Mandala

The original meaning of the word “Mandala” is “rotating around a centre”, allowing the spectator to focus on it, to meditate on complex religious topics and at the same time to see in the Mandala the representation of the whole universe. By concentration of the spirit, the boundaries of individuality are overcome. The constant move in nature (Greek: panta rhei) is symbolised in the classic Mandala by a wheel, mostly with 8 spokes, representing the perfect number. The Star Mandala consists of four rings of 15 six pointed stars of different width, depending on their position towards the centre, and the colour triple here is changed into a triple of different materials: stainless steel, granite and light reflecting glass. The stars are all featuring a different material arrangement and are in precise relationship among each other so that a vast series of complex geometric symmetries are woven in.
The constantly moving wheel is represented by its first colour, brushed stainless steel, brushed in the orientation of the turning wheel. The infinite universe is represented by its second colour, a granite called for good reason “Star Galaxy”, allowing to shift the attention of the viewer from the surface of the artwork (granite surface) to the look through the artwork, somewhat “behind” the artwork, into the open night sky. The third colour is a mirror surface – that despite the viewer stands in front of it, does not see himself. He sees just the reflection of nothingness. No image, no light. Though the mirror surfaces reflect something, but undefined. Meditation should lead to the attention of the spirit to loose its existence as an individual, turning it into a part of the surrounding world. Finally, the perfect number 8, despite the stars are six-pointed, is to be found hidden behind their arrangements an astonishing 60 times. There are 60 stars, all different, but they generate the number 8 only in the way they interact, not by their own... It’s up to the viewer to meditate on these hidden rules and eventually discover them!

Star Mandala

The Star Mandala is generated by assorting the set of sixty stars so that, while being all different, the complete mandala appears as just a threefold copy of only one structure, though complex, rotated both ways by a third turn.
Familiarising with the complete mandala lets observe a further manifestation of an unexpected symmetric feature: the originally open book symmetry (for the lower third, i.e. from 4 to 8 ó clock) breaks up into an inverted symmetry for the left and right upper third.