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A Reflection on Raw Infinite Presence
Art After the Excess of Images
To avoid remaining purely in the theoretical realm and to avoid repeating the usual generalizations, an open call was launched alongside the release of the manifesto — an invitation to artists and creators willing to embrace this new logic of working with lived experience. From the submissions, works were selected that reflect the core principles of Raw Infinite Presence: the honesty of bodily presence, the rejection of fixed aesthetics, attention to perceptual shift rather than visual form alone, and the capacity to create a situation in which the viewer "encounters" the work rather than simply observing it.
These works — diverse in medium, form, and style — become a living illustration of the manifesto’s ideas and philosophy. They show how Raw Infinite Presence operates in practice, how philosophical principles take shape in concrete artistic actions, how a space is created for the direct experience of the infinite through the finite.
Each work in this collection is an invitation to pause, to shift the rhythm of looking, to step away from the habitual position of the visual "consumer." It is an experience of presence offered not as a ready-made recipe but as a living situation that unfolds differently for each viewer. Different works, different approaches, and different tools are united not by form or style but by what happens inside a person at the moment of encounter — what Raw Infinite Presence calls a shift in the body, the breath, and the sense of one’s own boundaries.
We deliberately do not place this collection within the framework of the traditional academic system, nor do we impose aesthetic criteria or genre categories upon it. Each of these works is a unique practice that emerged from a specific here and now, with its own body, attention, and intent. Together they demonstrate the freedom of form declared by the manifesto and affirm the radicality of its philosophy: art must not be repetition — it must be, each time anew, an honest event of lived experience.
In this way, the works presented become not merely an illustration and accompaniment to the text but an inseparable part of it — an act of embodiment that proves the vitality and necessity of Raw Infinite Presence within contemporary artistic culture. They help the reader and viewer not only to understand but to feel the principles of this new direction, including transience as a guarantee of authenticity, the ethics of bodily honesty, and the tension of presence.
The open call and the works gathered through it are a living dialogue about how to work today with the body, attention, and infinity in art. And we invite you to enter that dialogue — not merely by reading these reflections, but by living through the eternal, fixed instant of genuine presence.
These works — diverse in medium, form, and style — become a living illustration of the manifesto’s ideas and philosophy. They show how Raw Infinite Presence operates in practice, how philosophical principles take shape in concrete artistic actions, how a space is created for the direct experience of the infinite through the finite.
Each work in this collection is an invitation to pause, to shift the rhythm of looking, to step away from the habitual position of the visual "consumer." It is an experience of presence offered not as a ready-made recipe but as a living situation that unfolds differently for each viewer. Different works, different approaches, and different tools are united not by form or style but by what happens inside a person at the moment of encounter — what Raw Infinite Presence calls a shift in the body, the breath, and the sense of one’s own boundaries.
We deliberately do not place this collection within the framework of the traditional academic system, nor do we impose aesthetic criteria or genre categories upon it. Each of these works is a unique practice that emerged from a specific here and now, with its own body, attention, and intent. Together they demonstrate the freedom of form declared by the manifesto and affirm the radicality of its philosophy: art must not be repetition — it must be, each time anew, an honest event of lived experience.
In this way, the works presented become not merely an illustration and accompaniment to the text but an inseparable part of it — an act of embodiment that proves the vitality and necessity of Raw Infinite Presence within contemporary artistic culture. They help the reader and viewer not only to understand but to feel the principles of this new direction, including transience as a guarantee of authenticity, the ethics of bodily honesty, and the tension of presence.
The open call and the works gathered through it are a living dialogue about how to work today with the body, attention, and infinity in art. And we invite you to enter that dialogue — not merely by reading these reflections, but by living through the eternal, fixed instant of genuine presence.
crowned dogs
R.I.P.
A Reflection on Raw Infinite Presence
Introduction
Every artistic movement emerges for a reason. It responds not only to the internal problems of art but to a broader cultural situation — to the way a person sees, feels, remembers, distinguishes, and relates to the world. In this sense, the new movement Raw Infinite Presence arises not as a response to a particular stylistic crisis but to a transformation in the very environment of perception.
Today there are more images than ever before. Yet it is precisely in this era of visual abundance that it becomes especially clear: quantity does not translate into intensity. We are surrounded by images but do not necessarily experience them. We look continuously, yet less and less often do we truly meet what we are looking at. In other words, modernity has made vision technically perfect but existentially weakened. The gaze has become fast, trained, multitasking — and at the same time less capable of pause, attention, and inner response.
This is where the need for a new understanding of art arises. If art could once rely on the relative scarcity of the image, on the slowness of its reception, or on the institutional distance between the work and the viewer, those guarantees no longer hold. Art must find another path: not to compete with the stream but to create a situation in which the stream temporarily stops; not to add yet another signal to the noise but to restore in the person the capacity to be present.
Raw Infinite Presence proposes exactly this kind of shift. But it is important to emphasize: this is not a new style, not a set of formal characteristics, and not an art school in the conventional sense. It is more a way of reformulating the task of art — not as the production of objects, not as the generation of ideas, and not as the construction of a recognizable identity, but as the creation of conditions for an experience that cannot be reduced to explanation. Art here is conceived as an event that happens to a person, not as a thing they observe from the outside.
And before fully turning to this essay — which will be illustrated by works selected from the open call — I want to address one work that aligns very precisely with the manifesto and with all the ideas that will be expressed here. That work is IT’S YOU by Rina German.
Today there are more images than ever before. Yet it is precisely in this era of visual abundance that it becomes especially clear: quantity does not translate into intensity. We are surrounded by images but do not necessarily experience them. We look continuously, yet less and less often do we truly meet what we are looking at. In other words, modernity has made vision technically perfect but existentially weakened. The gaze has become fast, trained, multitasking — and at the same time less capable of pause, attention, and inner response.
This is where the need for a new understanding of art arises. If art could once rely on the relative scarcity of the image, on the slowness of its reception, or on the institutional distance between the work and the viewer, those guarantees no longer hold. Art must find another path: not to compete with the stream but to create a situation in which the stream temporarily stops; not to add yet another signal to the noise but to restore in the person the capacity to be present.
Raw Infinite Presence proposes exactly this kind of shift. But it is important to emphasize: this is not a new style, not a set of formal characteristics, and not an art school in the conventional sense. It is more a way of reformulating the task of art — not as the production of objects, not as the generation of ideas, and not as the construction of a recognizable identity, but as the creation of conditions for an experience that cannot be reduced to explanation. Art here is conceived as an event that happens to a person, not as a thing they observe from the outside.
And before fully turning to this essay — which will be illustrated by works selected from the open call — I want to address one work that aligns very precisely with the manifesto and with all the ideas that will be expressed here. That work is IT’S YOU by Rina German.
0. The Black Canvas as a New Field of Visual and Existential Experience
A fully black canvas is not simply a formal gesture of reduction. In the tradition of European art, such a form — from Malevich’s monochromes to the expressions of Barnett Newman and Mark Rothko — has often been interpreted as ultimate reduction, a withdrawal from excess, an attempt to achieve maximum concentration of attention. In art history, the color black has frequently served as a boundary: the boundary of the image, of the visible, of language, of the symbolic. But in the case of IT’S YOU, what matters is not only that the image has been reduced to a minimum — it is that this minimum is not empty. It is charged with a statement that carries the work beyond formal interpretation.
The phrase "Consciousness. Absolute. Source. Atman. Call it what you will" does not describe an object — it opens a field of experience. It does not explain the black canvas; it opens it toward metaphysical, philosophical, and bodily receptivity. What matters here is the very logic of the enumeration: consciousness, absolute, source, atman — these are words from different traditions, different intellectual and spiritual horizons. Yet within the context of the work they function not as doctrine but as ways of approaching something that eludes precise naming.
This is very close to the Raw Infinite Presence manifesto. There, the infinite is conceived not as a subject that can be depicted but as a quality of experience that may arise from an encounter with a work. IT’S YOU operates in exactly this mode: it does not depict the absolute, but creates conditions in which the viewer may come face to face with their own inner depth — or, in the language of the manifesto, with the infinite through the finite.
A fully black canvas in this sense is not "empty." On the contrary, it functions as an extreme form of visual concentration. It does not close off meaning but lays bare the mechanism of its emergence. The viewer standing before it is compelled to become the source of projection, question, and tension. And at that point the title of the work — IT’S YOU — ceases to be a declaration and becomes an experience of address: it is you. This presence, this consciousness, this one who looks. Not an image, but the subject of perception.
The phrase "Consciousness. Absolute. Source. Atman. Call it what you will" does not describe an object — it opens a field of experience. It does not explain the black canvas; it opens it toward metaphysical, philosophical, and bodily receptivity. What matters here is the very logic of the enumeration: consciousness, absolute, source, atman — these are words from different traditions, different intellectual and spiritual horizons. Yet within the context of the work they function not as doctrine but as ways of approaching something that eludes precise naming.
This is very close to the Raw Infinite Presence manifesto. There, the infinite is conceived not as a subject that can be depicted but as a quality of experience that may arise from an encounter with a work. IT’S YOU operates in exactly this mode: it does not depict the absolute, but creates conditions in which the viewer may come face to face with their own inner depth — or, in the language of the manifesto, with the infinite through the finite.
A fully black canvas in this sense is not "empty." On the contrary, it functions as an extreme form of visual concentration. It does not close off meaning but lays bare the mechanism of its emergence. The viewer standing before it is compelled to become the source of projection, question, and tension. And at that point the title of the work — IT’S YOU — ceases to be a declaration and becomes an experience of address: it is you. This presence, this consciousness, this one who looks. Not an image, but the subject of perception.
I. Art in the Age of Visual Noise
Contemporary culture is often described through the language of speed, flow, interfaces, and communication. But behind this language lies a deeper change: the very structure of attention has shifted. A person now lives in a mode of constant partial engagement. They are always somewhere between tasks, screens, messages, images, replies, notifications. Their attention has not disappeared, but it has become distributed and vulnerable.
This affects art far more profoundly than it might seem. A work that once demanded sustained contemplation today frequently encounters a habit of rapid recognition. The viewer does not so much enter the work as check it for legibility, novelty, or correspondence to already familiar codes. Culture itself has taught us to look from a distance, with an inner readiness for the next switch.
The problem here is not "superficiality" in any moral sense, nor is it that the contemporary person has somehow become worse. The problem is more structural. We live in conditions where attention is constantly under attack and simultaneously simplified. To survive in the flow of information, a person develops defensive mechanisms: quick reading, shortened pauses, avoidance of prolonged uncertainty. But these very mechanisms obstruct the artistic event. Art requires not only seeing but allowing what is seen to act. And that is an entirely different form of relation.
In this context, Raw Infinite Presence can be understood as an attempt to restore not the content of art but its mode — not what art is about, but how it happens. And here the term presence is especially important. It is set in opposition not to absence but to automatism. Presence is a state in which a person does not merely perceive an image but genuinely inhabits the same time and space as it. This is neither obvious nor easy. In an era of visual consumption, such presence cannot be assumed — it must be created anew.
This affects art far more profoundly than it might seem. A work that once demanded sustained contemplation today frequently encounters a habit of rapid recognition. The viewer does not so much enter the work as check it for legibility, novelty, or correspondence to already familiar codes. Culture itself has taught us to look from a distance, with an inner readiness for the next switch.
The problem here is not "superficiality" in any moral sense, nor is it that the contemporary person has somehow become worse. The problem is more structural. We live in conditions where attention is constantly under attack and simultaneously simplified. To survive in the flow of information, a person develops defensive mechanisms: quick reading, shortened pauses, avoidance of prolonged uncertainty. But these very mechanisms obstruct the artistic event. Art requires not only seeing but allowing what is seen to act. And that is an entirely different form of relation.
In this context, Raw Infinite Presence can be understood as an attempt to restore not the content of art but its mode — not what art is about, but how it happens. And here the term presence is especially important. It is set in opposition not to absence but to automatism. Presence is a state in which a person does not merely perceive an image but genuinely inhabits the same time and space as it. This is neither obvious nor easy. In an era of visual consumption, such presence cannot be assumed — it must be created anew.
II. Why the Object No Longer Saves Art
In the twentieth century, art repeatedly expanded its own boundaries. It moved beyond academic representation, reconsidered its materials, rejected traditional hierarchies, and opened up new media. But alongside this, one important misconception took hold: that a work retains its power simply by virtue of existing as an object. This logic long seemed natural. A painting, a sculpture, a photograph, a print, an artifact — all of these were carriers of artistic value.
In the contemporary situation, however, this is no longer enough. An object is too easily absorbed into the circulation of things. It begins to live as a unit of property, a storage item, an investment, an element of a collection. Its fate is determined not by what it does to a person but by how it moves within the cultural economy. And while the market is not in itself the enemy of art, the problem arises when artistic production begins to conform to its logic.
It is important not to oversimplify here. The point is not that the material work disappears or ceases to matter. On the contrary, an object can be very powerful. But it can no longer be an end in itself. If art exhausts itself at the level of the object, it risks becoming a beautiful and well-organized thing that no longer does anything to perception. The aesthetic form is preserved, but the event disappears.
Raw Infinite Presence offers a different view. The object matters not in itself but as a temporary form through which something more essential may occur. This is not a denial of materiality but a refusal to absolutize it. The artistic thing must not substitute for experience but set it in motion. And if it fails to do so, then even with flawless execution it remains at the level of a cultural artifact rather than an artistic event.
From this perspective, art must be less certain of its own completeness and more attentive to what happens between the work and the viewer. Not in the thing as such, but in the relation it creates. Not in the presence of the object, but in the intensity of the encounter.
In the contemporary situation, however, this is no longer enough. An object is too easily absorbed into the circulation of things. It begins to live as a unit of property, a storage item, an investment, an element of a collection. Its fate is determined not by what it does to a person but by how it moves within the cultural economy. And while the market is not in itself the enemy of art, the problem arises when artistic production begins to conform to its logic.
It is important not to oversimplify here. The point is not that the material work disappears or ceases to matter. On the contrary, an object can be very powerful. But it can no longer be an end in itself. If art exhausts itself at the level of the object, it risks becoming a beautiful and well-organized thing that no longer does anything to perception. The aesthetic form is preserved, but the event disappears.
Raw Infinite Presence offers a different view. The object matters not in itself but as a temporary form through which something more essential may occur. This is not a denial of materiality but a refusal to absolutize it. The artistic thing must not substitute for experience but set it in motion. And if it fails to do so, then even with flawless execution it remains at the level of a cultural artifact rather than an artistic event.
From this perspective, art must be less certain of its own completeness and more attentive to what happens between the work and the viewer. Not in the thing as such, but in the relation it creates. Not in the presence of the object, but in the intensity of the encounter.
changing my mind
by beantart / @beantartETH
This piece is built out of a shift that happens in the body. There is a precise moment where attention breaks from what it was doing and is pulled elsewhere. It's subtle but physical: a pause in movement, a change in breath, a reorientation that happens before it can be understood. The painting holds that moment without resolving it into explanation.
The viewer senses that interruption directly. It registers before interpretation, through posture, tension, and the slight disorientation of a gesture that no longer belongs to its original intention.
The work does not illustrate nor does it guide the viewer toward a conclusion. It sustains a state of transition, where one impulse is still present while another has already taken hold. The image remains actively open, with something still happening rather than something already decided.
The figure is not staged. She feels encountered mid-experience, and the painting does not intervene to organize or stabilize that experience for the viewer. The work functions through that encounter, producing a real shift in attention...an interruption that is felt before it is understood.
by beantart / @beantartETH
This piece is built out of a shift that happens in the body. There is a precise moment where attention breaks from what it was doing and is pulled elsewhere. It's subtle but physical: a pause in movement, a change in breath, a reorientation that happens before it can be understood. The painting holds that moment without resolving it into explanation.
The viewer senses that interruption directly. It registers before interpretation, through posture, tension, and the slight disorientation of a gesture that no longer belongs to its original intention.
The work does not illustrate nor does it guide the viewer toward a conclusion. It sustains a state of transition, where one impulse is still present while another has already taken hold. The image remains actively open, with something still happening rather than something already decided.
The figure is not staged. She feels encountered mid-experience, and the painting does not intervene to organize or stabilize that experience for the viewer. The work functions through that encounter, producing a real shift in attention...an interruption that is felt before it is understood.
III. Why Concept Doesn’t Save Art Either
If the object proved insufficient, the second great hope of the twentieth century was bound up with conceptuality. And this was a necessary and fruitful turn. Conceptualism demonstrated that art need not be only visual or material form. It can be thought, procedure, question, situation. This expanded the field of art almost to its limit.
But within this expansion there was a hidden danger. A concept often begins to function as a barrier rather than a path. It demands explanation. It assumes that the viewer must first understand the idea and only then — perhaps — feel something. As a result, art becomes dependent on interpretation as a mandatory intermediate step. The work no longer acts directly; it requires translation.
This creates a complex situation. On one hand, we have intellectually rich, subtle, inventive artistic practices. On the other, they are often too close to text, to thesis, to discourse. In such cases, art begins to resemble a visual appendage to an already formulated thought. But if the thought could have been written directly, why is the artistic form needed at all? What is its added force?
Raw Infinite Presence answers this question very clearly: art is needed where thought has not yet separated from bodily state, where meaning has not yet become fully abstract, where experience has not yet been replaced by explanation. That is, art does not cancel thought but returns it to the domain of lived experience. Concept matters, but it cannot be sufficient if it produces no inner shift in the person.
This is especially important for the contemporary viewer, who has grown accustomed to living among explanations. We live in an era where almost everything is accompanied by context, caption, commentary, interface, critique. But the more explanations there are, the greater the risk of losing immediacy. And art, if it remains art, must return us to experience before explanation — to what first happens and only afterward is named.
But within this expansion there was a hidden danger. A concept often begins to function as a barrier rather than a path. It demands explanation. It assumes that the viewer must first understand the idea and only then — perhaps — feel something. As a result, art becomes dependent on interpretation as a mandatory intermediate step. The work no longer acts directly; it requires translation.
This creates a complex situation. On one hand, we have intellectually rich, subtle, inventive artistic practices. On the other, they are often too close to text, to thesis, to discourse. In such cases, art begins to resemble a visual appendage to an already formulated thought. But if the thought could have been written directly, why is the artistic form needed at all? What is its added force?
Raw Infinite Presence answers this question very clearly: art is needed where thought has not yet separated from bodily state, where meaning has not yet become fully abstract, where experience has not yet been replaced by explanation. That is, art does not cancel thought but returns it to the domain of lived experience. Concept matters, but it cannot be sufficient if it produces no inner shift in the person.
This is especially important for the contemporary viewer, who has grown accustomed to living among explanations. We live in an era where almost everything is accompanied by context, caption, commentary, interface, critique. But the more explanations there are, the greater the risk of losing immediacy. And art, if it remains art, must return us to experience before explanation — to what first happens and only afterward is named.
ghost story
by thycloudmuseum / @thycloudmuseum
this work fits Raw Infinite Presence through its tension between closeness and erasure. it is sensual, but also ghostly, presence is felt not as certainty, but as something shifting, infinite, and unresolved.
by thycloudmuseum / @thycloudmuseum
this work fits Raw Infinite Presence through its tension between closeness and erasure. it is sensual, but also ghostly, presence is felt not as certainty, but as something shifting, infinite, and unresolved.
I’ve haunted this place for years
by Eleonora Penza / @iocivedo
I think what I depicted is in fact, a raw infinite presence. Those are my feelings, the "time and place" i talk about refer to when i met the love of my life i currently don’t speak to anymore. she is my first thought every second of every day and has been for five years. it was an unexpected meeting and the ghost i depicted might look "barely there", but it’s actually the majority of my soul, the biggest chunk of my cake that i left somewhere i hope i can gain access to again. and i keep staring at her. in tenderness, jealousy, awe. in pain.
by Eleonora Penza / @iocivedo
I think what I depicted is in fact, a raw infinite presence. Those are my feelings, the "time and place" i talk about refer to when i met the love of my life i currently don’t speak to anymore. she is my first thought every second of every day and has been for five years. it was an unexpected meeting and the ghost i depicted might look "barely there", but it’s actually the majority of my soul, the biggest chunk of my cake that i left somewhere i hope i can gain access to again. and i keep staring at her. in tenderness, jealousy, awe. in pain.
IV. Why the Artist’s Identity Has Become a Trap
The third foundation that this new movement reconsiders is artistic identity. In the contemporary system, the artist increasingly exists as a recognizable figure. They must have a style that can be identified, a narrative that can be retold, a biography that can serve as explanation, and a visual code that can be reproduced. This is convenient for institutions, curators, the market, and the media. But it also makes the artist dependent on their own image.
Here one of the subtlest forms of unfreedom arises. The artist begins to work not from a living state but from the expectations attached to who they are already supposed to be. Their past works become the measure of future ones. They are compelled to confirm themselves. And if a work must confirm an already established identity, it almost inevitably loses risk. But without risk there is no genuine search.
Raw Infinite Presence proposes thinking about the artist differently — not as the bearer of a fixed image but as a figure capable of entering the work anew each time. This does not mean abandoning individuality. On the contrary, individuality does not disappear here, but it ceases to be a brand. It becomes a trace of real presence rather than a program of self-repetition.
This is a crucial distinction. Style as trace is one thing. Style as prison is something else entirely. In the first case, form arises from experience. In the second, experience is shaped to fit form. And once that happens, the artist begins to serve their own recognizability instead of moving toward where they do not yet know the answer. And it is precisely there that living art begins.
Here one of the subtlest forms of unfreedom arises. The artist begins to work not from a living state but from the expectations attached to who they are already supposed to be. Their past works become the measure of future ones. They are compelled to confirm themselves. And if a work must confirm an already established identity, it almost inevitably loses risk. But without risk there is no genuine search.
Raw Infinite Presence proposes thinking about the artist differently — not as the bearer of a fixed image but as a figure capable of entering the work anew each time. This does not mean abandoning individuality. On the contrary, individuality does not disappear here, but it ceases to be a brand. It becomes a trace of real presence rather than a program of self-repetition.
This is a crucial distinction. Style as trace is one thing. Style as prison is something else entirely. In the first case, form arises from experience. In the second, experience is shaped to fit form. And once that happens, the artist begins to serve their own recognizability instead of moving toward where they do not yet know the answer. And it is precisely there that living art begins.
Flame Underwater
by shanelle julia rosita / @iamjuliarosita
This work belongs to Raw Infinite Presence because it comes from a lived internal tension rather than a polished idea. It holds something immediate and bodily: pressure, restraint, survival, and the persistence of an inner self that refused to go out. The piece is not asking the viewer to decode a concept first. It asks them to feel the contradiction of being submerged and still burning.
Its rawness is in its honesty. Its presence is in the way it holds that emotional state without softening it for comfort. What remains is a direct encounter with endurance, vulnerability, and the quiet force of something still alive beneath control.
If you want it even more stripped down, use this shorter version for the second box:
This work belongs to Raw Infinite Presence because it holds a real, lived contradiction: being submerged and still burning. It comes from emotional truth, not performance, and invites a direct experience of restraint, vulnerability, and survival. Rather than explaining itself away, it lets the viewer sit inside that tension and feel what remained alive underneath.
by shanelle julia rosita / @iamjuliarosita
This work belongs to Raw Infinite Presence because it comes from a lived internal tension rather than a polished idea. It holds something immediate and bodily: pressure, restraint, survival, and the persistence of an inner self that refused to go out. The piece is not asking the viewer to decode a concept first. It asks them to feel the contradiction of being submerged and still burning.
Its rawness is in its honesty. Its presence is in the way it holds that emotional state without softening it for comfort. What remains is a direct encounter with endurance, vulnerability, and the quiet force of something still alive beneath control.
If you want it even more stripped down, use this shorter version for the second box:
This work belongs to Raw Infinite Presence because it holds a real, lived contradiction: being submerged and still burning. It comes from emotional truth, not performance, and invites a direct experience of restraint, vulnerability, and survival. Rather than explaining itself away, it lets the viewer sit inside that tension and feel what remained alive underneath.
The Body Before Language
by Arts of Chet / @ArtsofChet
Because nothing here is performed.
It doesn’t represent an experience —
it is the experience, still active.
RAW — there is no distance between impulse and mark.
INFINITE — the image does not resolve, it keeps opening.
PRESENCE — it records a moment that hasn’t ended, and demands the viewer to meet it now.
This work doesn’t wait to be understood.
It acts first.
And whatever happens,
happens in the body before language arrives.
by Arts of Chet / @ArtsofChet
Because nothing here is performed.
It doesn’t represent an experience —
it is the experience, still active.
RAW — there is no distance between impulse and mark.
INFINITE — the image does not resolve, it keeps opening.
PRESENCE — it records a moment that hasn’t ended, and demands the viewer to meet it now.
This work doesn’t wait to be understood.
It acts first.
And whatever happens,
happens in the body before language arrives.
V. The Body as the Foundation of Artistic Experience
One of the most powerful claims underlying this movement is that the body is not merely a vessel for consciousness but its primary form. This claim brings the manifesto close to the phenomenological tradition without being reducible to it. It insists that perception is never purely mental. It is always bodily.
When a person looks at a work, they are not simply interpreting what they see. They are in a particular physical state: standing, breathing, tired, tensing, relaxing, waiting, resisting, noticing the pressure of the floor, the temperature of the air, their own distance from the work. None of this is background — it is part of the artistic experience. Art that ignores bodily reality risks becoming too abstract for living perception.
But there is another side to this. The body is not only a limitation; it is also the condition for extreme experience. Only a finite body can experience something that exceeds its own finitude — not in spite of the body but through it. This thought is enormously important. It allows us to move away from the false opposition of the material and the spiritual. Within the limits of one’s own body, a person can undergo states that are not reducible to bodily function yet do not exist outside the body.
In an artistic context, this means that a powerful work need not be spectacular or emotionally loud. Sometimes it acts almost imperceptibly: it alters the rhythm of perception, shifts the breath, slows the inner pace, creates a sense of depth without an overload of imagery. In such moments, art ceases to be an external object and becomes a field in which a person becomes aware of themselves differently.
When a person looks at a work, they are not simply interpreting what they see. They are in a particular physical state: standing, breathing, tired, tensing, relaxing, waiting, resisting, noticing the pressure of the floor, the temperature of the air, their own distance from the work. None of this is background — it is part of the artistic experience. Art that ignores bodily reality risks becoming too abstract for living perception.
But there is another side to this. The body is not only a limitation; it is also the condition for extreme experience. Only a finite body can experience something that exceeds its own finitude — not in spite of the body but through it. This thought is enormously important. It allows us to move away from the false opposition of the material and the spiritual. Within the limits of one’s own body, a person can undergo states that are not reducible to bodily function yet do not exist outside the body.
In an artistic context, this means that a powerful work need not be spectacular or emotionally loud. Sometimes it acts almost imperceptibly: it alters the rhythm of perception, shifts the breath, slows the inner pace, creates a sense of depth without an overload of imagery. In such moments, art ceases to be an external object and becomes a field in which a person becomes aware of themselves differently.
Calm
by Alina Morrele / @AlinaMorrele
This illustration is based on a photo I took about five years ago. I was waiting for a ferry on the riverbank. It was sunny and there was a light breeze… Rocks peeked out in the shallows, glittering in the sun. Two ducks swam past, slowly and calmly. Nothing seemed to bother them, they were in the moment, just swimming. I looked at them and in that moment, I thought about absolutely nothing, as if I had disconnected from the rest of the world and there were only them — the two ducks, the rocks, the shimmering river reflecting the sun.
by Alina Morrele / @AlinaMorrele
This illustration is based on a photo I took about five years ago. I was waiting for a ferry on the riverbank. It was sunny and there was a light breeze… Rocks peeked out in the shallows, glittering in the sun. Two ducks swam past, slowly and calmly. Nothing seemed to bother them, they were in the moment, just swimming. I looked at them and in that moment, I thought about absolutely nothing, as if I had disconnected from the rest of the world and there were only them — the two ducks, the rocks, the shimmering river reflecting the sun.
VI. Infinity as a Quality of Experience
The term infinite in the movement’s name can be misleading if taken literally. This is not about infinity as a theme, a subject, or a philosophical abstraction. Here, infinity is a quality of experience that arises when a work exceeds its own visible limit.
This is not difficult to feel intuitively. There are works that end at the level of surface: you looked, noted it, moved on. And there are works that continue to act after the encounter. They seem to open an additional depth within perception. Their form is finite, but the response does not settle into simple finality. This is what can be called the experience of the infinite — not as proof of infinity, but as the feeling that what is visible contains more than it shows.
Such an experience is not always connected to large scale or striking expressiveness. On the contrary, it often arises where form is maximally precise and restrained. When a work contains enough emptiness, silence, pause, or tension, the viewer begins to complete not the image but their own presence. And in that moment something greater opens than any specific motif or material.
It is important that this is not mysticism in the familiar romantic sense. It is not an escape from reality into some other world. Rather the opposite: it is an extreme deepening into the present moment. In this sense, the infinite does not detach from reality but makes it denser. And this is precisely why art oriented toward such experience does not decorate the world or explain it — it allows one to see that the world is deeper than the habitual gaze suggests.
This is not difficult to feel intuitively. There are works that end at the level of surface: you looked, noted it, moved on. And there are works that continue to act after the encounter. They seem to open an additional depth within perception. Their form is finite, but the response does not settle into simple finality. This is what can be called the experience of the infinite — not as proof of infinity, but as the feeling that what is visible contains more than it shows.
Such an experience is not always connected to large scale or striking expressiveness. On the contrary, it often arises where form is maximally precise and restrained. When a work contains enough emptiness, silence, pause, or tension, the viewer begins to complete not the image but their own presence. And in that moment something greater opens than any specific motif or material.
It is important that this is not mysticism in the familiar romantic sense. It is not an escape from reality into some other world. Rather the opposite: it is an extreme deepening into the present moment. In this sense, the infinite does not detach from reality but makes it denser. And this is precisely why art oriented toward such experience does not decorate the world or explain it — it allows one to see that the world is deeper than the habitual gaze suggests.
Symeria II
by Zilian Robin / @ZilianRobin
"Symeria II" creates an encounter rather than a mere image. It embodies memory and absence, making the viewer feel the trace of the artist’s presence while inviting them to inhabit the image. The work is experienced in the body and mind, a moment where perception and sensation converge.
by Zilian Robin / @ZilianRobin
"Symeria II" creates an encounter rather than a mere image. It embodies memory and absence, making the viewer feel the trace of the artist’s presence while inviting them to inhabit the image. The work is experienced in the body and mind, a moment where perception and sensation converge.
VII. Presence as Professional and Ethical Discipline
The word presence is often used in too general a sense, almost as a synonym for attention or concentration. But in the context of this new movement it takes on a more rigorous and professional meaning. Presence is not an inspired state or an abstract spiritual orientation. It is the discipline of inhabiting what is happening now.
For the artist, this demands an extremely high degree of precision. One cannot work from inertia, from past success, from habitual manner, from a self-image as author. One must constantly return to the point of the current situation. What is needed here, specifically? What creates the fewest intermediaries? Where does form not obstruct experience but help it to arise? Such questions make the work alive — but also difficult, because they allow no automatism.
But presence is demanded not only of the artist but of the viewer. A work built on this principle will not necessarily be "legible" at first glance. It requires stopping, slowing down, a willingness not to immediately translate what is seen into familiar language. This is not asceticism or snobbery — it is the condition of encounter. Without the viewer’s presence, art oriented toward experience does not open. But this does not mean the viewer must do anything "correctly." Rather, they must allow themselves to be here without hurry and without defensive skepticism.
At this point, art ceases to be consumption and becomes a mutual event. The artist creates the conditions; the viewer enters them with their body and attention. And what happens next belongs not to one side alone but to the field of encounter itself.
For the artist, this demands an extremely high degree of precision. One cannot work from inertia, from past success, from habitual manner, from a self-image as author. One must constantly return to the point of the current situation. What is needed here, specifically? What creates the fewest intermediaries? Where does form not obstruct experience but help it to arise? Such questions make the work alive — but also difficult, because they allow no automatism.
But presence is demanded not only of the artist but of the viewer. A work built on this principle will not necessarily be "legible" at first glance. It requires stopping, slowing down, a willingness not to immediately translate what is seen into familiar language. This is not asceticism or snobbery — it is the condition of encounter. Without the viewer’s presence, art oriented toward experience does not open. But this does not mean the viewer must do anything "correctly." Rather, they must allow themselves to be here without hurry and without defensive skepticism.
At this point, art ceases to be consumption and becomes a mutual event. The artist creates the conditions; the viewer enters them with their body and attention. And what happens next belongs not to one side alone but to the field of encounter itself.
VIII. Method and Freedom of Form
One of the most valuable qualities of Raw Infinite Presence is its refusal of fixed aesthetics. This is a very important step. As soon as a movement becomes easily recognizable by external features, it risks turning into a style — and a style into a repeatable template. What was once a living mode of inquiry becomes an academy of its own gestures.
For this reason, form is not prescribed in advance here. It is determined by the situation. In one case, the most precise vehicle may be a visual object. In another, a performative action. In a third, a sound environment; in a fourth, an almost invisible gesture. What matters is not how the work looks but what it does to perception.
This approach frees the artist from the obligation to know their own language in advance. It does not eliminate mastery — on the contrary, it raises its demands. For mastery here is expressed not in recognizable repetition but in the ability to choose precisely the form that, in a given situation, will create the best conditions for experience. And that is no longer a question of style but a question of precision.
Freedom of form in this movement is not chaos or eclecticism. It is subordination to the task. Form serves not itself but what must happen between the work and the viewer. Hence the refusal of aesthetic closure. The movement must not look in advance "like a movement." It must remain open to what living experience requires.
For this reason, form is not prescribed in advance here. It is determined by the situation. In one case, the most precise vehicle may be a visual object. In another, a performative action. In a third, a sound environment; in a fourth, an almost invisible gesture. What matters is not how the work looks but what it does to perception.
This approach frees the artist from the obligation to know their own language in advance. It does not eliminate mastery — on the contrary, it raises its demands. For mastery here is expressed not in recognizable repetition but in the ability to choose precisely the form that, in a given situation, will create the best conditions for experience. And that is no longer a question of style but a question of precision.
Freedom of form in this movement is not chaos or eclecticism. It is subordination to the task. Form serves not itself but what must happen between the work and the viewer. Hence the refusal of aesthetic closure. The movement must not look in advance "like a movement." It must remain open to what living experience requires.
The Bible
by if CHAIR then 7 / @ifChairThen7
Central to my approach is the conviction that art serves as a philosophical tool — one capable of interrogating the frameworks that shape our understanding of the self and society. I am particularly interested in the tension between inherited narratives and the individual’s search for coherence in an age marked by uncertainty.
Addressing to the eye, striking the mind — that has always been a premise by which I am guided through the artistic execution and upon reading the Manifesto I recognized additional points that have been integral to my practice throughout, be it traditional or digital, yet unrecognized or deemed needless to accentuate. And while I do not discard the aesthetics aspect because it serves me to deliver the intention, I pretty much subscribe to all.
Art is a lonesome endeavor, but now and then you still come across a friend.
by if CHAIR then 7 / @ifChairThen7
Central to my approach is the conviction that art serves as a philosophical tool — one capable of interrogating the frameworks that shape our understanding of the self and society. I am particularly interested in the tension between inherited narratives and the individual’s search for coherence in an age marked by uncertainty.
Addressing to the eye, striking the mind — that has always been a premise by which I am guided through the artistic execution and upon reading the Manifesto I recognized additional points that have been integral to my practice throughout, be it traditional or digital, yet unrecognized or deemed needless to accentuate. And while I do not discard the aesthetics aspect because it serves me to deliver the intention, I pretty much subscribe to all.
Art is a lonesome endeavor, but now and then you still come across a friend.
Mr President is thet Big Cock?
by Miloš Točaković / @tocakov
I don’t think my work belongs in RIP — that’s for the curator to decide. I found myself reflected in the RIP manifesto. I share ideas with its author, and I believe I even hold more extreme and stricter positions.
My practice exists within New Aesthetics — both of them, as you know — I create in the digital world as well as in the material one. My aim is to be involved from the smallest possible step in the making of a work. In the physical world, this means everything from gathering materials — pigment, objects — all the way to the final piece.
In the digital world, I scrutinize every pixel, wrestling with it like a little monkey trying to crack open a can of Coca-Cola.
And of course, there must always be: idea, emotion, risk…
If I am not the first, I am at least among the first artists working with Synesthetics — founded by Damir Smiljanić, professor of philosophy (Latin/Roman script: Sinestetika, Cyrillic: Синестетика) — a branch of New Phenomenology that focuses on, or rather foregrounds, the pathic (pathos) dimension of knowledge alongside, rather than subordinate to, pure cognition. It’s not as simple as it sounds, but this isn’t the moment to explain an entire new branch of philosophy. XD
by Miloš Točaković / @tocakov
I don’t think my work belongs in RIP — that’s for the curator to decide. I found myself reflected in the RIP manifesto. I share ideas with its author, and I believe I even hold more extreme and stricter positions.
My practice exists within New Aesthetics — both of them, as you know — I create in the digital world as well as in the material one. My aim is to be involved from the smallest possible step in the making of a work. In the physical world, this means everything from gathering materials — pigment, objects — all the way to the final piece.
In the digital world, I scrutinize every pixel, wrestling with it like a little monkey trying to crack open a can of Coca-Cola.
And of course, there must always be: idea, emotion, risk…
If I am not the first, I am at least among the first artists working with Synesthetics — founded by Damir Smiljanić, professor of philosophy (Latin/Roman script: Sinestetika, Cyrillic: Синестетика) — a branch of New Phenomenology that focuses on, or rather foregrounds, the pathic (pathos) dimension of knowledge alongside, rather than subordinate to, pure cognition. It’s not as simple as it sounds, but this isn’t the moment to explain an entire new branch of philosophy. XD
Transformation
by Victor M. Pantoja Dominguez / @Vpd_NFT
A photograph of a body crossed by laser light becomes a space of inner change. Rather than illustrating transformation as an idea, the work stages it as a lived tension between vulnerability, presence, and becoming.
Why does this work belong to Raw Infinite Presence?
This photographic work belongs to Raw Infinite Presence because it is built from direct intervention, not decoration. The body is not presented as a fixed image, but as a site of tension, exposure, and inner transformation. Laser light acts as an immediate gesture that makes presence visible and opens the work beyond the body itself.
by Victor M. Pantoja Dominguez / @Vpd_NFT
A photograph of a body crossed by laser light becomes a space of inner change. Rather than illustrating transformation as an idea, the work stages it as a lived tension between vulnerability, presence, and becoming.
Why does this work belong to Raw Infinite Presence?
This photographic work belongs to Raw Infinite Presence because it is built from direct intervention, not decoration. The body is not presented as a fixed image, but as a site of tension, exposure, and inner transformation. Laser light acts as an immediate gesture that makes presence visible and opens the work beyond the body itself.
IX. Art as the Expansion of the Human
If one were to formulate the aim of Raw Infinite Presence in the most compressed terms, it would be this: art must make a person larger. Not better, not more correct, not more useful — larger. This is a very precise and very demanding formula.
What does "larger" mean? It means not being entirely reducible to one’s biography, one’s fears, one’s status, one’s everyday role. It means stepping, if only for a moment, beyond the habitual boundaries of self-identification and feeling that there is a dimension within oneself that is not exhausted by how one ordinarily understands oneself. Such an experience cannot be received as information. It can only be lived.
Art here functions not as an instrument of morality, propaganda, or enlightenment, but as a way of loosening the narrow boundaries of self-understanding. This need not be dramatic. Sometimes a brief, almost imperceptible shift is enough. But it is precisely these moments that can prove most significant. They do not change a person instantly and completely, but they leave a trace. And that is already sufficient to say: art happened here.
In this sense, Raw Infinite Presence offers a very rigorous yet very humane program. It promises no salvation, does not substitute philosophy for life, does not build a cult of exclusivity. It simply affirms that art is still capable of creating moments in which a person feels the depth of their own presence. And that, perhaps, is one of the greatest tasks that can be set before art at all.
What does "larger" mean? It means not being entirely reducible to one’s biography, one’s fears, one’s status, one’s everyday role. It means stepping, if only for a moment, beyond the habitual boundaries of self-identification and feeling that there is a dimension within oneself that is not exhausted by how one ordinarily understands oneself. Such an experience cannot be received as information. It can only be lived.
Art here functions not as an instrument of morality, propaganda, or enlightenment, but as a way of loosening the narrow boundaries of self-understanding. This need not be dramatic. Sometimes a brief, almost imperceptible shift is enough. But it is precisely these moments that can prove most significant. They do not change a person instantly and completely, but they leave a trace. And that is already sufficient to say: art happened here.
In this sense, Raw Infinite Presence offers a very rigorous yet very humane program. It promises no salvation, does not substitute philosophy for life, does not build a cult of exclusivity. It simply affirms that art is still capable of creating moments in which a person feels the depth of their own presence. And that, perhaps, is one of the greatest tasks that can be set before art at all.
Conclusion
Raw Infinite Presence is not a style in the ordinary sense, nor a new visual trend. It is an attempt to restore to art its quality as event. In a situation where vision has become fast and understanding too easy, this movement returns to art its density, its risk, and its immediacy. It does not reject thought, but refuses to subordinate all experience to it. It does not reject the object, but does not allow the object to substitute for encounter. It does not reject identity, but frees the artist from the obligation to be merely its repetition.
The central demand of this approach is presence. The presence of an artist who does not work from inertia. The presence of a viewer who does not limit themselves to a surface glance. The presence of a form that does not dictate experience but creates its conditions. And if art is truly capable of preserving its necessity today, it is through precisely this discipline that it may once again become not a report on experience but experience itself.
This is the force of the new movement. It does not seek to replace the past but proposes moving beyond its familiar supports — not by destroying art but by freeing it from everything that has become too comfortable. And perhaps it is in this liberation that the most serious artistic task of our time resides.
The central demand of this approach is presence. The presence of an artist who does not work from inertia. The presence of a viewer who does not limit themselves to a surface glance. The presence of a form that does not dictate experience but creates its conditions. And if art is truly capable of preserving its necessity today, it is through precisely this discipline that it may once again become not a report on experience but experience itself.
This is the force of the new movement. It does not seek to replace the past but proposes moving beyond its familiar supports — not by destroying art but by freeing it from everything that has become too comfortable. And perhaps it is in this liberation that the most serious artistic task of our time resides.
Kuro
Raw Infinite Presence, 2026
Raw Infinite Presence, 2026
Calm
Alina Morrele / @AlinaMorrele
Breath Between Stars
Anna Zubarev / @annalzubarev
The Body Before Language
Arts of Chet / @ArtsofChet
Raw Existence
Ayaz Yıldız / @AyazYildiz_
changing my mind
beantart / @beantartETH
Blind Date
Ece Kalabak / @cocidisko
I’ve haunted this place for years
Eleonora Penza / @iocivedo
Because I could not stop for Death
Gamze Topuz / Orionunevi / @Orionunevi
The Bible
if CHAIR then 7 / @ifChairThen7
Madness
Ikba / @iqbalation
Alina Morrele / @AlinaMorrele
Breath Between Stars
Anna Zubarev / @annalzubarev
The Body Before Language
Arts of Chet / @ArtsofChet
Raw Existence
Ayaz Yıldız / @AyazYildiz_
changing my mind
beantart / @beantartETH
Blind Date
Ece Kalabak / @cocidisko
I’ve haunted this place for years
Eleonora Penza / @iocivedo
Because I could not stop for Death
Gamze Topuz / Orionunevi / @Orionunevi
The Bible
if CHAIR then 7 / @ifChairThen7
Madness
Ikba / @iqbalation
BROKEN ORBIT (32 keys)
Julia Vale / @juliavale_art
The Movie of Me
Kate / @h_Artt_
OUROBOROS
KATYA TSOY / @senseofbodies
The Cost of Living
Man-Kha27 / @ManoelKhan
Procesing No.224
Milan Terzic / @_MilanTerzic
Mr President is thet Big Cock?
Miloš Točaković / @tocakov
Pure Form
NinaPop / @NinaPop_nft
NAMASTE
PUGUH RAHARDJO / SKOWL / @skowllwoks
Postponed Dreams:
What do you mean 'someday'?
REBELLICCA / @rebellicca
IT’S YOU
Rina German / @RinaGerman_
Julia Vale / @juliavale_art
The Movie of Me
Kate / @h_Artt_
OUROBOROS
KATYA TSOY / @senseofbodies
The Cost of Living
Man-Kha27 / @ManoelKhan
Procesing No.224
Milan Terzic / @_MilanTerzic
Mr President is thet Big Cock?
Miloš Točaković / @tocakov
Pure Form
NinaPop / @NinaPop_nft
NAMASTE
PUGUH RAHARDJO / SKOWL / @skowllwoks
Postponed Dreams:
What do you mean 'someday'?
REBELLICCA / @rebellicca
IT’S YOU
Rina German / @RinaGerman_
Overcapacity
Sashelka / @sashelka
Flame Underwater
shanelle julia rosita / @iamjuliarosita
The other Face
Sherry Mahboubian / @SherryNFT
august. cigarette / ghost story
thycloudmuseum / @thycloudmuseum
Phantom Embrace
Vasiawow / @vasiawow
Transformation
Victor M. Pantoja Dominguez / @Vpd_NFT
Shi-va: That which is not
Vijay Bharadvaj / @vijay_bharadvaj
Symeria II
Zilian Robin / @ZilianRobin
Sashelka / @sashelka
Flame Underwater
shanelle julia rosita / @iamjuliarosita
The other Face
Sherry Mahboubian / @SherryNFT
august. cigarette / ghost story
thycloudmuseum / @thycloudmuseum
Phantom Embrace
Vasiawow / @vasiawow
Transformation
Victor M. Pantoja Dominguez / @Vpd_NFT
Shi-va: That which is not
Vijay Bharadvaj / @vijay_bharadvaj
Symeria II
Zilian Robin / @ZilianRobin