Elias Franziskus Grüner

Your work often explores the relationship between the physical and the transcendental. What draws you to this theme?

My decision to become an artist is based on a transcendental experience. In the summer of 2019, I threw myself, with all my belongings, onto my knees and stood on the street, letting life guide me as I hitchhiked. I was ready to circumnavigate the world, heading west – I noted down the seasons of the winds for the Atlantic and Pacific, and was prepared to travel around the globe until I would eventually return to Vienna. My hope was that either life would answer the question I couldn’t formulate, or I would find myself back in Vienna after a few years and would have to figure out what to do next. Luckily for me, I ended up in Lisbon after about six months and decided (irrationally) to stay there and buy an old Peugeot that took three minutes to warm up before the engine was ready to go.

Fate brought me to L.V., who sat with me day and night in a park for three weeks to discuss all my questions about existence. As a result, there was a moment of insight. I saw life, I was life. This experience was so significant that I immediately returned to Vienna and realized: I must make an impact through art!

Art was already my own before that. I lived in the spirit of antiquity and breathed the scent of the old Florentine studios. My spirit was to be found there, but it was pure romanticism in childhood. I hardly thought that this was a way to live my life. However, this one experience was so profound that I simply negated everything that was thrown in my way (and there was quite a lot). Negation is the wrong term, because those confrontations brought me to the point of my existential being. It echoed inside my ears, a fundamental tone of trust, and I followed it without hesitation.

What is your personal interpretation of the “non-dualistic state,” and how do you guide the viewer toward experiencing it?

Some time ago, I wrote a short text entitled „SPACE. TIME and I“.

S ∪ T = F 

F ⊆ I

F ∈ I

I ∈ F

F ≠ I¹

The dualistic state consists of form. Matter that is bound to space and time. A form has a clear boundary, otherwise it loses its definition as a form. Therefore, every form is bound to a dualistic state: to define a form, one must set boundaries for when the form ends. Therefore, there is form and there is ¬form. Two states of existence.

We can start with the premise of a house. Standing with your nose against the façade, there is no legitimate way to understand that it is a form. Therefore, you have to take a step back and walk around the house to fully understand its form, its boundaries. Only then can you say what form you are looking at.

This applies to all forms. Not only to material forms, but especially to mental constructs. Everything we call mind. In order to grasp the respective state of mind, the observer must distance themselves far enough to be able to perceive the thought completely. Only then are they able to comprehend this thought. Now we come to emotions, ideas and concepts. All these forms are constructs that we can observe.

If we follow this type of perception, our entire collected earthly life soon stands before us.

Only from the perspective that sees all forms of our existence, do we have the opportunity to call a way of seeing our own, which is the true self. It is the perception of itself. We have analysed all forms and we ourselves are none of them. We are now one with the universe.

The backbone of existence is based solely on understanding that forms change playfully before us. The basic substance must be grasped from which these plays can be perceived. That is being, that is truth.

¹S = space; T = time; F = form; I = I (personal pronoun – being)

In the MANIFESTUS series, you use preserved animal bodies and metals like gold and brass. What is the symbolic significance behind these materials?

„MANIFESTUS“ („manus“ = „hand“ and „facere” = „to make“) is derived from G.F. Hegel’s lecture on „Aesthetics“. To summarize in simple terms, Hegel writes: an artist has only the material world at his disposal. Through his elevated spirit, he collects materials and arranges them in such a way that when the object is exhibited, only the material confronts the viewer. The viewer, however, receives the elevated spirit that has been enclosed in this process and transcends the object.

I move in this language of art and also want to create clarity. How can we simplify this intellectual capacity? Well, we take the body, the physical, the vulnerable, the transitory, and create an exposition. We remove the filter organs (kidneys, liver, intestines, lungs, etc.) from the organism and supplement them with the true self. In art history, gold has always been the image of God. (Since my finances do not allow me to buy gold in large quantities, I use brass, which is visually very similar to gold). Thus, the brass now penetrates the body, burns the skin and melts through the organs and muscles. Without restraint, it flows out of the body, causing discomfort, and completes its journey without being stopped.

The gold is therefore not bound to the body. The body is not steadfast, but the molten metal is. It paves its way, free from what the corpus presents. Accordingly, the question should be raised: what is truly permanent and what is transient? Through deep introspection, the observer should realize that he carries both a transient and an eternal part within himself. Is it possible for him to uncover the eternal, or does he remain trapped in his fear of change?

How did your project CLOUDS evolve, and what does the cloud symbolize in your work?

In 2023, I was invited to participate in the IN SITU FESTIVAL. I had a great plan for a church to depict the apocalyptic flood through paintings. However, this could not be realized, so I had to reorganize myself. I came across the ornithological museum at Palazzo Montesano and was certain that I had to exhibit there.

I had sketches of derivations from my MANIFESTUS series, and there I realized one of them for the first time. I collected sticks from around the village and drove through the countryside to get some unprocessed wool.

The exhibition was a great success, and while I was doing a spontaneous performance, Sergio Poggianalla entered the room and was fascinated by my work. Later that evening, we had a great conversation, and he invited me to install the clouds at METS (Museo etnografico Trentino San Michele), Italy’s largest folklore museum in an 18th-century monastery. Not only that, but the other two major museums were also part of this exhibition: „SHAMANS. Communicating to the invisible“ with MART (Museo di arte moderna e contemperoranea di Trento) and MUSE (Museo delle Scienze di Trento).

The birth of my clouds was established!

The cloud does not just remain between earth and sky, but also oscillates – as an object – between phenomenon and ether. The ease with which the mass moves between transcendence and worldliness is reason enough to include it as a symbol in my art.

Goethe, Humboldt and other scholars have already dealt with the curiosity of the cloud. At the beginning of the 19th century, Luke Howard was the first to publish a scientific categorization of the four main types of clouds: cirrus, cumulus and stratus. Out of affection and emotion, Goethe wrote poems about these types of clouds, thus paying homage to Howard. He himself was rebuked when he wanted to begin his own observations before Howard’s cloud studies. They said: Goethe is a man of letters, not a scientist!

Clouds also appear in the New Testament, when God leads the Israelites out of the Egyptian desert by day in a pillar of clouds. When Moses climbs Mount Sinai, God appears as a cloud and hands him the Ten Commandments. And in 1 Kings 8, 10-12, God appears as a cloud and fills the temple.

Clouds are something we encounter almost every day. Every time we see them, we should think of the eternal, which tries to reveal itself to us.

Your works reference both ancient mythology and modern existential questions. How do you balance these dimensions?

In my world, it is not a stretch at all. It is the most natural thing to do. I worked as the private main archivist for Dr. Otmar Rychlik and he indoctrinated me in various forms. For one, the artist has to be successful. Rethinking and reorganizing my art many times, to the point of self destruction, I wanted to pursue an eternal search. God bless, that it came to me quite early.

As an artist one has to study art history, anthropology, philosophy, religion and psychology. An artist is a doctor. He reviews the society and every individual and formulates a medicine. Only with great understanding, a long lasting Œvre is manageable. The longevity of art is based on the fundamentals it is based on. There are certain questions that sentient beings asked themselves, derived from time. They are ever lasting, fundamental questions. The great soul understands these questions for his time and menages to convey them. This is all. There isn’t much more to it. So I see the same in Heraklit, Platon, Homer, von Bingen, Luther, Alighieri, Da Vinci, Michelangelo, the Flemish, Buxtehude, J.S. Bach,

Goethe, Hölderlin, Schiller, Hegel, Schelling, Fichte, Mozart, Malechevit, Rothko, Nitsch, Rainer, Beuys, Brus, Richter, etc… countless human beings, giving their life for the greater good.

Could you tell us about the performative aspect of your work, especially the trance rituals you engage in?

The shamanistic performances, are less based on the „EDDA“ (even though „Perchta“ stems from this), but a christian immersion. I myself, sink to the bottom of being, and resonate in such a way, that the spectator can harmonize with me. Every person has their own time and space, so for a big group, it takes quite some effort and time to tune everyone to the same note. However, once done: people start hugging strangers and feel love. This is when I know, my performance is over.

Nature plays a central role in your practice — from bees and falcons to minerals and wool. What role does ecology play in your artistic philosophy?

Yes, and this is quite essential! I am fully aware of the contrast, that I am creating. It is forcefully so!

The artistic landscape in Vienna is flooded by screaming colors and inorganic materials. However, materials inhabit a great influence.

For instance: my „COLORFUL STONES“ series is based on Adalbert Stifter. I collected six types of stones, which he used as titles in his book: „Colorful Stones“. I collected them, made them to pigment by hand and painted my first large commission (still hanging in the SERVUS restaurant in Vienna, 1010). Once I crushed rock crystals, blue lightnings started to emerge. I become more eager to find out the reason. I dwelled into lithotherapy and made the connection to quantum physics. Dr. König, through his studies found that: photons have two potentialities. One is in the elctromagnatic field and one is in the electrostatic field. the foremost is able to be measured by instruments. The second is merely theory (string theory), but shows to be practicable by Zeilinger’s theory of „Verschränkung“.

To say: photons have the potentiality to form photon clusters (memory) and by which they can enhance vitality of a cell. Interesting enough, through experimentation, certain stones (foremost quartz stones and finally diamonds), showed the most efficient way to vitalize human cells.

Now the explanation is as follows: Our universe is made up by a lot of atoms. To get the the bottom, scientists have dissected light. What we can say, is that around the stem of a Photon, Electrons spring around. Now, depending on the conductivity of the cell (the material) the more electrons are free to roam about.

1937 the Kilian couple invented the Kilian Photography, in which they put certain currents of electricity to an object, to see how many electrons will turn to gas and collide with the air. The more electrons are being set free, the more conductive an object is.

To reason, the more flying around electrons a cell has, the more potent it is. Comparing now a cell before a 10 minute exposure to a cell after a 10 minute exposure of direct diamond, the cell shows an increasingly higher conductivity. meaning the cell has become more vital.

Even in ancient Egypt lithotherapy was practiced. No wonder why the Egypt’s were able to master the art of mummification or building the pyramids. There was a great understanding of life and the usage thereof.