The Thing in Myself
In my reading of Immanuel Kants term “Ding an sich”/”The Thing in Itself”, it is about a modern paradigm. In this modern paradigm, one cannot know things,nature, things and phenomena around us,but we can measure it, make it intelligeble. With this term from the European enlightenment, one might say the contemporary splitting of man and nature, culture and surroundings is established. In my personal experience,this splitting doesnt make sensein an intuitive phenomenological approach. We cannot master and make the world intelligeble in an abstract way, however far we have achieved in material prosperity this way. We actually experience,the world around us in a fundamentally relative and sensible way. I think my workand these images is about relating, about belonging,about being part of the world,not outside or mastering it, but in it. It is about a deep feeling of belonging when I walk in the forestwith or without my camera,when I walk along the beaches, and also about this modern splitting of culture and nature, that in many ways are conditional, but also in an era of dissolution. It is about melancholic longing, and the certain poetry that is opened accepting this longing or yearning, and about ways of dimantling, relating and being, in new supplementary ways.
Nikolaj Callesen, January 2025
Nikolaj Callesen 