Clara Opacidad Ana Roldán 26-02-2019 – 30-04-2019

Some thoughts about Nietzsche by Lou Andreas-Salomé

“I first spoke to Nietzsche during a day in the spring of 1882 in St. Peter’s in Rome, his studied, elegant posture surprised and deceived me. But not for long was one deceived by this recluse who wore his mask so awkwardly, like someone who has come out of the wilderness and mountains and who is dressed conventionally. Very soon a question surfaces, which he formulated in this words: “Whenever a person permits something to become visible, one can ask: what does it hide? From what does it wish to divert someone’s gaze? What preconception should it arouse? And further: to what extreme does the subtlety of this disguise go? And, does he misperceive himself in all that?”

“In proportion of the escalation with his trend, everything which is objective reality becomes appearance–only deceptive veil which isolated depth weaves about itself in order to become a temporary surface intelligible to human eyes. “People who think deeply feel themselves to be comedians in their relationship with others because they first have to simulate a surface in order to be understood”. Yes one can even consider Nietzsche’s thoughts–insofar as they are theoretical expressions- to be part of this surface, behind which silently and profoundly lie inner experiences that have given rise to them. They resemble a skin “which reveals something but conceals even more” hidden under the cloaks of light” referring to those who cloak themselves in the clarity of their ideas.

In every period of his intellectual development, we therefore find a characterizing masquerade in some form or fashion: “Everyone who is deep loves the mask… every profound spirit there continually grows a mask”. “Wanderer, who are you?... Rest here… recuperate? What will serve your recuperation?... My recuperation? My recuperation? Oh, you inquisitive one, what are you saying! But, give me only, I beg… What? What? Say it! – One More mask! A second mask…” …

”And so, he willingly relinquishes personal unity-the more polyphonic the subject, the more it pleases him: Sharp and mild, coarse and fine, Friendly and strange, dirty and clean, Am fool's and wise man's stand-in, All this I am, and want to mean. Dove as well as snake and swine. ("Joke, Cunning, and Revenge," GS, 11) …

”Occasionally folly itself is the mask for an unfortunate unholy all-too-knowing knowledge (BGE, 270); and finally it becomes a deceiving photo of godly laughter which aims to transform pain into beauty. And so, during his final philosophical mysticism, Nietzsche slowly sank into a last loneliness into whose silence we can no longer follow him. Only his idea-masks remain, like symbols and emblems, open to interpretation, while for us he has already become what he once signed himself as in a letter to a friend: "The one eternally lost" 0uly 8, 1881 in Sils-Maria)

.” Nietzsche by Lou Andreas-Salomé Translated by Siegfried Mandel and Theo S. Mandel University of Illinois Press

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Ana Roldan (1977), born in México, studies Fine Arts in the Hochschule der Kunste, Bern. Lives and works in Zurich. Her most recent exhibitions include: NO, Zurich (annex14), I was a Wall, and my breasts were like fortress towers, Portand, USA (Adams and Ollman), Endlangeres Species, Stuttgart (Wagenhalle), Let There Be (More) Light, San Francisco, USA (Jessica Silverman Gallery), The Actor, World Trate Center Beijing, China (Art Palace). Her works can be found in collections in Mexico (Lo Colección Jumex), Switzerland (Die Mobiliar), USA and Venezuela (Colección Cisneros). She has also won varios grants (selection): Werkbeitrag Kanton Zürich, Cahier d'artiste, Pro Helvetia, Residency in Paris at Michael von Graffenried’s studio.