OROBOROS – ARCHETYPAL SYMBOLOpen door to OROBOROS INSTRUMENTS and the MiPArt Gallery
In alchemy, the “Oroboros” (the tail-eater) is the symbol for the repetition of the transformation process which, through heating, vaporization, cooling and condensation leads to the purification of the material and releases its essence – by a cyclical return and unification of opposites. In its form of a snake, the Oroboros symbolises the physical cycle and, as a dragon, the winged fantasies of metaphysical projections on reality. Creation and the created become one in an inseparable process within the continuing cycle of the Oroboros.
The fundamental theme of singularity and reproducibility moves Richard Agreiter’s work into the magnetic field between the poles of art and science – and this parallels the leitmotif of the MiPArt Gallery. MiPArt attempts to make scientific concepts more comprehensible through art and, at the same time, to bring the art closer to its scientific background – an exciting cooperation between science and art, between artist and scientist. MiPArt derives from the term “mitochondrial physiology” – MiP (www.mitophysiology.org). Mitochondrial physiology is the most important field of application for the instrument, the OROBOROS Oxygraph-2k, developed by OROBOROS INSTRUMENTS in collaboration with WGT-Electronics (Philipp Gradl, Kolsass) and Lukas Gradl (software security networks, Innsbruck). The Oxygraph-2k is the research tool at the centre of the work done by Erich Gnaiger and his team at the Medical University of Innsbruck, and is distributed by OROBOROS INSTRUMENTS to research laboratories throughout the world. In line with this global perspective, the MiPArt Gallery wishes to open doors for its artists by providing access to an international network.
Since 18th April 2008, the archetypal mythical creature Oroboros, magnified by the creative force of Harald Kirchebner’s artistic impetus, frames the entrance to the MiPArt Gallery, known since then as “Oroboros House”.
And so is formed a symbol, visible to the wider world, of the model which has shaped the countless scientific co-operations and methodological developments by Erich Gnaiger and his many partners over the last 25 years and which has now become an invitation to visit MiPArt.
Source: Erich Gnaiger and Richard Agreiter (2009) RICHARD AGREITER - The Mystery of the Serial Form. Singularity – Reproducibility – Validity. Semantic Changes in Art and Science. English translation by Eileen Harrison. OROBOROS MiPArt Publications 2010: page 50.
