2004 _ Urban Mandalas - El Forat de la Vergonya (The Hole of Shame) - Barcelona, Spain
The Tibetan mandala, a meditative circular drawing made from colored sand-grains, translated into a western street version making the mandalas from colored shopping bags stuck into the fences of cities in places of friction.
A kyil khor (Tibetan for mandala) in Vajrayana Buddhism usually depicts a landscape of the Buddha land, a microcosm representing various divine powers at work in the universe. Mandalas are commonly used by tantric Buddhists as an aid to meditation.
More specifically, a Buddhist mandala is envisaged as a "sacred space", as a place separated and protected from the ever-changing and impure outer world.
To symbolize impermanence (a central teaching of Buddhism), after days or weeks of creating the intricate pattern, the sand is brushed together and is usually placed in a body of running water to spread the blessings of the mandala.
The visualization and concretization of the mandala concept is one of the most significant contributions of Buddhism to Transpersonal Psychology. Mandalas are seen as sacred places which, by their very presence in the world, remind a viewer of the immanence of sanctity in the Universe and its potential in his or her self. 1)
Urban Mandalas
These colorful installations in the public space are constructed out of biodegradable plastic shopping bags stuck into fences. These Urban Mandalas are created together with local inhabitants. Places are chosen because of their potential for externalization of an internal need for change or resistance to change itself. Depending on the situation, the Mandala functions as a form of meditation and intends to become the symbol for this desired transition or non-transition.
