Marko Pogačnik - Galerija Prešernovih nagrajencev Kranj

50 Marko Pogačnik

Left:
Human Being as a Multidimensional Being,
from Zaunreiter Akademie workshop, Hagenberg at Linz, Austria, drawing, 2017

Right:
Carving of a geopuncture circle dedicated to the elemental heart of the Earth,
in partnership with the VITAAA Art Group, damming of the Vogršček Stream in the Vipava Valley, Karst stone, 2018,
photo by Bojan Brecelj

52 Marko Pogačnik

Geopuncture circle dedicated to the elemental heart of Europe
and to the role of Maribor in its entirety,

in partnership with the VITAAA Art Group,
Pohorje granite and Cividale limestone,
2017, photo by Bojan Brecelj

To Renew The thirteen points of the Workshop and the
the Matrix of Peace archetype of the Sleeping Beauty

Facing the escalation of wars all around us and perceiving the The concept of the Peace Workshop is based upon the Grimm Broth-
one-sided decisions of politicians that support the escalation of ers’ fairytale of the Sleeping Beauty, which tells us something essen-
economic injustice or even fuel warfare, we should start working tial about the present epoch of change. The story goes that when the
without hesitation on the transformation of the twisted patterns Princess was born, only the twelve white fairies were invited to the
feast, but not the black thirteenth fairy.
that cause conflicts among people and deny the right of all
beings of the Earth, both visible and invisible ones, The 13th fairy stands for the cyclic principle which the modern mas-
to live in peace. culine oriented civilisation ignores thus leading humanity towards
self-destruction. Through the cultures succeeding the Neolithic age,
There is no hope for a lasting peace on our home planet without the cyclic principle of the Goddess was step by step replaced by the
renewing the archetypes of peace with the Earth, patriarchal idea of the permanent growth, finally leading to the
ecological and cultural deterioration of the present epoch.
among its living beings, and peace among peoples and nations.
Let us work creatively on renewing the peace matrix In the context of the Peace Workshop, the 13 fairies of the tale
pulsating in the Earth’s memory! represent different aspects of Gaia-Consciousness. They are high be-
ings of Gaia, co-responsible for evolution of what can be called the
The key for establishing peace and capability to renew the peace Earthly Cosmos. In the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale they address,
matrix is present within each one of us. The only question is, through their gifts to the Princess, 13 potential qualities of the hu-
how to activate it. man being inscribed into our matrix.
Comprising two days’ work, the purpose of the Workshop on
Renewing the Peace Matrix is to give voice to new approaches One after another they approach the new-born humanity (the Prin-
to the theme of peace and to generate the needed impulses of cess) and present to the human being their gifts. At this point the
change using the Gaia Touch body exercises and relevant dramatics of the modern age starts to reveal itself. After eleven of
meditations and rituals. the fairies had presented their light-filled gifts, the black fairy unex-
pectedly burst on the scene and predicted the Princess’s death.

Luckily, the twelfth fairy did not yet present her gift to the Princess.
Stepping forward all she could do was to change the sentence of
death to a hundred years of sleep.

The symbol of the hundred-year sleep can be interpreted as the
condition of the modern humanity being attached to the restric-
tive (one-dimensional) realm of rational consciousness – an effect
of the five millennia lasting patriarchal epoch of our evolution. In
consequence, humanity has developed a civilisation which has lost
the connection to Gaia’s multidimensional creation and to its own
matrix. This, in turn, has conjured up the death threat which can
be seen today in an increasing obsession with war and through eco-
logical devastation of the planet. The twelfth fairy, who completes
the cycle of the thirteen fairies, stands for the trusting confidence
that the healing moment of awakening is at hand.

On the subject of the incoming new age of the planetary evolution, see my book
“Quantum Leap of the Earth”, Lindisfarne, Great Barrington, USA
www.steinerbooks.org

54 Marko Pogačnik

The 13 creative potentials within the human ment of the planetary transformation… distorted by the demonic
being related to their distorted manifestation in forces within the human psyche cradling the fear of knowing the
the present civilisation truth of the moment.
12
(The 13 gifts bestowed upon the human being are translated from The gift to the human being to be an agent of transmutation
the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale.) and change in tune with the black aspect of Gaia… distorted by
1 suppressing, ignoring, and hiding the real causes for the escalating
The gift to the human being to be a carrier of peace in the world… warfare and natural disasters.
distorted by massive appearance of fear among peoples of the Earth. 13
2 The gift to the human being to become a co-creator of the Earthly
The gift to the human race to be a race of truthful beings… Cosmos together with Gaia and her beings… distorted by human-
distorted by the false concept of the unavoidable antagonism be- ity building an anthropocentric separated world broken away
tween good and bad. from the wholeness of the Earthly Cosmos.
3
The gift to the human being to be a source of compassion… Gaia Touch Exercises and Rituals
distorted by leading merciless wars.
4 One of the essential tools for the renewal of the Peace Matrix is a
The gift to the human being to be caretaker of Gaia’s garden, set of Gaia Touch-Exercises. They were transmitted to me over the
sharing this role with plants, animals, minerals and elemental last eighteen years by elemental and other beings at various sacred
beings… distorted by genetic manipulation of plants, geo-engineer- locations across the planet. They enable us humans to establish a
ing, cruelty towards animals and ignoring the evolution of the better contact with Gaia consciousness, so that we would be able
elemental beings. to tune in to the multidimensional nature of our home planet and
5 its beings. Gaia-Touch presents a set of body exercises combined
The gift to the human being to be a temple of the dragon powers with corresponding imaginations as a possibility to cooperate with
– the primeval wisdom and creative powers of Gaia… distorted Gaia and her creative processes. On this basis it becomes possible
by misusing the atomic power of Gaia. to reach those dimensions of causal reality, in which the Peace
6 Matrix is coded, and to affect her renewal and re-attuning.
The gift to the human being to be an agent of balance between
the feminine (Yin) and masculine (Yang) principles… distorted A broader selection of the Gaia-Touch Exercises appears in my book “Universe
by the patriarchal civilisation dominated by the masculine will. of the Human Body«, Lindisfarne, Great Barrington, USA
7 www.steinerbooks.org
The gift to the human being to be a link between different parallel
worlds of the Earthly Cosmos… distorted by ignoring the worlds of our Creating a Culture of Peace
human and fairy ancestors.
8 Peace is not a commodity that can just be enjoyed. Peace is a crea-
The gift to the human being to be an embodied sanctuary of tive challenge. Without each individual human being nourishing
Divinity… distorted by the monotheistic religions that know only peace within him/herself – and that also goes for the community
the male God in heavens. to which he/she belongs – peace in the world is a fragile affair
9 and of short duration. The Culture of Peace can only arise and
The gift to the human being to be a keeper of Gaia’s elemental then be maintained on the basis of a conscious and sensible way
heart and a source of the powerful love… distorted by the “athe- of dealing with one’s own life path and in cooperation with all
istic religions” like the nazi-fascism, despotic communism and the other beings of the Earthly Cosmos. Peace, like a delicate plant,
folly of the modern consumerism. has to be consistently cultivated and nurtured.
10 Started in 2014, the Peace Workshop has been implemented with
The gift to the human being to become an autonomous being groups between 20 to 180 people in Munich, London, Berlin,
responsible for one’s decisions… distorted by the ego-centrism of Paris, Zuerich, Linz, Freiburg, Osnabrueck, Moscow, and in
the modern human psychic condition. several sacred places like Mt. Saint Odile in France, Jerusalem,
11 Externsteine in Germany, Tara in Ireland, Auroville, India.
The gift to the human being to be able to understand and co-cre-
ate the path of the cosmic evolution and with it the present mo- Šempas, December 2015 - October 2017, Marko Pogačnik
UNESCO Artist for Peace
Peace Workshop was published in English/German booklet by Neue Erde
Verlag www.neue-erde.de

From the opening of the retrospective exhibition »The Art of Life – the Life of Art 1962 – 2012«
in Ljubljana Museum of Modern Art, Moderna galerija, 2012,
photo by Bojan Brecelj

56 Marko Pogačnik



58 Marko Pogačnik

Installation: »12-dimensional Space of the Earth's Universe«, in partnership with Marika Pogačnik,
Museum of Modern Art, Moderna Galerija, Ljubljana, , stone, wood, cords, glass, sand, 2012,
photo by Bojan Brecelj

Installation »Scenes from the Fairy World«,
in partnership with Marika Pogačnik, Tir Gallery, Mostovna, Solkan,

stone, wood, cords, glass, sand, 2012,
photo by Bojan Brecelj

60 Marko Pogačnik

Installation »Transformation of Chaos into Cosmos, and Vice Versa«,
Triennalle U3, Museum of Modern Art, Moderna galerija Ljubljana,
in partnership with Marika Pogačnik and Ivana Petan,
granite, membranes, glass, sand, cords, ceramic fragments, 2016,
photo by Bojan Brecelj

62 Marko Pogačnik

Installation »Model of the Human Being's Existence on Earth«, Galerija umjetnina, Split,
in partnership with Marika Pogačnik and Simona Čudovan,
stone, glass, cords, cosmograms made of felt, wood, 2015,
photo by Bojan Brecelj

Manifesto of the New Space written on the wall, Prešeren Award Winners Gallery Kranj, charcoal, 2018,
photo by Bojan Brecelj

Installation “The Earth is Giving Birth to the New Space«, with stones from Vipava Valley, gravel and glass,
Prešeren Award Winners Gallery Kranj, 2018, photo by Bojan Brecelj,

On the right page below:
Installation »Earth Giving Birth to a
new Age of Peace and Co-existence
between All Beings«, drawings and
woolen strings, based upon author's
dreams dreamt between 1997 and

2018, Prešeren Award Winners
Gallery Kranj, 2018,

photo by Bojan Brecelj
Part of the installation is a book
with the same title published by
VITAAA, 2018 – edition in English
language is called Gaia's Quantum
Leap, Lindisfarne, USA, 2011 and in
German Quantensprung der Erde,
AT Verlag Aarau, Schweiz, 2010

64 Marko Pogačnik



Geopuncture circle »Portal – Point of Entry to Lake Cerknica«,
in partnership with the VITAAA Art group, Cerknica, 2010, Karst stone,
photo by Bojan Brecelj

66 Marko Pogačnik

Top-down:

Cosmogram for the Charle’s Bridge, Prague, bronze, 2014

Cosmogram for the Gaeculture movement, from author’s book on
Gaia Culture, published in German by Neue Erde, 2014

Cosmogram of Paris, from author’s book “Paris entre visible et invisible”,
Edition Triade, France, 2012

Manifesto 1
of the New Space Space is not just a physical phenomenon. It is, above all, a living
multi-dimensional being. Space was shrunk by rational conscious-
Cosmogram for the lithopuncture project ness to a minimum. Wherever you turn, you chance upon borders:
done on the biodynamic farm Foxhollow, limited length, width and height, state borders, upon borders of the
known, upon the border that separates the reason from madness.
Louisville, Kentucky, USA, 2008 The life in us and around us is dying as it can no longer endure
within borders imposed upon it by the patriarchal age with its ra-
68 Marko Pogačnik tional »machinery«.
2
For millennia we have been victims of the very same hunger or
victims of excessive abundance, of the same wars and cruelties.
The pressure on the living tissue in us and around us is thickening.
3
The time has come to discover the art of transformation. Trans-
formation is not a simple change or modification, for it compris-
es a quantum leap. A leap is not feasible and space cannot be
transformed if human beings do not participate with emotional,
elementary and spiritual dimensions of his or her body and land-
scape as a fragment of the Earth’s whole.
4
Civilizational space cannot be transformed either, it we faithfully
adhere to the logic. The linear path of logic and the quantum
leap of transformation are two contradictory provenances. Sci-
ence as the daughter of rational logic has been constantly torn
between creation and destruction; as many useful patents it in-
vents, so many destructive weapons it designs.
5
Art knows the decisive advantage, if it’s able to make it aware.
Art is not the daughter of logic, which controls the world and
allows no substantial change to be made; art is the daughter of
madness. Art enables subversion of consciousness and, in turn,
decomposition of the old space. Art is based on human ability of
creative imagination, identical to the divine word, the foundation
of creative processes.
6
The new living space cannot be ruled, neither can its creative
potentials be controlled. But this is not necessary, after all, since
the new space can exist only if it’s real, just and holy. In the old
space, manipulation, careless act or cursory contact are some-
thing common. The old space does not crash, if the human being
has no contact with its essence. After all, the new space of essence
cannot exist, if the participants of the dance of life are not con-
nected inwardly and outwardly.

Top-down:

Cosmogram for the Venice lagoon,
island of San Servolo, Venice, 2007

Cosmogram for the Geopuncture Circle “Equilibrium”,
Adrspach, Czech Republic, 2015

7
The new space is already among us, yet we experience it only rarely.
The new space of habitation renders enough space for a corporate
development of all plants, people, stones, animals and elementary be-
ings, as it pulsates at different levels at the same time in different
mutually cross-linked dimensions. In spite of it all, it is as simple as
the language of the heart.
8
The new space is a place of freedom. It enables maintenance of
peace, even though it is bursting with creative pressure. The new
space is of corporate nature. Everyday action in it can exist only if it
contains dimensions of the holy. And vice versa: the spiritually per-
ceived act has no real sound, if it is not earthed and dedicated to life.
9
The new space does not depend on the light of the Sun, given that
it is illuminated from within by the omnipresence of the creatress
and renovatress of the Earth’s universe, called the »Blue Gaia«.
10
The material armour in the new space exists no more, as the min-
eral fragments of rocks in individual bodies and phenomena are
arranged in the form of membranes that are permeable to light
and to the presence of the subtle worlds of nature and culture.
11
Borders and limitations lose their meaning in the new space,
since countless interdimensional doors open up, leading to the
parallel worlds and dimensions of living.
12
The new space is composed of horizontal life fields: hierarchical
division is foreign to them. They are founded on the properties
of the elementary heart, pulsating in the core of every being as a
focus of peace, mutual love and harmony.
13
The new space is already nowadays the supporting factor of life in
the Earth’s universe, but we cannot comprehend it until dedicat-
ing conscious attention to it.

Kranj, 15 June 2018, written on the walls of the Prešeren Award Win-
ners’ Gallery

OHO plus 50 First principle

Lecture Marathon A piece of art is no longer pertinent to various forms of an art ob-
2012–2017 ject, but can freely spread in different dimensions of space, nature
and urban environments.
The marathon is comprised of five lectures As soon as the OHO Movement liberated the art object from its
that follow each other with short breaks. traditional forms such as painting, sculpture or graphic, it concur-
rently opened a whole spectre of possibilities for the realization
The background of each lecture is the specific origin of art of an art work. Let us list a few examples. Instead of a human
developed and practiced by the OHO Movement (1965-69) moving through architectonic spaces, he or she can move through
micro-spaces of a book, if the latter is designed the same way as
and the OHO Group (1969-71). the books of the OHO Edition. Instead of a work being made in
The marathon demonstrates how these five origins a material form, it can be published as the concept of this work.
are substantiated and how they were developing in the work of Instead of a work appearing in material form, it can unfold in
Marko Pogačnik and his associates in the ensuing five years. front of the eyes of a viewer as a film event, etc.
During the next stage (1971-1979), the OHO Group established
an agricultural and art commune named The Šempas Family. In
this case the art practice is transformed into life practice, a part of
which is, besides everyday life, a collective work of art as well.
In the early 1980s, the rural nature of the Šempas Family is trans-
muted into Marko Pogačnik's Earth healing projects that lead him
later, together with an open circle of associates, all over the world.
After 1986, he embarked on the projects of lithopuncture – acu-
punctures of natural or urban environments with the aid of setting
up stones and cosmograms carved on them. Art becomes a factor in
the healing of injuries inflicted upon Earth as well as its beings by
modern civilization with its wars and ecological aggression.
Conclusion
Art work strives for becoming a co-creator in different spheres of
human culture.

Second principle

Art work is no longer exclusively bound up with the person of the
author. In the process of its creation any number of persons can
take part, who contribute their co-creative share.
The liberation of art work from the weight of personal expression –
which is one of the inceptions of the OHO Movement – enabled de-
mocratization of art work. The simplicity of the OHO-an language
enabled all those who delighted in co-creation to take part, without
being obliged to gain certain pre-knowledge before joining us.
In 1971, the democratic principle of art creation was channelled
into the community of the Šempas Family. Its members were con-
tinually coming and going relative to their interests and personal
life paths. People were able to come for longer of shorter periods to
gain experience with life in the community and to obtain certain
information necessary for their further spiritual growth.

70 Marko Pogačnik

In the early 1980s, the Šempas Family transformed, with its discovery that there are dimensions of existence, which are not
nature centred in one place, into a global movement for the co- known to contemporary culture, was followed by the founding of
existence among humans, nature and Earth, organized in an the Šempas Family as of the centre where one could obtain infor-
open network named LifeNet, or VITAAA Society within the mation on the contemporary spiritual and ecological movements
framework of Slovenia. We are in constant touch via electronic in the world ignored by Socialist Yugoslavia. The next step in this
media, occasional congresses and joint project such as Geopunc- direction was the establishment of informal schools of geomancy
ture circles. and personal growth, which were led between 1992 and 2011
Conclusion in different countries of Europe and America by Marko with his
The common principle of collective creativity is in our case the daughters Ana and Ajra. The term geomanty denotes cognition
will to cooperate in the processes of planetary transformation tak- of the visible and to the eye invisible dimensions of natural and
ing place (under the name of »climate change«) on planet Earth urban landscapes.
and, consequently, in human civilization. Conclusion
Art can encourage the abolition of borders, projected on to the
Third principle multidimensional space of planet Earth and its most diverse be-
ings by the rationally orientated line of thinking
A work of art should not necessarily present itself as a product. It
can make its appearance as a factor in the changing of oneself, Fifth principle
relations, culture or civilization.
The background of this lecture is the OHO Manifesto, which There is no need for a work of art to spend natural resources for
actually gave the name both to the movement and the group. no reason. It is nature-friendly and supports its endeavours for
Inscribed in it is the intuition about the possible new form of balance on planet Earth.
civilization, based on the principle of pan-democracy or the new As a rule, the OHO-an works of art were made of easily decom-
kind of perception, where there is no division between the subject posing materials (plaster, paper). They were non-existent (concep-
and the object of viewing. The attribute of the conscious being or tual) or their duration was limited by the opening and closing of
observer is recognized not only in the observer but in the observed exhibitions. Instead of dedicating attention to an art object, most
as well – be this a stone or object for everyday use. The next stage of it was dedicated to the mode of operation in the making of a
of research in this direction is the Šempas Family, conceived as a work of art.
model of a future culture, in which animals, plants, minerals and In the Šempas Family, this principle was manifested in its en-
elemental beings such as an expression of the Earth’s/Gaia’s con- deavours to become self-sufficient in the production of food. The
science are taking part on the basis of equality with the human commune attempted to attain the highest possible independence
being. On this basis Marko wrote, in 2005, his Manifesto on from the outside sources of supply and cash flows. Instead, it
Geaculture, which substantiated the vision of the new emerging trusted the universal circulation of goods and the capability of its
civilization in the practical plan of its possible realization. own creative hands.
Conclusion During the subsequent projects of space healing with groups,
The creative origins of art can be reflected in different cultural »soft« tools have been used, such as sound, ritual, imagination
initiatives within the spheres of ecology, politics, economics, ur- and dance. For the needs of litho- and geopuncture, stone blocks
banism, etc. discarded in quarries as commercially useless are utilized. With
the application within art projects, the humiliated stone has been
Fourth principle given back its dignity and creative role in the processes of healing
the traumas inflicted to nature, Earth and us, its beings.
A work of art can become a tool to explore those particular di-
mensions of existence, which are neglected or even proclaimed Conclusions as to all five principles
non-existent by the contemporary rationally orientated society.
In the OHO Group, this aspect begins in 1970 with the experi- Art work can become a medium of communication with Earth
ence of the intercontinental project Europe-America, substanti- and the Universe …
ated on the practice of telepathy. This was followed by a cycle of
esoteric self-education, implemented by the group in 1970-71. The

72 Marko Pogačnik

Installation “Three Generations of the Goddess”, stones carved by Marika Pogačnik,
Karst limestone, wood, charcoal on the wall, Prešeren House Gallery, 2018,
photo by Bojan Brecelj

Gašper Peternel

Marko Pogačnik – at the crime scene
with images of the Goddess

Kosovel’s Integrals, published in the Slovenian Dadaistic journal Tank, crucially contrib-
uted with their complex diversity to Pogačnik’s grammar school cognition that ideal art
resides, as far as he was concerned, in other spheres than enabled by the social-politi-
cal atmosphere of that time (1963). Illusory is the thought that young researchers, who
were trying to find role models for their creative contemplations in their predecessors,
could be prevented from establishing contacts with contemporary creators abroad.
Even more paradoxical is the thought that a contemporary artist could be prevented
from free artistic quests, particularly if he unendurably felt “the stuffiness of peace, the
imposed shell of upbringing and alienation from himself”, as expressed by the artist him-
self in the first manifesto published in the grammar school review Plamenica. The first
few abstract monotypes were followed by land-art and conceptual attempts at Zarica,
the Sava River canyon near Drulovka below Kranj. The cognition that the flow of energy
plays a much more crucial role in art than the form of a product was further consoli-
dated in him while participating with his school mates Iztok Geister (I. G. Plamen) and
Marjan Ciglič. Music, drawings, prose and poetry were published, in one piece, in 1963
in the aforementioned Plamenica.

Two years later, Pogačnik held his first exhibition in the Prešeren House Gallery. This first
solo exhibition, which was entrusted to Pogačnik when still a student at the Academy of
Fine Arts, by Cene Avguštin, the Custodian and Director of the Gorenjska Museum, was
no doubt a turning point in several respects. The response of the public was explicitly
negative.1 The pop-artistic approach and the ready-made artefacts were not only incom-
prehensible concepts for the greater part of the cultural policy of that time, but also the
attempt, devalued with the greatest ease, of creating a new perspective in the role of art in
modern society2 or, in other words, a call against shutting eyes to the social-cultural real-
ity, as pointed out in those years by the students of Kranj, united in their students Club. In
the autumn of that year Pogačnik exhibited with the aid of his sympathizers his drawings
made during their trip to Dajla. Owing to the general disapproval of his work, he appeared
at that time under the pseudonym Toska he used here and there while participating with
the Kranj Theatre. As soon as his true identity was ascertained, however, his works were
of course immediately removed.3 His third appearance took place at the group exhibition
by the local artists Vinko Tušek, Henrik Marchel and Marko Pogačnik (he was eventually
replaced by Marjan Belec), set up in the cellar of the Prešeren House as the first exhibi-
tion upon the establishment of a living, open gallery, where the city artists were to pub-
licly present their newest works. On the very day before the exhibition was opened his

1 In the Glas daily, issued on January 16, 1965, Peter Ogrizek explains via the Marxist philosophy that abstract art has its foundations is
the capitalist society, with which he indirectly links Pogačnik’s attempts as well. More direct in the same newspaper issued on Fabruary 23
of the same year is Vinko Kepic who proposes that the working group of communists-cultural workers should say loud and clear that such
art is unacceptable, conceptually inappropriate and in places even offensive for most of the people of our society.
2 »This is world-weariness and not hard work, the fruit of which is art,« wrote Andrej Pavlovec in his critic published in the Glas daily.
3 Exhibited there were some artefacts from Pogačnik's first three exhibitions in the Prešeren House gallery.

74 Marko Pogačnik

works were removed, after which another crucial moment of the Slovene contemporary
art took place. On the spot where semi sculptures made of plaster were to stand, the artist
himself was standing with the inscription “Marko Pogačnik: as I am not allowed to exhibit
my works, I am exhibiting my body instead.” As commented by Franci Zagoričnik in the
Glas daily, it is interesting that the initial move as to the vividness and openness of the
new gallery was not totally obliterated. “Marko Pogačnik keeps exhibiting, although he
is representing the trend, on which many will still have to debate: for happening, see its
origin and development in the Encyclopaedia of the Future, which you will no doubt be
buying for your children as a New Year gift (when this future will have already elapsed).”4
This event is considered the first performance – art action in Slovenia.

Since then, Marko Pogačnik never exhibited in the Prešeren House again, but he did ap-
pear at individual campaigns in Kranj and its vicinity. One of them was the cooperation
with Vinko Tušek and Henrik Marchel in 1970, when a spatial installation was set up in
the atrium of the Gorenjska Museum. He and Tušek had been exploring the Kokra River
canyon a year earlier: Pogačnik the movement of water, Tušek the flowing of air forces
through a hanging construction. With a new mission of research into the flow of ener-
gies and search for energy points, the artist returned to Kranj several times and carried
out a thorough research into energy lines that interconnect Šmarjetna gora, Šentjošt and
Stražišče. He also carved a new stone altar for the Church of St Margarethe. On the spot of
an old Christian Basilica at the foot of the town core, where Andrej Valič had led archaeo-
logical excavations in 1976 (today, this is a parking lot of the Iskra factory), he discovered
the key energy centre for the health of Kranj’s energy organism.

The prevailing idea of the current exhibition is the female origin of living, to which Pogačnik
has been dedicated as to an alternative to the civilization led by males. The cosmograms
exhibited in the Prešeren House Gallery speak of the genealogy of the female aspect of
Divinity. They present several generations of transformations of the Goddess. The first was
known by the Palaeolithic culture as the Mother of Life; the Native Faith believers of the
Soča Valley called it Nikrmana. The next phase concerns the cyclic Goddess; the white,
the red, and the black. The third generation of the Goddess, which functions as a partner
of humanity in the formation of civilization of peace and coexistence, is called Blue Gaia.
In the cellar – underground – three dragons carved in stone were set up. From the practi-
cal aspect, relatively simple stone blocks, marked with carved-in forms that draw energy
of the Goddess through the gate of the image they represent, are on display to the visitors.
The question is how a visitor feels this energy.

4 Franci Zagoričnik, »Man in the Gallery«, Glas daily, July 30, 1966, p. 4.

Cosmogram The female origin of living (as an antipode to the male origin) is explained by Marko
Pogačnik as life credo actually in every book he has written since 1993 (the first one was
Cosmogram has the form of a sign called When the Goddess Returns, 1993, Ljubljana), when he came to the conclusion, af-
and speaks the corporate language ter recognizing the female dimensions of Divinity, that this is the only possible way to the
balancing of destructive male energy, which is manifested with the senseless unreason-
of nature. In it, a certain message ably-rational human’s encroachment upon the Earth’s body (and, after all, the society).
is encoded in the symbolism and For the adjustment of energies of the Earth’s forces he developed, a decade earlier, the
lithopuncture technique, the Earth healing technique of the most sensitive points of en-
relations of signs. The message ergy flow. He sees the Earth as a living organism, which is the precondition for accessing
speaks through the emotional energy lines that stem from it, are around it, or are received by it from the universe. The
field or through the etheric layer same precondition has to be now accepted by the gallery visitors, if the gate to the paral-
of the signs .Cosmogram is unique lel spiritual world is to open for them. Even though the sculptures are taken from their
for each individual space, as it original space, they still represent, in the lithopuncture system, the meridians that invite
contains the message that strength- us to feel the character of the Goddess.
ens and awakens a certain quality,
energy centre or (elemental) be- On the other hand, one can comprehend the set-up in the gallery as a vertical cross-
ings and connects it (them) into a section of the ley line. Ley lines are the crucial components of the energy network, which
whole, for which it was created. It can be imagined as the interconnected electric power lines. The energy network repre-
can be made of different materials sents the dynamic principle of the Earth’s geological body. The cross-section, which as-
and set up in residential places or sumes the form of hourglass, has its upper part in the gallery’s ground floor part, where
in the country. A human being can the images of the three generations of the Goddess are exhibited, while the lower part is
thus cooperate with the invisible in the gallery’s cellar part, where the dragon sculptures are standing. The ley line’s inner
structure resembles a double vortex, which enables flow of energies downwards as well
worlds of nature.6 as upwards. In this vortex, visitors find themselves when entering the exhibition. The spir-
ituality, emotions, feelings and thoughts that pervade in these moments, are the embodi-
ment of consciousness of the Earth’s spirit. The spirit of the Earth’s body functions at a
high level of the energy frequency. Through the flow of the established ley lines it radiates
its intention into energy fields, which are entering anew the reach of the Earth’s energy
body. The visitors are thus infused, both energetically and symbolically, in the ley line
centre by a new value of the earth’s energy, referred to by the artist as unconditional love.5

Photograph from the solo exhibition in the
Prešeren House Gallery Kranj in 1965,

Phototheca of the Gorenjska Museum Kranj

The exhibition thematised the traditional
Way of the Cross, actualized with the author’s

experiencing of the Yugoslav socialistic
regime. On the left from France Prešeren’s
portrait we can see the outline of the author’s
body at a ratio of 1 to 1, covered with cut up
bank notes. On the right there is the author’s
desk from his youth, covered with plaster and
painted with partially transformed symbols,
which often accompany depictions of Jesus’

crucifixion in folk art.

5 Marko Pogačnik, “Ley Lines, Ecology and Art”, Maribor, 1986. English original together with William Blloom. »Ley-lines and Ecology«,
Gothic Image, Glastonbury, 1981
6 http://www.vitaaa.net/wp/geomantija-geakultura/kaj-je-geomatija-2/; source date: May 28, 2018.

76 Marko Pogačnik

Authors book OHO that gave the name to
the OHO Movement and the OHO Group,
poetry by Iztok Geister – Plamen, drawings
and design by Marko Pogačnik, Kranj, 1966.
Reprint by Prešeren Award Winners Gallery
Kranj, 2018, photo by Bojan Brecelj

The room with author’s works exhibited in
Kranj in the period 1962 - 1965, Prešeren
Award Winners Gallery Kranj, 2018,
photo by Bojan Brecelj

Biography

Born 1944 in Kranj, academic sculptor, dedicated to the expanded field of art. Since 1965 he
has been participating in art projects with his wife Marika.

Between 1962 and 1965 he had his works exhibited in Kranj in the Foyer of the Prešeren
Theatre and in the Prešeren House Gallery.

In the 1965–1971 period he worked as the founding member of the OHO movement and
eventually the OHO group in the field of conceptual art and land-art. Exhibited at, inter alia:
Modern Gallery Ljubljana 1967 and 1969, Belgrade Triennial 1969, Aktionsraum Munich 1970,
Museum of Modern Art New York 1970, Paris Biennale 1971, World Retrospective of Concep-
tual Art, Queens Museum New York 1999, International Selection of the Venice Biennale 2017.

In 1971 he founded, together with his family and friends, the agricultural and art community
known as „The Šempas Family“, which functioned till 1979. Exhibited at, inter alia: SKC Bel-
grade 1973, Trigon Graz 1977, Venice Biennale 1978.

Since 1979 he has been organizing workshops and developing art projects dedicated to Earth
healing as well as unveiling sacral dimensions of various places and cities. In the mid-80s he
developed the method of healing injuries inflicted to nature by modern civilization, called „litho-
puncture“, its key manifestation being the signs called „cosmograms“. He has set up his compo-
sitions of lithopuncture stones in Slovenia, Croatia, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Czech Repu-
blic, Italy, Great Britain, Ireland, Kazakhstan, South Africa, USA, Brazil and Ecuador.

After 2004 he developed the concept of geopuncture circles, the extensive megalith composi-
tions created together with his partners at different points of the world as a form of communi-
cation with the being Earth. They are already standing in Canada (1), USA (3), Canary Islands
(2), Portugal (1), Czech Republic (4), Austria (2), Bosnia (1), Croatia (4) and Slovenia (6).

The author’s books in English language: Nature Spirits and Elemental Beings (1996) Healing
the Heart of the Earth (1998) Christ Power and the Earth Goddess (1999) Earth Changes,
Human Destiny (2000) The Daughter of Gaia (2001), Turned Upside Down (2004), Touching
the Breath of Gaia (2005), Sacred Geography (2007), Gaia’s Quantum Leap (2011), Universe
of the Human Body (2017)

In 1991, when Slovenia became independent Marko Pogačnik designed the official coat of
arms and the national flag of the Republic of Slovenia.

For his work he has received the Bevk Award (1991), the Prešeren Fund Award (1991) and the
Jakopič Award (2008). Since 2016 he has been active in the world as UNESCO Artist for Peace.

78 Marko Pogačnik



MARKO POGAČNIK
THE THIRD ART

Prešeren Award Winners Gallery Kranj and
Prešeren House Gallery
June 15 – August 29, 2018

Authors of the texts: Miklavž Komelj, PhD, Iztok Geister, Marko Pogačnik, Gašper Peternel
Custodian of the exhibition in the Prešeren Award Winners Gallery Kranj: Marko Arnež, MSc
Custodian of the exhibition in the Prešeren House Gallery: Gašper Peternel

Photos: Bojan Brecelj, Barbara Buttinger-Foerster, Annette Frederking, Phototheca of the Gorenjska Museum
Translated by Henrik Ciglič
Graphic design by Marko Tušek

Printed by Tiskarna GTO Košir
Circulation: 400 copies

Published by VITAAA Association, Streliška 14 Ljubljana in cooperation
with Tourism and Culture Board Kranj; represented by Tomaž Štefe, MSc, Director
The Gallery’s functioning is supported by the Municipality of Kranj

Kranj, August 2018

CIP - Kataložni zapis o publikaciji 
Narodna in univerzitetna knjižnica, Ljubljana 
730(497.4):929Pogačnik M. 
POGAČNIK, Marko, 1944- 
        Tretja umetnost : [Galerija Prešernovih nagrajencev Kranj in galerija Prešernove hiše, 15. junij - 29. avgust 2018] /
Marko Pogačnik ; [avtorji besedil Miklavž Komelj ... [et al.] ; fotografije Bojan Brecelj ... et al.]. - Kranj :
Zavod za turizem in kulturo, 2018 
ISBN 978-961-6815-16-1 
295193088 

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80 Marko Pogačnik 2
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Cosmograms of the white, red, and the black aspects of the Goddess, 2018

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