so I wouldn’t go I’m gonna begin by
making you work a little bit so I’m
gonna ask you two questions we’re gonna
do a show hands how many of you as you
were kids
we’re brought up within a religious
tradition okay that’s quite a lot thank
you
second question how many of you as you
were growing older started feeling that
maybe you were growing out of that
tradition look at that okay so I think
all of you with your hand up are gonna
understand what’s happening here
and hopefully by the end of my talk
you’ll know what the god-shaped hole is
and I might have left you with some food
for thought and for paradigm-shifting
there we go so that’s not me but pretend
it’s me
I will grew up in Spain and Spain is a
traditionally Kassala country and when I
say Spain is a traditionally Kassala
country I don’t only mean that I was
brought up to believe in a Kassala god I
mean a lot more of things when a country
is traditionally for part of one
religion it affects the architecture so
we can think of lots of small towns that
begin with the church and then the
church square and then slowly takes from
there it affects the calendar like we
had Christmas and now we’re gonna have
Easter it affects other things so just
language like if I was now to sneeze you
would say correct
so you see religion does actually sleep
through parts of life even though we’re
now considered to be living in Europe in
secular times which means that religious
and political powers are separated which
is another part I’m shaped so that was a
groovy that wasn’t meant how it was to
be happening and I was following the
flow but then as part of my teenage
rebellion I was preparing to do the
confirmation ceremony and as sorry that
tricked me out I was preparing to the
confirmation ceremony and as you might
have guessed from the name confirmation
ceremony is when you confirm that you
actually want to actively opt in that
religion and I was being profound that
moment and it just didn’t sound right I
was the only person in my group that
opted out and you might think oh she’s
gonna tell us this story about how she
was ostracized but those really bad
vodka tonics no like my life was groovy
even the priest was nice about it it
really was no problem opting out of
Catholicism not only didn’t lead to any
problems other than sure I’ve had a
fight with my parents but take a wild
guess I was a very difficult teenager I
was gonna fight with my parents
anyways so other than that it really
didn’t have any bad consequences you
could even say that I was hashtag
blessed or actually let me fix that for
you godless lis hashtag bless
surely after I abandoned my religion I
got the United World college scholarship
anyone heard of those yeah I moved from
Spain to Swaziland where I was still he
for the next two years I met some of the
best people I ever made in my life I
thought it was gonna be a right there
but I rediscovered the world of visual
arts I became very much in love with it
I’m speaking about being in love I met
this guy who eventually I married so
so all of these advantages this
privileges these crazy experiences
didn’t quite finish there it led to me
being accepted to one of the very best
fanciest harshest universities for
creatives out there in the world and
everything was groovy and I stayed in
that University and I successfully
graduated in 2008 you guys are young but
do any of you know what happened in 2008
crisis he needs the ninja move so the
crisis it really really really felt like
there was a world and then after the
crisis which was one day for another
like it just happened in 24 hours the
way were standing there was nothing so
at this point you have me having lost my
god and satisfied about losing my god no
regrets but actually I also lost my
future and that was a lot more
complicated if you ask me because sure
you lose God but you still have this
idea of all these things to live forward
for you know you have all these things
to look forward to and life is good but
then when there’s no future and there’s
no god what is left you start
questioning and you start feeling this
kind of sense of loss inside I’m me
being Spanish when I’m tell you that
crises were serious it was very very
serious so talking about loss this sexy
gentleman in the back is Pascal and we
owe the title of this talk to him now
you might guess from the way he’s
standing in his face that he wasn’t cool
enough to come up with any of the
god-shaped hole but that’s just a
shortening of something else he said
what he said is humanity tends to have
this inner craving this yearning that
leads them to search and search and
search for a way to fulfill this craving
but they cannot ever fulfill it because
the only element that can ever feel that
emptiness is this infinite being which
is God so two thousand eight godless and
featureless
and this little thing symbolizes this
god-shaped hole so again I never
regretted leaving God behind but I did
very much feel this emptiness so in a
way you could say that God was never a
very big deal to me but the loss was
huge now many of you might relate to
these experiences when we did the show
of hands and after the crisis this idea
that God shape hold might come in other
shapes and other other kind of
beginnings but people tend to have this
yearning that Pascal was talking about
and some people might try to do
something about it as he suggested some
people might buy crystals how many
people do you know buying crystals
nowadays they’re really pretty Oh
somebody’s going like shivers there get
on Instagram they’re fantastic but they
will not feel your god-shaped hole some
other people might find an idol that
they follow and every time somebody
starts a conversation you might want to
convince them of how great lemonade is
and how it’s a masterpiece
and we should all watch it and it is
true lemonade is a masterpiece but
lemonade will not feel your god-shaped
hole you might even be as lucky as I am
find the cutest smartest kindest dog in
the world and adopt him and have your
life filled with walkies and hair but it
will not feel your God shape home so
let’s put my sad face on my god shape
hole over here and let me take you with
me time-traveling what you can see
behind me is a picture of the original
Warburg Institute which was in Germany
nowadays the Warburg Institute is in
London because hashtag history what
you’re seeing in here is not only his
library which had this peculiar oval
shape but also the the look of the last
project he ever attempted and this was
to me like the combination of Abby
Warrick the founder of the Warwick
Institute who was also a person that was
looking for and looking for meaning and
craving like Pascal said these bizarre
kind of panels with images you can just
barely
see in the picture were part of his
project Atlas Mnemosyne
which is like the Atlas of memory
everywhere burgers an art historian and
he was one of the first in all the first
people to say that there’s images that
survived through history so there’s a
certain icon certain shapes certain
formulas that even though they’re very
very ancient they keep on popping up now
this was his idea with the Atlas and
that’s why he was trying to spot the
ghost of these images coming through
contemporary images in this atlas this
sounds a bit abstract we’re gonna have
some examples later on but what I wanted
to talk to you about was not only his
idea which is great and I think people
can use a lot nowadays but also if you
see the actual space everywhere book
said that in order to process all these
combinations of images and all these
combinations of emotions he was trying
to observe you needed to take some
distance you need to take a step back
and create what he called a Den crown
which is a thinking space now Warburg
literally had a thinking space which is
what you can see here in the picture but
he also meant a mental space that
distance that allows you to kind of
observe patterns see things emerge and
have an opportunity for contemplation if
you would call it like that now remember
I was here sadface
we have Warburg so here’s what I’m
proposing this is obviously a religious
space what I’m proposing is what happens
if we take warbirds then cram so his
idea that you need a space to have a
pause and take a step back and kind of
have a sense of distance and we take the
god-shaped hole and then we mix the two
of them so what happens if you actually
take that inner loss that vacant space
within you and instead of rushing to
fill it in you take it as a opportunity
for contemplation and you don’t run to
feel something that cannot be filled
anyways but you enjoy it for its own
sake and for its own emptiness and not
only that my suggestion has a second
phase once you’re in that space that
one’s the idea of God inhabit
and now has left vacant maybe you will
see around and see that the space is not
even that empty humanity has produced
amazing artifacts that have been left
behind in this god-shaped hole that’s
architecture there is music there is
literature and there is art and my
suggestion to you today is that just
because God has left the building we
might not have to throw away all these
masterpieces that were about him what
I’d like to tell you is that religious
art specifically Kassala art can not
only still conserve power it can still
be meaningful today to people who don’t
believe in God and that it actually has
a power of empathy that very little
artwork offers nowadays and can even be
really really funny so religious art can
help you when you’re feeling lost or
confused and it’s not like you will have
an answer but it will say I’ve been
there and what you’re going through is
absolutely normal
the same when you’re in pain whether
it’s physical or emotional they’re
hilarious images you are allowed to
laugh this is really really funny
religious I can even understand when
you’re not very gracious or brave when
your life is about to change
dramatically in case you don’t know what
you’re looking at this is a depiction
over an Annunciation and in cathodic
tradition this is the moment where the
messenger of God tells the Virgin Mary
she is pregnant with God and this
teenage virgin is just running away for
her life absolutely terrified and so is
the cat in the background this pictures
from 1500 you guys when we have
religious art and we’re looking for the
religious messages in them we might just
lose the sheer their raw humanity that
lies beneath them now religious art is
not only powerful on its own it actually
has power combined with contemporary
images and we go back to word Burke’s
idea that images kind of survive through
time so for example religious images
tend to appear in
pop culture often regularly and it
doesn’t mean that what we’re looking at
contemporarily
is religious but it adds a certain depth
and a certain message it adds that Junie
sequa it even can be a very distant
relationship and sometimes no
relationship just a subconscious
connection but the images we see if we
have a history and a culture of
religious images will allow us to stop
and want to encounter that image kind of
find a mesmerizing moment a
contemplative time which goes back to
the idea of respecting the emptiness and
what I want to finally say is that we’d
really desired it with really desired
it’s not only that it’s sympathetic
unfunny and that can feed contemporary
culture is that because of all of that
it can still feed the future and
remember you had me there I had lost God
and I had lost the future but it’s been
through my analysis and my study of
religious art that I have discovered
that it can be the foundation for lots
of future images and art and amazing
things that humanity can produce so in
conclusion if you find yourself feeling
that lost feeling that antennas that
god-shaped hole don’t rush to buy
crystals or learn all the way and sell
lyrics do it up dogs though just make
sure that you give yourself time and
pause to meditate to contemplate to
disconnect this is hugely important
especially nowadays this space belongs
to you and you can use it thank you very
much [Applause]
making you work a little bit so I’m
gonna ask you two questions we’re gonna
do a show hands how many of you as you
were kids
we’re brought up within a religious
tradition okay that’s quite a lot thank
you
second question how many of you as you
were growing older started feeling that
maybe you were growing out of that
tradition look at that okay so I think
all of you with your hand up are gonna
understand what’s happening here
and hopefully by the end of my talk
you’ll know what the god-shaped hole is
and I might have left you with some food
for thought and for paradigm-shifting
there we go so that’s not me but pretend
it’s me
I will grew up in Spain and Spain is a
traditionally Kassala country and when I
say Spain is a traditionally Kassala
country I don’t only mean that I was
brought up to believe in a Kassala god I
mean a lot more of things when a country
is traditionally for part of one
religion it affects the architecture so
we can think of lots of small towns that
begin with the church and then the
church square and then slowly takes from
there it affects the calendar like we
had Christmas and now we’re gonna have
Easter it affects other things so just
language like if I was now to sneeze you
would say correct
so you see religion does actually sleep
through parts of life even though we’re
now considered to be living in Europe in
secular times which means that religious
and political powers are separated which
is another part I’m shaped so that was a
groovy that wasn’t meant how it was to
be happening and I was following the
flow but then as part of my teenage
rebellion I was preparing to do the
confirmation ceremony and as sorry that
tricked me out I was preparing to the
confirmation ceremony and as you might
have guessed from the name confirmation
ceremony is when you confirm that you
actually want to actively opt in that
religion and I was being profound that
moment and it just didn’t sound right I
was the only person in my group that
opted out and you might think oh she’s
gonna tell us this story about how she
was ostracized but those really bad
vodka tonics no like my life was groovy
even the priest was nice about it it
really was no problem opting out of
Catholicism not only didn’t lead to any
problems other than sure I’ve had a
fight with my parents but take a wild
guess I was a very difficult teenager I
was gonna fight with my parents
anyways so other than that it really
didn’t have any bad consequences you
could even say that I was hashtag
blessed or actually let me fix that for
you godless lis hashtag bless
surely after I abandoned my religion I
got the United World college scholarship
anyone heard of those yeah I moved from
Spain to Swaziland where I was still he
for the next two years I met some of the
best people I ever made in my life I
thought it was gonna be a right there
but I rediscovered the world of visual
arts I became very much in love with it
I’m speaking about being in love I met
this guy who eventually I married so
so all of these advantages this
privileges these crazy experiences
didn’t quite finish there it led to me
being accepted to one of the very best
fanciest harshest universities for
creatives out there in the world and
everything was groovy and I stayed in
that University and I successfully
graduated in 2008 you guys are young but
do any of you know what happened in 2008
crisis he needs the ninja move so the
crisis it really really really felt like
there was a world and then after the
crisis which was one day for another
like it just happened in 24 hours the
way were standing there was nothing so
at this point you have me having lost my
god and satisfied about losing my god no
regrets but actually I also lost my
future and that was a lot more
complicated if you ask me because sure
you lose God but you still have this
idea of all these things to live forward
for you know you have all these things
to look forward to and life is good but
then when there’s no future and there’s
no god what is left you start
questioning and you start feeling this
kind of sense of loss inside I’m me
being Spanish when I’m tell you that
crises were serious it was very very
serious so talking about loss this sexy
gentleman in the back is Pascal and we
owe the title of this talk to him now
you might guess from the way he’s
standing in his face that he wasn’t cool
enough to come up with any of the
god-shaped hole but that’s just a
shortening of something else he said
what he said is humanity tends to have
this inner craving this yearning that
leads them to search and search and
search for a way to fulfill this craving
but they cannot ever fulfill it because
the only element that can ever feel that
emptiness is this infinite being which
is God so two thousand eight godless and
featureless
and this little thing symbolizes this
god-shaped hole so again I never
regretted leaving God behind but I did
very much feel this emptiness so in a
way you could say that God was never a
very big deal to me but the loss was
huge now many of you might relate to
these experiences when we did the show
of hands and after the crisis this idea
that God shape hold might come in other
shapes and other other kind of
beginnings but people tend to have this
yearning that Pascal was talking about
and some people might try to do
something about it as he suggested some
people might buy crystals how many
people do you know buying crystals
nowadays they’re really pretty Oh
somebody’s going like shivers there get
on Instagram they’re fantastic but they
will not feel your god-shaped hole some
other people might find an idol that
they follow and every time somebody
starts a conversation you might want to
convince them of how great lemonade is
and how it’s a masterpiece
and we should all watch it and it is
true lemonade is a masterpiece but
lemonade will not feel your god-shaped
hole you might even be as lucky as I am
find the cutest smartest kindest dog in
the world and adopt him and have your
life filled with walkies and hair but it
will not feel your God shape home so
let’s put my sad face on my god shape
hole over here and let me take you with
me time-traveling what you can see
behind me is a picture of the original
Warburg Institute which was in Germany
nowadays the Warburg Institute is in
London because hashtag history what
you’re seeing in here is not only his
library which had this peculiar oval
shape but also the the look of the last
project he ever attempted and this was
to me like the combination of Abby
Warrick the founder of the Warwick
Institute who was also a person that was
looking for and looking for meaning and
craving like Pascal said these bizarre
kind of panels with images you can just
barely
see in the picture were part of his
project Atlas Mnemosyne
which is like the Atlas of memory
everywhere burgers an art historian and
he was one of the first in all the first
people to say that there’s images that
survived through history so there’s a
certain icon certain shapes certain
formulas that even though they’re very
very ancient they keep on popping up now
this was his idea with the Atlas and
that’s why he was trying to spot the
ghost of these images coming through
contemporary images in this atlas this
sounds a bit abstract we’re gonna have
some examples later on but what I wanted
to talk to you about was not only his
idea which is great and I think people
can use a lot nowadays but also if you
see the actual space everywhere book
said that in order to process all these
combinations of images and all these
combinations of emotions he was trying
to observe you needed to take some
distance you need to take a step back
and create what he called a Den crown
which is a thinking space now Warburg
literally had a thinking space which is
what you can see here in the picture but
he also meant a mental space that
distance that allows you to kind of
observe patterns see things emerge and
have an opportunity for contemplation if
you would call it like that now remember
I was here sadface
we have Warburg so here’s what I’m
proposing this is obviously a religious
space what I’m proposing is what happens
if we take warbirds then cram so his
idea that you need a space to have a
pause and take a step back and kind of
have a sense of distance and we take the
god-shaped hole and then we mix the two
of them so what happens if you actually
take that inner loss that vacant space
within you and instead of rushing to
fill it in you take it as a opportunity
for contemplation and you don’t run to
feel something that cannot be filled
anyways but you enjoy it for its own
sake and for its own emptiness and not
only that my suggestion has a second
phase once you’re in that space that
one’s the idea of God inhabit
and now has left vacant maybe you will
see around and see that the space is not
even that empty humanity has produced
amazing artifacts that have been left
behind in this god-shaped hole that’s
architecture there is music there is
literature and there is art and my
suggestion to you today is that just
because God has left the building we
might not have to throw away all these
masterpieces that were about him what
I’d like to tell you is that religious
art specifically Kassala art can not
only still conserve power it can still
be meaningful today to people who don’t
believe in God and that it actually has
a power of empathy that very little
artwork offers nowadays and can even be
really really funny so religious art can
help you when you’re feeling lost or
confused and it’s not like you will have
an answer but it will say I’ve been
there and what you’re going through is
absolutely normal
the same when you’re in pain whether
it’s physical or emotional they’re
hilarious images you are allowed to
laugh this is really really funny
religious I can even understand when
you’re not very gracious or brave when
your life is about to change
dramatically in case you don’t know what
you’re looking at this is a depiction
over an Annunciation and in cathodic
tradition this is the moment where the
messenger of God tells the Virgin Mary
she is pregnant with God and this
teenage virgin is just running away for
her life absolutely terrified and so is
the cat in the background this pictures
from 1500 you guys when we have
religious art and we’re looking for the
religious messages in them we might just
lose the sheer their raw humanity that
lies beneath them now religious art is
not only powerful on its own it actually
has power combined with contemporary
images and we go back to word Burke’s
idea that images kind of survive through
time so for example religious images
tend to appear in
pop culture often regularly and it
doesn’t mean that what we’re looking at
contemporarily
is religious but it adds a certain depth
and a certain message it adds that Junie
sequa it even can be a very distant
relationship and sometimes no
relationship just a subconscious
connection but the images we see if we
have a history and a culture of
religious images will allow us to stop
and want to encounter that image kind of
find a mesmerizing moment a
contemplative time which goes back to
the idea of respecting the emptiness and
what I want to finally say is that we’d
really desired it with really desired
it’s not only that it’s sympathetic
unfunny and that can feed contemporary
culture is that because of all of that
it can still feed the future and
remember you had me there I had lost God
and I had lost the future but it’s been
through my analysis and my study of
religious art that I have discovered
that it can be the foundation for lots
of future images and art and amazing
things that humanity can produce so in
conclusion if you find yourself feeling
that lost feeling that antennas that
god-shaped hole don’t rush to buy
crystals or learn all the way and sell
lyrics do it up dogs though just make
sure that you give yourself time and
pause to meditate to contemplate to
disconnect this is hugely important
especially nowadays this space belongs
to you and you can use it thank you very
much [Applause]
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