Urraum Altar [Primal Space Altar] & Die Dritte Waschung oder die Honigtaufe (Werkzeuge) [The Third Ablution or the Baptism of Honey (Tools)]

The photograph Die Dritte Waschung oder die Honigtaufe [The Third Ablution or the Baptism of Honey] corresponds directly to some objects that are arranged on a small altar a few meters in front. Gabriel calls this altar the Urraum Altar. The Urraum [Primal Space] is a central concept in his performative art. „In every performance and when I go into a trance, I create for myself a primal space in which I am only with myself. It is a kind of hermetic shelter that I demarcate, sometimes visibly, sometimes invisible to outsiders. Its purpose is to protect what is inside, and vice versa, to keep the outside from the inside.”

This Urraum is a sharply cut and polished square sandstone slab. On it, we find some tools: a glass vial with honey, a PET bottle and “one of my aluminum feeding bowls. It is the bowl with which the third ablution, the baptism of honey, was carried out. I and my animals have eaten and drunk from this for years. They are shared vessels between humans and animals.“

The symbol of honey is one of the recurring motifs of the Marianische Antiphonen [Marian Antiphons]. The bee lives on the border of plant and animal. Its honey, along with milk, is one of the ancient offerings made to Mother Goddesses since prehistoric times.