garden's visual and spatial arrangement, viewers are physically connected with the past while living in the present and meditating on the future.

Originally there were 7 performers, and they are Yin Peet, Bojan Gagic, Josip Zanki, Boris Kajmak, Petar Stanovic, Elvis Stanovic, Claudia Nanni, with Cathy Nolan as the supporting artist stationed outside of the Garden. All were prepared to meet the purification requirement before and during the performance:
  1. Shower and clean
  2. Wear single color clothing, prepare for day (warm) and night (cool) weather condition
  3. No talking unless absolutely necessary
  4. No food except water
  5. Rest (light sleep) only when necessary
  6. Non stop -- mind and body
  7. Not leave the Garden until its done
  8. Accompany each paper ball making with mantra OM (to yourself at your own pace)
The performers enter the Garden at 4pm (Tuesday), August 21. In silence, intensive construction of the Zen Garden started. Night sets in, the Square slowly falls asleep itself except periodically unexpected scene stirs. At one time, 4 teenagers appeared, played around the 5 wells for a little while as if it was in the middle of the day, then left. At another time, an old woman holding a huge tree (about 15 feet with branch, trunk, root all in tack) walked across the Square as if everything is just a routine. Then around 4am wind picked up, temperature dropped. Some performers are falling asleep. Yin reminded them not to sleep for fear that they'll catch a cold. Meanwhile, Garden construction continued, performers spent great effort to secure the newspaper ball for the strong wind was blowing them out of the Garden. Around 5 AM raindrop started coming down, at first just sprinkling, then became steady rain. At 5:15 AM (8/22) Yin announced the interruption of the performance. All performers left the Garden. From then on, the construction of the Zen Garden proceeded with various people's help:

8/22 (Wed) 8:00 am-4:30 pm (Yin-8.5 hours, Boris-2 hrs)
8/23 (Thur) 4 pm-8 pm (Yin-4 hrs, Zoran-3 hrs, Miho-2 hrs)
8/24 (Fri) 4:30 pm-11:30 pm (Yin-7 hrs, Zoran-4 hrs, Miho-3 hrs)
8/25 (Sat) 5:30 pm-12 am (Yin-6.5 hrs, Pino & Gulin-6.5 hrs, 11 kids-40 min each)
8/26 (Sun) 12 am-2 am (Yin-2 hrs, Pino-2 hrs, Gulin-2 hrs)

Zen Garden was completed at 2 AM, August 26, 2001, total 158 working hour, and was dismantled on August 27, 3 PM. All newspaper sent back to the newspaper-printing house to be recycled.



Back to Catalog


Home | Large Scale Sculpture | Installation Performance
Small Scale Work | Theater | Biography | Current Events
Container Records Production