THE SACRED SHIT - THE SHIT CULTURE
Vegetation needed millions of years
to cover poison and gloomy gases
with a layer of humus
a layer of vegetation
and a layer of oxygen
so that man can live on this earth
And this same unthankful man digs out again
the same poisonous substances which have been covered
with long and tedious cosmic labour
and puts it again on the surface
So, by the misdeed of man
the end of the world
will be like the beginning of times
We commit suicide
Our cities are cancerous formations
From above this is clearly visible
We do not eat what grows near us
we fetch our food from far away
from Africa, America, China and New Zealand
We do not keep our shit for ourselves
our shit is carried far away
polluting rivers, lakes and oceans
or it is sent to sophisticated
and costly purification plants
seldom to centralised compost factories
or our shit is destroyed
Our shit never returns to our fields
and never returns there
where our food came from
THE CYCLE FROM EATING TO SHITTING FUNCTIONS
THE CYCLE FROM SHITTING TO EATING IS INTERRUPTED
We have wrong conceptions
about our waste
Every time we use the flush toilet
we think it is a hygienic accomplishment
but in fact we violate cosmic law
Because, in truth, it is an immoral act
a wicked act of death
It is as if we draw a dead line
When we use the toilet
we lock ourselves in
and flush our shit away
Why are we ashamed?
What are we afraid of?
What becomes of our shit afterwards?
We suppress it like the death
The toilet hole into which disappear things
seems to us like the door to death
Let us rush away
let us forget quickly decomposition and decay
But it is just the contrary
With the shit life begins
THE SHIT IS MUCH MORE IMPORTANT THAN EATING
Eating is sustaining a mankind
which grows in quantity
and lessens in quality
and which became a deadly danger to this earth
to the vegetation, to the animals
to the water, the air and to the layer of humus
But shit is the way to our resurrection
Since man can think
he tries to be immortal
Man wants to have an eternal soul
THE SHIT IS OUR ETERNAL SOUL
THROUGH THE SHIT WE WILL SURVIVE
THROUGH THE SHIT WE BECOME IMMORTAL
Why do we fear death?
He who uses a humus toilet
does not fear death
because our shit makes future life
makes our rebirth possible
IF WE DO NOT TREASURE OUR SHIT
AND IF WE DO NOT TRANSFORM IT INTO HUMUS
IN HONOUR OF GOD AND THE WORLD
WE LOSE OUR RIGHT
TO BE PRESENT ON THIS EARTH
IN THE NAME OF OBSOLETE AND WRONG SANITARY LAWS
WE LOSE OUR COSMIC SUBSTANCE
WE MURDER AND DESTROY OUR FUTURE LIFE
DIRT IS LIFE
STERILE CLEANNESS IS DEATH
You shall not kill
but we sterilise all life with poison and a layer of concrete
This is murder
Man is just a tube
On the one side he puts things in
on the other side they come out again
more or less digested
The mouth is in front, the anus is behind
Why is that so?
Why is eating positive?
Why is the shit negative?
It should be the contrary
What is coming out of our body is not waste
but the basis of our world
our gold, our blood
We bleed to death
our civilization is bleeding to death
our earth is bleeding to death
caused by the insane interruption of the cycle
He who is bleeding for a long time
losing blood for a long time
and does not replace it with new blood
will perish
Freud was right in his interpretation of dreams
that shit stands for gold
Now we have to learn
that this is not just a dream but reality
If Pasolini in a film lets actors eat their shit
this action is to be understood
as a desperate symbol of closing the cycle
as a desperate acceleration of cosmic survival
The same love, the same time and care
must be employed
for what comes out from “behind”
than for what comes in in “front”
The same ceremony
like when we dine in solemnity
with knife, fork and spoon, Chinese chopsticks
silver table service and candle light
We pray before we eat and say grace afterwards
but we do not pray when we shit
WE THANK GOD FOR OUR DAILY BREAD
WHICH COMES OUT OF THE EARTH
BUT WE DO NOT PRAY
SO THAT OUR SHIT BECOMES EARTH AGAIN
WASTE IS BEAUTIFUL
TO DIVIDE THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF WASTE
AND TO REINTEGRATE THEM INTO THE CYCLE
IS A HAPPY OCCUPATION, FULL OF JOY
This occupation does not take place
in cellars, dark courtyards
in dung pits and narrow toilets
but there where we dwell
where there is light and sun
in our living room, in our state room
There is no waste
waste does not exist
The humus toilet is a status symbol
WE HAVE THE PRIVILEGE TO BE WITNESSES
OF HOW, BY OUR OWN WISDOM
OUR OWN WASTE, OUR OWN SHIT TURNS BACK INTO HUMUS
IT IS LIKE A HARVEST WHICH IS RIPENING
LIKE A TREE WHICH GROWS
AT HOME AS IF IT WAS OUR OWN SON
HOMO – HUMUS – HUMANITAS
three words, the same origin, the same destiny
HUMUS IS THE REAL BLACK GOLD
Humus has a beautiful scent
the scent of humus is more sacred and nearer to God
than the scent of incense
He who walks through the woods after the rain
knows this scent
Of course, it seems a monstrosity
when our garbage can
comes into the center of our home
and when the humus toilet becomes our seat of honour
But this is just the turn
which our society, our civilization
must take if we want to survive
The scent of humus is the scent of God
the scent of resurrection
the scent of eternal life
Written 1979/1980 in Algajola, Venice and New Zealand.
Published in:
Seedamm-Kulturzentrum Bulletin 7, Pfäffikon/Switzerland, 1979, p. 19 (German)
Catalogues of the World Travelling Museum Exhibition 1975–1987: English edition: London, 1983. German edition: Cologne, 1980; Vienna, Graz, 1981
galerie des arts revue mensuelle, no. 201, April 1980, Paris, pp. 8/9 (French)
Sport Konkret. Die andere Sportzeitung für Freizeit und Erziehung. Innsbruck, No. 4/5, Fall 1980, pp. 16-17 (German)
Forum. ed. by Günther Nenning. Vienna, Sept./Oct. 1980, No. 321, pp. 12 -15 (German)
Schurian, Walter (ed.): Hundertwasser – Schöne Wege, Gedanken über Kunst und Leben. (Beautiful Paths – Thoughts on Art and Life) Munich: Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag (dtv), 1983, pp. 86-88 and ed. 2004 (Munich, Langen Müller Verlag), pp. 102-103 (German)
Rand, Harry: Friedensreich Hundertwasser. Cologne: Taschen, 1991, p. 177
Connection special 24. Was uns nährt: Essen, Trinken, Atmen. ed. by Sugata W. Schneider. Niedertaufkirchen/Germany, No. 1/95, pp. 50-51 (German)
Schmied, Wieland (ed.): Hundertwasser 1928–2000, Catalogue Raisonné. Vol. II: Fürst, Andrea Christa: Catalogue Raisonné. Cologne: Taschen, 2002, pp. 949-952 (German and English)
arclos! Pressespiegel und Reflektionen zu Architektur, Kultur und Planung. Kassel/Germany, December, 2006, p. 3 (German)
Hundertwasser. New York: Parkstone Press International, 2008, pp. 208-211
Information Kit for Hundertwasser-Path, Fernwärme Wien, Vienna, 2009 (German)
Scheub, Ute / Pieplow, Haiko / Schmidt Hans-Peter, Terra Preta – Die schwarze Revolution aus dem Regenwald, Munich, 2013, pp. 193-197 (German)
Kultur und Politik, Zeitschrift für ökologische, soziale und wirtschaftliche Zusammenhänge, no. 4, 2014, Meilen/Switzerland, p. 25 (German)
Regentag-Waterglasses for Life, Rutesheim: Bernd Wörner Druckerei und Verlag, 2011, pp. 45-51
webpage le gardien du musée écophorique de Saint-Nazaire, http://mecosa.blogspot.com/, 5 March 2019
Petrovic, Nara: Human, Instructions for Use, Gracisce: Sunny Hill Association, 2019, pp. 171-177