A piece of wood thrown into the river must float with the current. But we humans can do exactly the opposite if we want to. This gives us maximum control over the role we play in our own lives. It’s up to us to grasp life’s riches with our own hands. Eike König, artist, designer, seeker and free spirit says it’s a self-determined life that questions structures and the status quo. He doesn’t just accept systems, but looks around and thinks in terms of possibilities. Eike König lives his independence and takes other people along with him. It couldn’t have gone better, the two hours we spent getting to know each other in his studio in Berlin’s Kreuzberg district. I move a pile of T-shirts to one side and sit opposite him. “Let’s start with words, Eike…”.
“That makes sense [laughs]. Well, working with words is always like playing with a kind of reality, or even an unreality, that we feel. Depending on your background, what your biography is, what mood you’re in, you’ll see or read things differently from your interlocutor. This is exactly what has always fascinated me about language. It seems precise, made up of a lot of black and white but then you discover there’s a lot in between. Something can be incredibly poetic but also aggressive at the same time. I’m always looking for a moment that allows contradictions and can be read in the broadest possible way. All our relationships are always dependent on how we are understood and how we talk to each other about feelings. What I’m observing in my son now is that he still can’t find words for all his emotions. When we can’t name or describe emotions, we’re like a whistling kettle that’s running out of steam. Little by little, my child finds more and more forms of expression for what he’s feeling in the moment. You just have to celebrate, support and encourage that. Language is a medium and a tool not only to describe the world or to name things, but also to describe our inner world.”
"Working with words is always like playing with a kind of reality, or even unreality, that we feel."
Here we are, two adults sitting together and in my mind I’m looking back, because I realise how difficult it is to reawaken this quality later in adult life, in relationships and in love. So I ask him when he became aware of the meaning of words.
“My grandfather was a patriarch and wrote for as long as I can remember. My father was an architect for whom too many words were superfluous; he minimised and reduced everything. At the same time, he was also a very sensitive person. We didn’t talk much about feelings, nor with my mother. It took me a long time to learn how to talk about feelings.”
At this moment I’m looking at Eike. I know from my own experience that the ability to break through external rules requires a deeper sense of liberation. For me, the essence of freedom is based on an internal kind of independence. Because if I’m free inside, I can be free in any situation, even in the most extreme conditions. “How was it for you, Eike?” I ask.
“I always had problems. At school, at university and with all kinds of structures which, strangely enough, I always saw through very quickly. We’re all aware that we’re living within the system. If you’re interested in how these systems are constructed and what the system demands of you, then it’s so easy to meet those demands and get involved. But what does that mean for me as an independent person if I don’t meet these requirements and don’t want to deliver? What if instead my interests are completely different, if my contribution was not to meet these requirements but to offer a different kind of perspective? In that case, I’d probably get into trouble, offend people, be judged differently, bullied and put in a corner, regarded as incompatible with the system. I’ve never seen any attraction in making things comfortable or easy for myself. For me, all of this would mean not developing myself any further. I can’t discover the potential within myself if my achievements are only what has been asked of me. Somehow I’ve always been searching and my inner waters are turbulent.”
"I wanted to define a space in which a story can happen out of time, regardless of location."
That’s probably one of the reasons Eike has gained attention, recognition and success as an artist. His inner freedom is obvious and inspiring. External freedoms are simply opportunities given to the spirit of our freedom. “Is HORT Berlin a symbolic opportunity for you?”
“While I was a student I found the parroting of history and the celebration of old icons and stuff like that appalling. I wanted to get out and describe my idea of something new. That didn’t mean ignoring the past but respecting it in a different way, placing it in the context of the relevant era. I wanted to find my own form of expression. That’s why I founded HORT in 1994. In this project, I was searching for something self-determined where you can play, learn, discover and experiment. A shared place, just like the children’s nurseries in Frankfurt am Main back then. I wanted to define a space in which a story can happen out of time, regardless of location. When you look at and watch children, their play and imagination creates such a crazy energy that just amazes me. That’s why I decided that, as a grown man, I need my own day-care centre [Hort] where I can let off steam and offer others a sense of security. It’s still developing organically today.”
“But how do you deal with the big issues that really challenge the word ‘security’?”
“I have such primaeval, recurring fears and feel incredibly angry that so few people in power can cause so much suffering. It pushes the limits of my imagination. For me empathy is one route, because genuine empathy for someone else always brings me back to myself and is selfless. By being empathetic, I can join forces with myself or a community. We no longer promote things such as naivety, beauty and goodness. We focus on bad things and give much more space to evil, untruth, intentional distortion or negative feelings. We need a counterbalance. Of course, people are afraid, and I don’t want to deny that. We must try to face that fear and encourage positive things. Like a tree that needs water and time to grow. Eventually we’ll be able to lie down in its shade when the sun is too hot. Everything takes time and persistence – there’s just too much happening now all at the same time.”
“Doesn’t the word ‘despair’ offer a good description of the state we’re in right now?”
“I love being triggered and then thinking about exactly why this is happening. I love reading or watching plays because something always triggers an echo in me and then I become aware of a space that I didn’t know before. ‘Despair’ is an important and particularly honest word. It pushes us to do things and creates completely different priorities. So often we work incredibly hard not to be desperate and that’s why we do nothing. We don’t give space to despair at all. If we had more courage to allow for this intense emotional feeling and its conditions, we would probably be a lot more active.”
As featured in SLEEK 74 – IDENTITY. Available in print and digital here.
An internationally recognised German design artist and founder, Eike König is also the creative director of the Berlin creative collective HORT. His art practice makes use of typographical, pop art and contemporary design techniques. Partly with autobiographical justification, in his creative structures he triggers a ubiquitous media cacophony which pelts us daily with content-bearing messages. His work is celebrated for its conceptual, political, emotional and visual approach.