So, good evening everyone, and good evening to Mario Pfeiffer, who is connecting from Berlin. I'm Manuela Mazzonis, I've assisted Francesco Bonami, creating the MiFamily project and platform. Before starting, I want to first of all thank you Mario for being with us today and for having accepted to be part of this online public program that has been launched by the Moodham in October 2020, and today it's our sixth conversation. So, before we start the Q&A talk, I will make a brief introduction about you Mario, and then we can start with our questions and answers. So Mario Pfeiffer is a German artist who lives between New York and Berlin. He belongs to that category of artist researchers who focus their analysis on socio-political events, the repercussions that these facts have had on society and on individuals, and also the relationship that is established between the art world and the social sphere. His research is based above all on the ethnographic investigation of the place in which he decides to carry out his work. For you Mario, the inquiry into the surrounding environment becomes fundamental to the quality of the final result. You seek to document the reality of the facts without giving your individual judgment. You let the viewer formulate his or her own interpretation based on personal knowledge. And I'm thinking now about the two-channel video, hashtag Blacktivist from 2015, where you collaborated over a period of six months with the New York based hip-hop trio, the Flatbush Zombies, and the piece that has been a premier dedicated institute in New York was on view at our cologne and shown at Berlin's Akut, but overall had, if I'm not wrong, 2.5 million YouTube views, it went viral immediately just in one day. I would say that it's the most widely viewed piece of video in art history. In this work, you are analyzing many different topics such as identity, and I'm referring especially to the Black Lives Matter movement, the police brutality, the right of self-defense, the right of free speech, the weapon distribution in U.S., with reference to the Second Amendment, and actually you shot the second part of the video in a 3D gun manufacturing workshop in Texas based on defense distributed, an online open source hardware organization that develops digital schematics of firearms in CAD files that can be actually downloaded from internet and used in 3D printing. So practically you're able to print out your own headgun with freely available files from the WikiWeapon project. In the video you're also presenting Barack Obama as an ostrich knees in front of the camera, and in that moment the rappers are presented as terrorists who ultimately turn their weapons against themselves to be reborn in a new life, merging on the Brooklyn Bridge as a peaceful marching for a new change. Now I would like to ask you, Mario, if you can tell us more about the project and what was the aim you wanted to reach out, and also if you could ever imagine that this video would have gone viral in such a short amount of time. Yeah, thank you very much. Good evening to you, Emmanuel, and to our viewers. So Black activist was actually born out of, yeah, the birth of the Black Lives Matter movement, the death of Eric Garner, who actually coined the term icon breeze. So when I was invited to stage a solo show at Lattelow City 8 in New York, I wanted to as usually somehow confront myself and my audience through my artistic practice to an everyday situation, a situation that is current that is somehow urgent. Obviously, the Black Lives Matter movement and the death of Eric Garner was such a moment in our young history. And it was clear to me that I needed to collaborate with not only people that are part of the movement and somehow experience everyday police brutality, but also maybe have a cultural technique that would allow us to reach a wider audience. And I was always interested in hip hop, social political music, music was a message, the birthplace of hip hop was New York. So I followed somehow my wish to engage in music video production as an art piece with rappers of a younger generation that were sensitive to the topic, were able to reflect on the topic out of their own experience, and also to speak to really the audience via YouTube, for example. So the Flatbreeze Zombies had already then a huge fan base, a digital fan base and online fan base. And they were interested when I pitched them the idea, and they also had total control of the song so they composed the song they wrote the lyrics, we just had discussions to the production. And also the visual ideas in the video were pretty much the result of our discussions. I am as a white male German living in New York at the time, had quite a different perspective obviously than they had and the goal was to merge an outsider's perspective with an insider perspective. And for me, the Black Lives Matter movement through the song and the video installation Black Tuist of course was not per se an art piece only designed for galleries and museums. Obviously the topic is much larger than the institutional space of art. So it was immediately clear that besides the exhibitions we would release the piece on YouTube on 9 11 at 9 11pm, for example, a very symbolic time. Also for the Flatbreeze Zombies who had this idea because they previously had released video music videos online on that day at that time. And so, for me, it was also an experiment. What can I do for a society. Can we reach a new audience, maybe an audience on the street can this song and project be somehow a milestone in the movement. Can it be a document of our time. Unfortunately, I must say that even today, when we see the trial beginning against the police officer who killed George Floyd, the piece has still the momentum. This is ever more up to date, unfortunately, and describes exactly what is happening not only in the US but also in many parts of the world this morning I read the news about a Mexican Mexican police officers who killed a woman through stop and frisk policies by kneeling on her neck. So what black divas managed was not only to document and weave in police brutality visually, but it also is a testimony of young African Americans who faced this brutality. And music is of course a great catalyst to spread the message maybe even a better medium than art. Because we all there, there are a lot of people who listen to music and music has different ways of expanding into the world and reaching out and being a memory and I think we were all astonished that the music video went so far from my part, we must also admit that the fat presumedies have most often a huge online crowd. But of course our music video and the installation is somehow different than a regular music video is much more reflective is much more aware is much more nuanced, but it still carries some pop cultural elements. To me it was a very fruitful project until today, because it has opened so many doors that also perspectives and also different feedbacks from newspapers to art magazines but also to YouTube commentaries. So the engagement from the audience with the pieces is well documented, and it's still growing so today we have around 3.6 million views. There's a steady grow. And there's a steady interest and if you follow the YouTube comments and you can see how the message is unfortunately preserved every day, which also means that the the project in itself. You know, it's interestingly very valid. Yeah, often we think about art has also a moment when it when it appears that it reflects that moment of time. But here we have a constant update. I was saying I could re-edit activist using new types of body cam footage from police officers, which appear in the beginning of the video, because it's a repetitive moment. Unfortunately, so we see that state authorities haven't really learned much from their mistakes in the past. And I think black activist is a great reminder of that. So in that perspective, the artwork is to a certain extent very successful, because it describes what happened about six years ago. But we experience a very similar notion, basically every day. Which is actually dramatic in a sense because seems that nothing changed actually in a way. And listening to you talking about confront yourself to everyday life and situation. And you were just said that you are asking yourself, what can we do for our society. So what do you think about the artwork? What do you think about digital diffusion of artworks and how do you think museums could face and surpass the physical barriers of institutional venues in order to reach out a wider audience actually as you just did with this project. Yeah, I mean, I'm an artist. I'm not working necessarily in a museum all the time or I'm not a curator. I'm not a director of institution. But what I can say from artistic perspective is that projects that have different lives and different spheres seem very interesting to me. So when I try to produce an artistic project, I think not necessarily only about the museum or gallery space. I also think about how can I bring the project to another audience that doesn't necessarily go into museum how can I attract an audience outside the museum to go into the museum. Yeah, obviously it's also about what do you show where you mentioned the defense distributed 3D gun milling parts of the video installation. They are more explicitly explained in the exhibition space because they wouldn't necessarily fit into the rhythm of a music video. So it's also about maybe having a project and having different aspects in the project that need maybe different spaces. Yeah, so in other installations, I would work in between a video installation for a museum space, a TV version, a cinema version. Also trying to acknowledge to different languages in a different spaces. Yeah, so the language on YouTube is a different language and within a museum. And if I would imagine the museum of the future, I think it is about also granting artists the opportunities to work beyond the museum walls. Through commissions through projects. And I think that there's there's a lot of progress. Would like to think about outside of the box it's also about where do artists produce. Yeah, if you produce, let's say in epicenter like New York, or Berlin, it's something else than you produce in Lagos. So also the physical barriers to geographical barriers, I think they should not hinder artists to be visible. So, so that's another aspect that digital art has the opportunity to be seen everywhere and anywhere, and it's still valuable. And there shouldn't be a big difference. I mean, shown on YouTube or a museum like Moodham. Yeah, in the best case scenario it's a, it's somehow a symbiosis, and a large audience can gain from that but also the institution can gain from it by just simply having new audiences and I think it's also about the topic that's a music video for that part, because it attracts a lot of young people, and they understand the music video as as a piece of art anyways. Yeah for them as a cultural production that isn't about low and high culture and pop and elitist culture. It's simply culture, and I think museums in the past also have not acknowledged a strong intellectual barriers, they have built in order to present things in the museum and I think that keeps also audience away and then it's also the question what do you want to negotiate within the museum walls.  Do you want to really negotiate very current and very urgent issues. The form of an artistic work, plus the audience, plus the space, they define also the momentum of the work. Yeah, and we have chosen that pass and for for black to this I think that was a very valid and very intriguing format because it allowed us to speak to the cultural environments because the black lives matter movement has also something to do with the institutional structures of museums. Yeah, we see this with workers rights we see it was minimum pay.  What we have tried to do with our me family platform is that exactly the point to try to develop in a very wider way. The art message, and the fact that all of the artists accepted to be part of this project was a really big success. And actually the film, we have chosen by you for the me family me family platform is very different from black to this is entitled again is from 2018 has been commissioned by the 10th Berlin by Emily. It was co produced by your studio together with the broadcaster run fun Berlin Brandenburg in collaboration with art and call you have reconstructed in this film, an incident that took place in 2016 near Dresden your home city. And in which after an argument with a supermarket sales person in Iraqi refugee Shabas al-Aziz has been physically attacked by four local residents and later tidy up to a tree. All the four men were allowed to return home unobstructed by the police. Al-Aziz was taken to the police station and then release the game after a amount of time. But almost a year later, the current case relating to the incident was opened and dismissed after just a few hours as the body of the refugee who should have testified the week before the hearing was found that in a forest. Really shocking from the story is that the court very easily dismissed the case because of they said lack of public interest and because the man the refugee has been always declared as a very seek aggressive person. While the four men, the court, the care they acted for self defense. Now thanks to the support of research done by investigative journalists you asked about the reasons for the dismissal of the case. And inspired by the amateur video taken in the supermarket which had immediately gone viral on the internet you reconstructed the incident using professional actors and invited citizens of different nationalities all immigrants to Germany to be the jurors. You recreated the case, installing a proper film stage, letting the professional actors being the narrator in the sense of the story, giving to all of us in this way the possibility to better understand to rethink about the story itself, about rising ourselves questions. You have explained in the video, the personal story of the refugee, and in order to give us more information about him and not just presenting him as a refugee who entered in a supermarket. He was actually suffering of epilepsy and this is the reason why he moved away from Iraq to Germany. To be treated and hopefully cured. Actually he was sent to when he arrived to an neurological clinic in Arnstorf, and then he went missing in a forest for a very long time, and he was always described that just as a sick man in danger for his lack of orientation. So, after this presentation you allow the jurors to present their own judgments on what happened, and you ask them universal questions about justice, identity, solidarity, the right of life, and the influence certain situation have on our perception of reality and manipulation of the the jurors who are all immigrants who have all been welcomed in Germany in a very different way from the Iraqi refugee, their rights has been accepted. They were really, I can say devastated and horrified by the story. And here I would like to quote some of the sentences they declared in the video. They said clearly everyone must be protected by the Constitution. This is not right. This is just hate. The mistake is by the state here. The state should be treated people who are coming from war countries in a different way. The total failure is by politician. I lost trust in police and in court. This is not democracy anymore. This is a just said normality reality. This is expression of poor racism. And the last woman who actually ended her comment crying, she said that I know what is like to be treated like an alien. Then you conclude the video with an ending message, civil courage is not punishable by law. So I was also very shocked by the video and is difficult actually to watch it more than one time because you're already devastated the first time. But I will watch it many times in order to better understand the story and also the position of the people you are invite you have invited to be part of the video itself. I would like to ask you first of all why you have entitled the video again, and then I will go on with my other questions. Yeah, again has actually two meanings for me in this project. First of all, we deal with a real scenario real case, a real story of a man who died in the forest and it was attacked in the supermarket by four men who acted in their words with civil courage. The case had to be proven and there was no real legal case it was dismissed around after four hours. The case was opened. So I wanted to stage it again, I wanted to, because I wasn't present in the courtroom, I wasn't present in a supermarket I wanted to understand how this case build up how, how it came alive. And so we said okay let's do it again. So the first idea about the title. The other title is that history repeats itself, it seems. So again and again, we have scenarios where people who migrated to Germany or to other European countries are attacked or discriminated live under fear. We have a strong history in the 1930s where racism ended up in a worldwide disaster. So, again also points out to how do we learn from our own history. Can we break through that devil circle. Can we have it not happening again. Yeah, so again is also somehow living in a historical loop. Yeah, and it's also. If you look at the video installation then because it's shown in the loop. You're confronted with the same story over and over again. Until we as a society would find a way to interrupt that circle. And obviously, we haven't found a way. It feels more like that the circle is spinning faster. Yeah, if you look at the US with the Trump administration. If you look at Brazil. If you look at the rise of right wing parties across Europe. So, again, it's also a reminder that we, you know, we cannot be just sitting back, we need to intervene. And so there's a structural element there's a sociological element. There is maybe a technical element to the title, but there's also a human element to the title that again and again we need to learn a lesson. Yes. And we have to remember that, I think, is very important. So you have decided to involve people who had a very different experience from yours. The 10 persons you have called to be interviewed are individuals who do not have any relation with the art world and not even with the incident itself how do they react to your call when you invited them to be part of this project. First of all, the research for Germans who have a migrant history. Over about 3035 years was quite difficult. I wanted to work within this age group because for me it was very important being raised in the GDR in the eastern part of Germany before the wall came down. And then we had two Germany's so there were two political and economic systems, capitalism socialism, democracy, and maybe, yeah, a regime. So for me it was interesting how people migrated to the, to the both Germany's under which conditions how they were welcomed how they were integrated, if at all. How do they think about that past as well with the unification. There was also a rise of racism and through the change of the economic structure of the eastern part. There was even a two class society between the two Germanis. Yeah, and I wanted to cover these experience as well, talking about racism and discrimination today. So, often I was asked why are all these people like of a certain age 50 plus. And I said well it needs the experience that I don't have. I was eight when the wall came down I hardly could determine the difference, but people who were 1820 25 who maybe came from Cuba or from Hungary or from the Western Sahara. They live through these two political systems and the two racist systems very differently. And so it wasn't easy to track down such citizens. And it took a long time but it also took a long time to build trust amongst them to work with me because it's also something we don't usually see on the media or in TV on radio that people with a migrant history talk about their reflection of our society today. They are hardly invisible in our media economy. So, for me it was also being an artist and not being a TV reporter or broadcast or a moderator for a TV station. It was also about talking about art of sharing something and bringing attention to something maybe in a smaller way, but potentially also in a bigger way if the project would because we always had a TV broadcast or art as a co-producer on board as it would be clear that eventually the project would be broadcasted on TV, which is the biggest audience you can reach with a film nowadays besides streaming services. So reaching out and then over six months I had regular meetings with my jurors who decided to at least listen to me and we met at their homes. I explained what I'm trying to do. I didn't release too much information of what they're going to see, but it was more about I need your expertise based on your life experience to look at my art project and I want you to talk about it in relation to your own biography. So usually the longer somebody lives, the more life experience they have. That's not a rule per se, but for most of the people having lived through different political, economical, societal systems and moments they just have a wider range of emotions towards that society. And that's what interested me and that was the value because my experience is limited due to the political economic system I live through how I grew up and also the non experience of racism I've experienced in my life. So it's always about working with people, speaking with people that also I can learn from. That's kind of a premise in all of my projects. I try to work with people that have a different angle than I do, a different life experience, a different way to articulate these emotions and ideas. So once this trust was built we had limited time because they were present during the full production of the video installation and the film, but then they only had about three minutes to act on camera to give their response. And that's when the trust really came out when they trusted me and these big film cameras and a big film set in order to reflect on what they've seen reflect on the crime that happened to Shabas Al Aziz, but also to connect it with their own biography to stay based on my life and feel that way. Yeah, whether I can analytically look at the life of Shabas and the failure of our justice system. My jurors always had the emotional component because they might have felt reminded again what for they had experienced while they migrated or flat. Yeah, and I think that is something I wish they would come out with. In a way, I believe that being part of the project that's also what they wish to share with the audience. And these are testimonies we don't see on TV usually. And I think an art project at the space of art can also bring that trust, but it can also be a safe haven it can also be a bubble that protects its protagonist. Because as an artist I'm more interested in that somebody offers their opinion, then to judge it. That's not up to me. It's not something that I want to pressure somebody to come out with an idea. I want to be the person that moderates and creates an atmosphere of sharing and caring. Because I believe the only reason why we staged this film was to make these jurors speak so that an art audience, a film audience, a TV audience can learn from them. Yeah, because most of the audience that might see this film will not be in the position of Shabas. It will be in the position of somebody like me or of the jurors who live with us. So it's really about the strategy of saying who do we listen to? Who do I put into the frame? And so you have this interesting balance between the jurors and the famous TV actors that serve as moderators, you have Shabas. So it's a mixture of people that are either involved, look at the case or emotionally attach themselves to the case and build empathy for all of us. Yes. As you're explaining at a certain moment in the video itself, and you also have explained in a conversation, a very interesting conversation you had with Stan Douglas. If you or any other German citizen could have been missed for more than just one day, the police would have started to search for you or for the missing person immediately. While in the case of the refugee who was missed for a very long time, if I'm not wrong, 28 days, no one looked for him. Also actually there is a testimony of the conversation in the video between the brother of Alaziz and a friend of him, and his brother is saying that he considered Germany as a developed country where things like these shouldn't happen. He defined Germany, a country of law and order. So this declaration open up an identity issue also about German identity. And again, as you have mentioned in this conversation with Stan Douglas, Germans suffered not to have experienced a national identity in public since World War Two, as you were just saying also before. How do you think Mario has changed today, the value of national identity in Germany and how the German people react in front of the war world refugees crisis and drama. Yeah, I think in Germany we have like in many other European countries, a very mixed perception of who we are as Germans and again, I must say, we need to always refer to history in order to assess certain shifts. Like the refugee crisis like big migration movements and we easily can determine the reasons why people migrate because their life is at risk. There's war, their social inequalities, there may be religious inequalities and discrimination and that makes people move. I would say there are only a few people in the world who would love to leave their house. But also I must always, when I when I discuss these topics point out to my own situation that how can I judge the decision to migrate, if I have never experienced war, terror, racism discrimination. Honestly, for me, it's very hard to judge so I will not judge that's also why I invited the jurors because I feel they are in a much stronger position to judge what they saw, and to, to discuss what happened to Shabbat al-Aziz so it's also the position from where we stand and discuss, I will not comment or judge somebody's decision to migrate to Germany for a better life. What it is to say, welcome. Our wealth is built on other countries, difficult situations. Yeah, we extract labor resources from other countries to build our wealth. So it's our immediate responsibility to help and to assist and to be open. Our wealth would not exist. So obviously, there is a growing number of German citizens who believe they need to protect the wealth that they have built on other countries and nations and continents resources. That's again, also a historical parallel to the 1930s that in order to protect our cultural identity which is always something that is developing, changing, growing. Yeah, becoming more complex becoming more diverse. It has always been that way. But of course they are nationalist ideas to define what is the German identity, and I think most of them are populist and that's why they are to a certain extent successful, but they are also false. Yeah, as many scholars could explain in a better way than I do. But somehow how do we deal with that because that's not easily going away by describing these are these are false arguments these are these are historically so sociologically wrong arguments they still exist and they gain power as we can see in elections. What we also see with the corona crisis is that we have nationalist way for example for the vaccine production and the vaccine distribution. That is I think also another very scary aspect that societies and especially capitalist societies of course always think short term in in a way to to be a profit and to be stable and to protect markets and to protect wealth and living standards. Yeah, without acknowledging that there will always be a weaker country next door probably. There is a race against who gets the vaccine first and who is exporting to which country and who's not exporting. I think that's maybe a more real and current feeling of the creation of national identities based on misery of a crisis. It was, it was never really an economic issue for Germany I would even say there's a great resource of of labor coming to the country that's how a lot of conservative politicians also argued in order to shift somehow the focus when just 1.5 million in Germany let that it be 2 million that somehow a manageable number in my point of view, and I think our welfare system can manage that and our wealth can manage that. And beyond that they're ethical and moral. We spotted the vulnerabilities that we just have as a central European country. It's a very tough question and each crisis puts oil into the fire. So, it's something I deal with in my work a lot with these ideas about discrimination cultural national identities. It's really really not easy so I do read a lot of sociological studies and books and reports and case studies and it's very hard for scientists for conflict researchers for sociologists to really define the political momentum with the emotional state of people of citizens. Yeah, and the Germany isn't so it's quite complex because we do have these two German states in the past and we have two parallel emotions governing our national and cultural identity in Germany up until today. Not necessarily so much in my generation but about older generations but also in my generation people will somehow start to believe that the East German identity is a different one than the West German identity whether I will belong to potentially group of citizens would say well I'm a European. And that comes also with a burden. European is not necessarily a positive aspect of my cultural national identity. So, I made a project in 2016 called about education and fear. It's a nine hour interview project with people from the right wing protest movement in East Germany but also with conflict researchers and therapists sociologists.  What your parents in your school taught you how they influence your political behavior and thinking besides the media, but it's a symbiosis again, where do you come from. How do you define your cultural identity but also how do you define a prospective country, for example, what's a good country. And a lot of people answer this question and I asked them, or I wanted to be like 20 years ago. If you would have asked them 20 years ago they would have probably said I wanted to be like 20 years ago like 40 years ago. So, it's a it is an emotional topic. Yeah. It's about delusion in a way and it's not about necessarily about optimism, because if I want to think about a prosperous country I must project into the future not into the past. Yeah. Yeah, and if you do not have this optimism that based on the learning of the past of our history you can project into a brighter future. And then, I guess you have a problem as a nation, if you are backwards turn, and we have seen it in the US. What it what damage the election of Trump has created, and how difficult it will be to reverse that. Yeah. So, it's a very tough societal challenge. And the pandemic will not necessarily help I would have believed maybe in the early months of the pandemic that there must be a strong global movement of solidarity. And maybe that was existing for a few weeks and months but the longer the Western world was not able to function in their progressive profit making way of life and way of making business. The more tired people became. And the more they saw their life standard flush away while other regions that would never have this life standard. So people would complain about the isolation, the limitations, their non freedom. You would say well, it's for a certain time, and it will potentially not define all your life but there are other areas in the world, Palestine, Yemen, me on mar, where you will probably never have the freedom that we have. Yeah, and I think these are again reminders to each citizen. How do we live and how is the world governed, and how do I want to be part of that and also how do I want to engage with that. So I think for me that's more to learn from a pandemic than to miss. Yeah, and I think through an even greater effort of solidarity, there would have been less people killed. And there would have been an interesting rebalance of how is this word functioning. Instead, we see that a lot of countries that are not in the economic epicenters do not get vaccines or get vaccines that are not working. And so I think the to shift between. Yeah. For the gaps they between continents to get between countries, eventually will rise. And I think that's a huge miss chance and it will be oil into the fire of populace. Yes, I really like your comment about the pandemic the fact that you can learn instead of missing and I agree because we gain time at the end in this long year, where we finally had, I believe in my opinion more time to read to think to learn and to try to put yourself also I think in another approach in front of society and actually speaking about society of today of nowadays. We can have my last question actually for you that is about our generation we live in an area that is dominated by social media by new media by amplification of the news and most of the time these news that are surrounding us are always negative news. So, it's not easy to compare in this kind of society and to discern what is real from what is fake, what you read from what you really see, and you experience what do you think is the role of the art in relation to a word dominated by the social media by internet and by this immense dissemination of the news. Yeah, I think the power of art at least for me is that we define our information and the way we distribute this information pretty much independent in a way. And we don't have the necessity to be fast and quick and bold. That's one strategy of course, but we can also take time, and we can reflect and we can also have a very little voice and still be heard to a certain extent I think that's a power that as an individual artist, you can basically look for yourself and see what happens, and you can do that over a long period of time as many artists have proven, we didn't gain fame or never made somehow an existential minimum to live from. So artists first of all an expression of thoughts that has a great power to be very individual and very independent. Because we honestly don't really need a newspaper to print what we do we don't need a broadcast to show what we do. We don't need a publisher to print the book. It's of course wonderful if it happens, but nevertheless that's not really my premise and I think many artists would really somehow fight and then protect this kind of liberty to be independent. Yeah. And I think that makes you diametrile different than any social media, and also journalism because, you know, here and there we see that that great investigative journalism is respective. I don't respect it. But the business is dominated by news that are scandalous and that are fast and that are bold. So, of course we can we also have these moments in art, we have artists who are bold and fast and loud. But art history has also taught us that it's about the smaller voices, and that there's always a space for an artist to become visible at some moment in history. And I think that whole idea that we think about art in a very long time forward and backward makes it something very unique. We can read a book that is 200 years old and we feel like it was written yesterday. We can read it today. Yeah, think about how few news and journalistic achievements are re shown redistributed. There are a few maybe the Watergate crisis investigation. Art and the institutions that protect art and collect art, somehow also give credit to this labor, yeah, of this cultural labor over a long period of time and I think the slowness of that system is a huge benefit for society. So also, one must say a very intellectual and critical environment. So it's our production and art critique art history these are quiet intellectual disciplines so there is also a great chance that art, you know gains attention or is discussed amongst people who take it very serious and who also have a responsibility to society and to readers, other scientists yeah so with the news economy it's about how many viewers you get. So it's a completely different approach. And I think there might be a few artists who take this as the first premise, how many people can I reach to which price. So potentially, we have different goals and aims and it's quite also difficult to make art. Yeah, because there are so many things to to reflect on and to think about. So, one can only hope as an practicing artist that art is more put into the center of society. I think the pandemic has shown how important culture is. Yeah, empty life sphere without culture I think that's another learning from the pandemic. Nevertheless, we still live and work and most of us in political and economic systems that somehow carry the right of the stronger. Yeah, at the core. And so art is always strong. Yeah, but it's not necessarily always put into the center place. Yeah, in the long term, yes. If you look at the Louvre and institutions like this, everybody loves them but it's also the question how can we integrate art into more pockets into everyday life how is this more accessible. And it feels like that only if you miss something you start to pay attention. Yeah, and however I also believe that I'm making artists a certain way of activism as well. It's because you have to find your own way you have to find your own standpoint you have to find a topic to deal with from your point of view. Art is not really a tool to make a statement to attract masses. It might be in some aspects, but it's much more than that and I think that differentiates it from. Yeah, the news business the entertainment business. There's also entertainment and can be critical and challenging that we come back to now and then. But overall I think art has the power to be quite analytical but also be emotional be aesthetic be political be ethical and moral in order to challenge audiences in a way from one individual to another which is also interesting because of the social media TV news, big Hollywood entertainment, it's always created by a huge group of people in order to bring it to a huge market. So, if you don't have a market per se as an artist, then you have to think about what you're going to put out. So it comes back to you. You can eventually hope that there will be an audience and maybe a market. But that's probably the only way to be meaningful within the context of art, but that meaningfulness can actually last for a long time, because I don't really remember a movie I saw in the cinema four years ago, because the perception of that cultural medium is okay there's another film next door there will be another one next week. So it must be an outstanding movie that I will remember it. Yeah, and I think with art of course we also look at the things that are that are visible, but we also have books as containers. So sometimes we overlook things but they are somehow documented here and there. So again the slowness of the art system is a huge benefit for for a total society that should also be constructed of social media and movies and TV I have issues with media, but we should also understand the power of them but also the weakness and vice versa the power of art but also maybe it's weakness that you need to invest something to find it to deal with it. Yeah, art needs attention in a very different way it's nothing to lean back. It's nothing that comes to your home, at least not until today. Yeah, in most cases you need to make an effort. And I think each society needs that effort.  We put it, and that's the real power. So, if there is a crisis, let's say a war, what is being protected first. It's the artwork. It's the un reproducible artwork like a painting or sculpture that cannot be recreated because it was already created. Yeah, so that's something I find we should never forget. Yes, I mean, you are right and the power of art, we can say, we hope so is going to be eternal forever so this is extremely important for all of us and I believe that you are right during the pandemic we probably all rethink about the power of art and the importance of the role of art as a communication tool to all of us. So, Mario, I thank you very much. Unfortunately, we are running out of time. I want to just make a brief conclusion about this amazing conversation. Just underlining what I really find myself interesting in your work is the way you are immersing yourself in the story in the topic you are analyzing the fact that you want to always dive deep in this subject being in contact for a very long period of time with the persons you are involving in the project in the story that you have chosen to analyze in order to be able to unfold. I would say the secret value and the meaning of the story itself. So I would like to invite the public who is listening to us to discover this analytical approach that you have watching your video again but also your other works that actually are people can also see on your website and I really invite the public to rise questions about the perception of reality the role of ourselves as responsible and active citizens trying to be neutral and impartial in front of society and not too much instead manipulated by the power of the news by the social media. So thank you again Mario and I hope to talk to you very soon again. Thank you. Thank you Mario. Bye bye.


Hi everyone, happy Thursday. Welcome back to my channel. It is Drew here from Lone Fox and today I have another dollar store DIY video for you guys. I asked over on my Instagram stories if you guys wanted to see another dollar store video this week and I had not been to the dollar store in such a long time so I was like I'm gonna stop in, see if I can find anything fun to DIY and that is exactly what I am doing for you guys today. I'm actually extremely excited about how these projects turned out and I actually ended up going to both the 99 cent store and the dollar tree just because they're both pretty close to each other in Los Angeles so I was like I'm gonna head to both stop in and see if I can find anything fun for this DIY video and these projects turned out so incredible and honestly the price points of these items I'm gonna put the total price at the end so you guys can see how much each item actually cost in the end. They are literally crazy and if you are not already make sure to subscribe to my channel because I post a brand new home decor and DIY content every single week here on Lone Fox and you can be part of the Lone Fox family by clicking that subscribe button and turning on the little bell icon next to the subscribe button. Please do not forget to follow me over on Instagram for more behind the scenes type of stuff which is Lone Fox home. I'll put it right here. Let's get started with these dollar store DIYs. Jumping into our first project here I'm using this face shaped terracotta pot that I found at the 99 cent store. I could not believe they had this here and this was actually a dollar 99 but I just couldn't pass it up and then I also opted for some matte black spray paint. I think this would look great in any color but I decided to go ahead and spray this with a matte black spray paint. Now I want to also keep in mind guys that if you're using this as a planter the spray paint is a totally fine option but something I realize after the fact is that spray paint even when dry can still be combustible or flammable so keep that in mind if you're turning this into a candle. I would actually opt for a black acrylic paint because it's water based and I've had these two candles in my stash since last year. I have not burned them so I was like I'm going to repurpose these and how you can repurpose old candles especially ones that you've used a lot is you're just going to fill up a pot halfway with water and let it simmer for about 30 minutes or so you're just going to watch it and you're going to let the wax on the inside melt down all the way until it is completely translucent as you can see here. I'm going to turn down the heat a little bit and just let that sit. Once your face pot has fully dried what we're going to do is actually put a wick in the inside and I actually repurposed this from one of the candles after it was fully melted down. I just pulled the wick right out washed it and glued it down to the center of our face pot so this is how it looks and then you're going to want to carefully pour the hot wax on the inside now you can actually let this cool down for a little bit before it'll start solidifying again and that's what I did but make sure to use a hot pad or something so you do not burn yourself or you have your parents help or something like that so I poured this onto the inside almost all the way to the top and you're just going to let this dry for about an hour to two until it solidifies completely and the total cost of the candle project was about 13 dollars with the candles but keep in mind guys if you want to use as a planter it would only cost you about three dollars. For the second project I am using this wire basket from the Dollar Tree and it's just a wire hanging basket so what I'm going to start off by doing is actually unclipping the chain portion and I'm going to discard this or I'm actually going to keep it but use it for a separate project. I'm just going to need the wire basket base for this project and I'm first going to start by giving it a coating of white spray paint so I did this on the front side and then once this was actually dry I flipped it over and did it on the inside as well making sure everything was coated and I'm using the macrame cord which I'll link below this is from Amazon it's the one I always use on my channel. I'm going to be starting off by gluing this down to start and how I'm going to be wrapping this around the entire pot is literally just going from one little peg to the next and just wrapping it one time. I feel like this is a lot easier to see as I do it on camera as opposed to me mentioning it so you're just going to go to the next peg wrap it around once and you're literally going to be repeating this around the entire basket all the way until you reach the bottom basically we're going to want this to look a little bit more like a macrame basket as opposed to this like wire bundt cake looking situation so we're going to be wrapping this all the way around all the way to the bottom it's pretty repetitive and I actually did this in probably about 15 foot sections that way I wasn't using too much string and having to pull too much at a time once you get to the ending just glue it off and then glue on a new piece starting on the next peg and repeat the process once you reach the bottom you can just tie it off and then cut off the excess and this is what we have so far but I also wanted to cover the entire top ring as well just to give it a very finished look because I didn't even like the look of the metal on the top so I went around and wrapped the macrame cord around the entire top section until you reach the full perimeter of the basket once done with that you can just glue off your strands cut off any excess and now we are going to add the little hanging portion and I actually opted to use the macrame cord as well for this just because I thought it would tie in with the vibe of this a little bit more than that chain would but you could use a chain if you wanted to I just opted for the cording that kind of coordinated with our basket so just fold some six foot sections in half loop them through and pull them tight and that will actually finish off your hanging basket go ahead and tie off all your strands at the top creating a loop to hang this up and then you can actually hang it up and you are good to go this is a macrame planter that literally only cost us six dollars to create which is such a great price next up we're going to be creating some cute little wall frames with these metal serving trays that I found at the Dollar Tree so what I'm starting off by doing is actually using my metal punch this is just like an industrial hole punch to punch through on both of these frames to create two spots where I'm able to hang it up so I measured about two and a half inches in from each edge on the actual rectangle shape and then on the oval I just went ahead and punched them above each of the little Florida Lee motifs that were on either edge and once those were punched I brought it outside and used some matte farmhouse black spray paint this is a black spray paint I used throughout the entire video and I gave it two good coatings of the spray paint but keep in mind that you can totally customize these to match your decor I think it would look super great in like a brass or even a white or even a color as well so once those were fully dry I brought them back inside and I'm going to use some black chain and black jump rings these are both from Joann's fabrics and I'm measuring out the amount of chain I want to actually hang this up with and I swear I always see frames like this that have a chain detailing on the top of them and then like a glass insert in the middle but they're always pretty pricey so I wanted to create my very own version on a super affordable budget so what I'm doing is opening the jump ring slipping our cut chain piece through and then closing the jump ring with the pliers and I actually opted to put two jump rings through each hole and then through each piece of chain just to make it a little bit more sturdy and I also feel like it gave it sort of like a double ring effect which just looks nice overall in the end so I added two rings to the section here and I'm repeating the process on the opposite side as well opening two jump rings slipping them through both the tray and then also the chain and then closing it and you're going to be repeating the same exact process for the oval shape as well as you can see here I actually just opted to have the oval shape hang more vertical as opposed to horizontal just because I loved the look of this closing up the jump rings there and then once you're completely done closing your jump rings and having the little hanging portion done I actually added some artwork from Jordan Clark I love these prints that she created I will link them below for you guys and that finished off these frames and the total cost per frame is about five dollars which I think is great because you can create multiple of these and really create a cool gallery wall vibe here is our largest scale project and probably one of my favorites I started off by using three of these garden fences from the 99 cent store they were actually two 49 each but I used three of them and I also grabbed this mirror from my stash I already had this but it's an eight by eight mirror from Joanne's fabrics and what I'm going to start off by doing is using a saw to cut off the ends of each side so I'm cutting off one square section this is kind of like a grid so we're going to need a total of a six by two grid of this like wooden material this wood fencing to go on the left and right side of the mirror as you can see this is what it's going to look like once you cut off each side and here it is laid over the top of the left and right side of the mirror now we're going to be needing to cut pieces to go on the bottom and top so what I'm doing is I'm just cutting again a two by two section of this grid and I'm cutting off one of the double sections on each side if that makes sense so there's not going to be two total pieces of wood on each side there's only going to be one so this is going to fit perfectly in between and you're going to repeat the same exact process for the top portion as well cutting off into a two by two grid and then next what I wanted to do was actually spray paint this I wasn't a humongous fan of the original wood color I wish it was just a little bit lighter it was almost like a reddish toned wood so what I did was I gave it a coating of white spray paint just to make this fit a little bit more in with my aesthetic of my room because I actually want to keep this it's kind of more of an art piece honestly as opposed to a usable mirror since it is pretty small but I did give it a total of two full coats of a white flat spray paint and I'm using my gorilla glue hot glue sticks these are great for as you can see here wood plastic metal and glass so what I'm starting off by doing is adding a generous amount of hot glue onto these two long wooden sections and just sticking it and adhering it down to the left side of our square mirror I did it on the opposite side as well and then as you can see here the panels just fit perfectly on the top and bottom so you're just going to glue those panels on the top section and they kind of just match up and then you're also going to be gluing them on the bottom section to finish off the entire framing of this mirror but what I wanted to also do was make this a little bit more secure by flipping it over and adding some of these miniature popsicle sticks I just added these almost as little joint sections just to reinforce the back side so I added this wherever we had any connections that were not made on the mirror itself so lastly what you're going to do is just add a couple of strings in the back side with some hot glue that way you're able to hang this up I added one so it can hang up vertically and also diagonally so the total cost of this project was $13.46 which I think is great for kind of a statement mirror like this one okay so those are our projects today I hope that you guys enjoyed those I honestly think that my favorite one was that little candle that I created I think it is so stinking cute but just remember to use acrylic paint just to be safe as opposed to the spray paint that I used which I found out later on I'm actually gonna head back and buy another one of those and make it because I actually have it right here honestly like this looks like it would cost $79 like I'm just confused how it literally costs us a couple of dollars definitely give this video a thumbs up if you did enjoy and also leave a comment below letting me know which project was your favorite and if you happen to recreate any of them definitely tag me over on Instagram at lonefoxhome and use the hashtag lonefoxfamily where I can find all your guides as DIY projects and recreations because sometimes I repost them I put them my stories all the time without further ado I'm actually gonna go head off to the gym right now and really work on my fitness he's my witness you know the vibes anyways thank you guys so much for watching have an amazing bye guys


Live from Boston, Massachusetts, it's theCUBE, covering OpenStack Summit 2017. Brought to you by the OpenStack Foundation, Red Hat, and additional ecosystem support. And we're back. I'm Stu Miniman, joining with my co-host for this week, John Troyer, and this is theCUBE's programming of OpenStack Summit 2017 in Boston. Happy to welcome back to the program a friend of the show, someone who's had on many times Lou Tucker, Vice President and CTO of Cisco Cloud Computing. Lou, welcome back. It's great to be here again. Yeah, so Lou, we've caught up with you many times at the OpenStack show. There's been the ebbs and the flow of the show. We know the only thing that's constant is that the rate of change is always going to increase, right? Absolutely is. So coming into the show, there's many people that were like, oh, well many of the big companies are pulling out or killing their OpenStack solutions. You had explained to us the Cisco, you know, inter-cloud solution a few years ago. And while, maybe you could explain to our audience what it means, what happened to that product, where OpenStack fits in your portfolio. I think like many companies, Cisco itself is going through transformation. As we are moving into the new world and cloud computing is continuing to come on very strong and be a real essential part of Cisco's strategy overall. We just found that the inter-cloud solution offering a kind of a public cloud for people was not the best use of our resources. Instead we're doubling down in terms of helping our customers build clouds, some private clouds and particularly seeing big uptakes in the telco space with NFV. And so that draws upon much more of Cisco's strength, really focusing on making our customers successful with cloud computing. As we continue to move up the stack and offer additional services from the cloud again, but that'll be a mixture of both private cloud and in public cloud, the kind of hybrid cloud movement that we're seeing everybody's going towards. Okay, and Cisco had made some acquisitions in this space. Maybe how do those fit with you? I think that you're seeing like with AppDynamics and others that we really are looking at being much more application focused in terms of helping our customers who are trying to deploy applications. So that fits in with this hybrid cloud strategy of ours. Applications can go across public cloud and private clouds. So we're seeing that and for example, a lot of those things are moving onto AWS and onto private clouds at the same time. I think that what we're seeing from an open stack perspective is this continued advance, particularly in terms of NFV and the telcos space. We saw that several years ago when we started some of the NFV working groups within the open stack foundation and we're seeing that comes to fruition now. And in fact, if you look at what's going on in China, for example, almost all of the big Chinese telecommunications companies now are adopting OpenStack as their foundational platform. Yeah, Lou, maybe you speak a little bit about where success is happening. Coming into the show, I'd heard a lot, you know, Europe and Asia and the telecoms especially. I think, you know, particularly I think because the primary public cloud market is in the US with Amazon, Google, Microsoft, that we're seeing broader adoption actually going on now outside of the US and OpenStack. So we're seeing that in Europe and Asia. More than, I think only 43% of the deployments of OpenStack are in the US. The rest are the rest of the world. So it truly is a global movement. In fact, that's why when we're hosting these summits we put them across the globe and we attract a global audience. Yeah, it was actually 74% of deployments were outside of the US. So I think it was, you know, users was the number you gave deployments was even higher outside of the US. So Lou, you talk with a lot of CIOs. One of our themes here is we're past the hype cycle. You know, OpenStack is real. It's in production with real use cases. A few years ago, I think you kind of referred to it. I think there was a lot of winner-take-all conversations in the cloud. You know, Amazon's going to win everything. There's more than one winner now. It's clear that the conversation, at least in the industry, has matured. As you talk with CIOs in their conference rooms, are they looking at real-world, multi-cloud and hybrid cloud scenarios? Absolutely. I think nobody's going to be on a single cloud. It just isn't practical anymore. So we're seeing that mixture and still the enterprise has got to spend $60 billion on cloud platforms over this next year. So in the past, I think that where some of the missteps have been, people tried to do it on their own too much. I mean, OpenStack, OpenSource, communities build these projects. And then though you really need curated additions and distributions and trusted companies to help you build that. Because you can't build up that expertise inside of every enterprise. It's just not an efficient way to do it. So I think that many times, the conversations that I have with CIOs have a lot to do with, they know they want to be on this journey. They know they're going to be some in public cloud. They know they have other requirements for what's transforming their data center. So I think we used to talk about software-defined infrastructure where software-defined data centers. And I think that what we're seeing with OpenStack, that is becoming in that layer. And then on top of that, we have all the newer technologies coming in, whether it be containers, or whether it be serverless computing and other kinds of things. So CIOs right now are going, please help. We need a way to go through this. They can either hire that talent, hire the experts, or they can talk to a lot of their traditional vendors to help them through that transition. All right, yeah, Lou, I remember the first couple of times we interviewed you, it was like, okay, how's Neutron doing? And all these side projects with kind of the big 10 to the core, you threw out there containers and serverless. A lot of that I see is really talking about kind of the application modernization, whereas OpenStacks tend to be at the infrastructure. What do you see? What's interesting to you, the future of the stack? I'd love to hear more about the service. I think that is a good way to characterize it, in fact. That OpenStack is really infrastructure as a service. The focus here is on infrastructure and abstracting the infrastructure so you can drive it through automation, through an API that lowers your costs, that improves your resiliency. And now, what is the best for the applications? In the traditional kind of virtualization world, all we did was recreate the infrastructure in a virtualized environment. That was great, but now you've got VMs, they act like servers and just like other machines. Instead, we saw it to most directly affect the application development lifecycle. We needed to move to silent cloud native computing, which is container-based using orchestration systems, such as Kubernetes. That's a much more application focus, less infrastructure. So we're seeing that OpenStack, I truly believe, is becoming the sort of standard and therefore less interesting over time because it's standardizing as being the infrastructure layer. And then on top of that, we're seeing all of the newer technologies, like you say, that are application-centered. Yeah, so I haven't heard serverless discuss. Is there a fit with that with OpenStack? I know how containers fit. Absolutely. I think, again, two or three years, we'll talk more and more about serverless. And one of the things that, as a computer scientist, I find fascinating about serverless is that we're finally talking about writing functions and putting them where they need to be applied, and now you're building a distributed application by connecting them. So we had SOA many years ago, service-oriented architectures. That's pretty to be too heavyweight. And now serverless is coming along as the complete opposite of that. It's ultralight. It's just right this business service I need. And what I find particularly interesting is it's happening the same time now as a lot of the open source projects that are in AI and machine learning and big data. So if you want to build an application, your application is probably going to span three or four different service providers, cloud providers, and your own data center. And so serverless is a way to allow you to connect all those things and start to build those applications so you can have an intelligent agent to whatever, reading your email and then scheduling something on your calendar, but then contacting another service to do some of the processing for you as well. As you talk with folks both at the infrastructure and application level, I'm not old infrastructure guys, too, right? It is sometimes a challenging conversation because they speak different languages. How can the infrastructure providers of the world speak effectively to the application developers with this whole new world of serverless? It's a great question because often they don't talk. And I think when they don't talk is where you have the real problems. Let me give you an example from like the network functionalization world. So that's where in the NFV case we have things such as mobile packet core, handling of cell phone calls that we virtualize now and is running on top of a cloud. Well, they need very good networking underneath it. So we need to be able to have the application ask the infrastructure through APIs, how can you improve me, give me guaranteed bandwidth. Make sure that I have connectivity between this point and this point. You want resiliency. So that's where none of these things exist in a vacuum and you can't run it on a single VM. You want the service to exist even though your infrastructure may have failures. So this is something that I think Netflix and Adrian talked about in time. And again, you really want application level resiliency. So again, these newer technologies allow us to do that. Whereas the infrastructure is mandate there is to get more and more efficient, more and more powerful, and then more and more automated so that it's driven from the application or from the management layer. We spend a lot of time talking about the hybrid cloud in this kind of on-premises versus public cloud or even multi-clouds. It's a huge network component. How's Cisco involved in kind of pulling some of these pieces together? That's why I get, we're very pleased to see the recognition come that it is a hybrid cloud world and therefore networking becomes something you really have to pay attention to. Just rely upon the public internet to just do everything magically for you is sometimes not the best kind of experience for your customers. So being able to have that kind of control over the networking as you span multiple providers is important. In the service provider space, that's what they've been doing forever. They've been delivering network services through their enterprise customers. And so now we're seeing that go on top of cloud such that AT&T is deploying many of these network, NFV applications across tens or hundreds of individual points of presence. And they have to work as a service. So the individual one can go down but you want the service to survive. A lot of talk about the edge at this show as people start to build maybe what used to be just a Linux kernel into a whole open stack distribution at the edge, IoT, as this hybrid cloud becomes an IoT cloud, are we there yet? Or is that still a few years ahead of us or are we there? I think what we're beginning to see, we actually saw Verizon today during one of the keynotes showing that a customer premise equipment can be a little instance of running a slimmed down version of open stack. And the reason you want that, as was mentioned, was so that you have a common way of managing that. So you can deploy applications through automation and a lot of the tools that we have around that all the way down to an edge device that's sitting in a retail store or sitting in a home environment. As we go, we are just beginning that journey. And I think that's why I tie that together with serverless, which to me is a data flow architecture, how one thing connects into another. You need all of those things working together as a distributed app and the extent to which that open stack starts to play a role there, I think will be important, as will containers. Yeah, Lou, the thing that flashes through my mind when I hear some of this, back to my early networking days, versioning and security.  Exactly right. Because you got duct tape and bailing wire and zip ties and everything like that. When I think about the edge, we've increased the surface area of attack and boy, we've already seen, oh that thing that was a five year old device out there is going to bring down the entire internet. So how do we tackle that? Yeah, so I think security is absolutely, one of the most paramount things that we have to solve. But what gives me hope is that the way we're doing it today is that one of the things that we're doing for example with open DNS is actually putting a lot of this in the cloud. With systems that, with assistive selling such as Maraki, we're doing managing those devices from the cloud. That means we can have a consistency of deployment out there. And the other thing is that we're moving this to software instead of hardware. So those devices that are out there are the five years old that you couldn't touch because you didn't want to have a truck roll to go out and replace them. That's, those days are over. Now we're actually, we can deploy several times a day new software, new containers out there. If we detect vulnerabilities, we can fix them very, very quickly. All right, Lou, I know open source is one of your passions. How's open source doing inside of Cisco and kind of the relationship with your customers in OpenStack? I think it's booming right now. Open source is continuing to advance. And I think that what we're finding is that, with for example a number of projects that are growing inside of OpenStack and in other areas is that there's more and more opportunities where we see where it's better for vendors to work together and to work independently. And so that I think is accelerating. And I know there's also discussions as well, where is open source going and how many software companies, Red Hat is a great example of successful software company based on open source, but where are the others? And I think that what we're seeing is what we're not counting is the Googles and the Facebooks and the Cisco's and others that are contributing heavily into open source, but we're not providing it as open source software. We're not providing it as a software company. We're providing services around it. We're providing solutions around it and leveraging the power of a community-developed software I think is the best way to do that. Okay, final question I have for you. You talked to a lot of CEOs talk about, what's the general mindset out there? How does technology drive business today? I find that it's coming at them so fast. And their biggest challenge is how do they keep up? How do they make choices? What do they commit to? What's going to be around in two years? The next shiny thing, is what scares the hell out of them right now because once they start embedding technologies into their enterprise, whatever stays there for a while, so they don't want to make the wrong choices. The way to approach it I think is to embrace change. It comes back to if you realize that you need to be transformative in your enterprise, you need to be able to quickly educate people so training is going to be important. CICD, continuous integration and deployment, everything allows you to make changes much more quickly. Those are the things that CICD needs to really start to focus on. All right, Lou Tucker, always a pleasure to catch up. We'll be back with much more coverage here. OpenStack 2017, Stu Miniman with John Troyer. You're watching theCUBE.


تشرف بل اشتغالي بالعلم ولا تبغي به ما عشت يا بدا بدا وياله من شراف عظيمي بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم وصلات والسلام على رسول الله أما بعد نحن لدينا بعض الهاتف التي تحتاج إلى الأشياء رمضان وإن شاء الله سوف نتكلم as much as we can أنا مع أستاذ أبرحمان حسن وإن شاء الله our first question is going to be I'm a sister who knows when her message starts and finishes precisely so if I know that I'm going to be pure that day after Fajr do I fast that particular day and if I did fast previously was my fast valid and if I didn't fast am I sinning الحمد لله رب العالمين والعاقبة للمتاقين ولا عدوان إلا على الظالمين وأصلي وأصلم على من أرسله الله رحمة للعالمين سيدنا ونبينا محمد وعلى آله وأصحابه والتابعين لهم بإحسان إلى يوم الدين أما بعد this particular sister's question it shows that she's understood the hadith of the prophet عليه الصلاة والسلام in which the prophet says in the hadith of Hafsah ربي الله تعالى عنها من لم يجمع الصيامة قبل الفجر فلا صيام له that the person who doesn't come with an intention before Fajr then verily that person doesn't have a fast so this particular hadith is an evidence that it's obligatory on each and every one of us to have an intention for Fajr sorry before Fajr for that particular day so this sister since she's on her menstruation since she's on her menstruation and this intention she can't come with it as she is not yet under any تكاليف she's not مكالف she's not burdened to come with an intention since she's on her menstruation and her menstruation finishes after Fajr so she's not able to come with an intention and she's not able to follow the statement of the prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم من لم يجمع الصيامة قبل الفجر فلا صيام له and this hadith shows that it's obligatory for her to come with an intention so the scholars here they say that she enters onto the general principle which is known as لا تكليف إلا بمستطاع which is derived and taken from the statement of Allah سبحانه وتعالى يوكلف الله نفسا إلا وسعها that Allah does not burden a soul more than that which it that more than that which it could carry or more than that which it could do so you're not burdened if you don't have the ability and she's an exception of this particular hadith of the prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم من لم يجمع الصيامة قبل الفجر فلا صيامة له she's an exception and her fasting is correct if she does fast and it is not done upon her to bring back that fasting because the intention is only required from a person who is not on her menstruation so even if she did come with the intention it wouldn't have counted because she's A she's on her menstruation so but she fasts that particular day and even if it's within the daytime she realizes she realizes that she has to fast she's like the sabi the child who reaches age of puberty in the daytime or the one who is insane who becomes sane in the day or that this believer who becomes a believer he has to withhold from his fasting and based on the hadith of صلى الله عليه وسلم رضي الله تعالى عنهما which is in صحيح البقاري المسلم that the prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم he said أمر رجلا and the prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم أمر رجلا that the prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم commanded a man he said to him أذن في الناس he called the people make sure they gather together and the prophet said من كان أكل فليصم بقية يومه the one from amongst you who ate then let him fast the remaining of the day ومن لم يكن أكل فليصم and the one who never ate she also fast and also the hadith of ربيع بلت المعود رضي الله تعالى عنها what did she say she said our prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم غدأت عاشورة and this time عاشورة was obligatory so the prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم he sent somebody in the villages of Ansar and the prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم and the command he gave was what من أصبح مفطرا any one of you who was not fasting فليوتما بقية يومه he should fast the remaining of that day ومن أصبح صائم and whoever was fasting that day فليصم he should carry on fasting and ربيع بلت معود she said فكننا نصومه بعد we used to fast عاشورة from that a particular day on woods ونصوم مصبياننا and we will make our children also fast ونجعل لهم اللعبة من العهني فإذا بك أحدهم على الطعام أعطينا ذاك حتى يكون عند الإفطار and we will make our children a toys ونجعلهم يتعاملون وإذا كانوا يقرأون وإذا كانوا يقرأون فننجل لهم أعطينا حتى الإفطار فهذا هو مجرد المؤسس لأسفة السيسة الآن أخذ كل رمضان هنا في كلمة المملكة ومعودة وقوم بسعر ومعودة بعض الناس يقوم بسعر وعلى ما وعلى ما وعلى ما فإذا يجب أن تجد بعض الناس الذين يقوم بسعر ومعودة الذين لم يقوم بسعر وماذا يجب أن يفعل وماذا يفعل بسعر وماذا يجب أن يفعل ما يجب أن يكون هنا هو نفعل بين المسعر رمضان ومسعر من المسعر من رمضان المسعر is two types سعر التي is a congregational fast سعر سعر سعر ما أعطيه سعر سعر أنه لا تفعله بك كل من أخرى في العالم today سعر when رمضان يده نحن سعر when رمضان لا يوجد كل من سعر شيء that everyone has to do ونحن سعر ونحن سعر ونحن هناك آخر سعر أنه سعر سعر سعر سعر سعر سعر ونحن سعر سعر أو أو أو أو أو أو أو الان لأ every single person سعر أحد الأسر أخذين شويل شويل يجب أن يكون في حالة مع بعضهم ، but in the world everybody fasts together maybe they start before each other and after each other but the point is that there's a point where everybody has to fast with each other so the fasting which is a siam which is where jib that's obligatory and is jama'a meaning it is congregational this one it is upon every muslim to fast and to also break their fast with the jama'a to be the people you have to break it with the people if you're under a muslim leader then you should break it with the muslim leader and this is based on the hadith of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam he said the fasting is the day you fast and the breaking of the fast is the day which you break the fast if you break the fast and the adha is the day you guys do the adhaya so it's clearly the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam clearly is commanding and it's showing that it's obligatory that the fasting and also the iftar the breaking of the fast and also the adhaya all of this has to be مع الجماعة and with the people and also this is something that shows the unification and that the muslims are together and this is something that شريعة يرغب it urges the believers to come with which is to be together and to do things together and this is my أصبحت أصدقائيين أصبحت أصدقائيين وإلا ببخياتيين هذه جمع علي كلمة الأمة it is bringing the the voices and the people together وتوحيدا اللي صفو فيهم and it's bringing the lines together and it is also distancing them from what having individual opinions because as we know فهنا يد الله مع الجماعة الله's hand is with the جماعة so based on that hadith and based on the issue of being united يجب أن يقام بشكلها نتعامل هذا ما يجب أن تفعله when the fasting is obligatory when it is a obligatory fasting and it's a obligatory which is a congregation of fasting okay the second fasting is the fasting which is voluntary and its individuals everyone's doing on their own you're fasting on a مرحباً و مرحباً ليست كل أحد يسفل معك ، حسناً هذا now is all dependent on you since you're doing it by yourself is dependent on you if you are of the opinion of the 18 degree اقلاتي if you're not of the view of the 18 degree اقلاتي and if you are of the opinion of following these calendars and if you're not of the opinion of following these calendars and you cite it yourself are you with me then at this particular moment you are allowed to follow what you personally have with your knowledge of course you have to have knowledge and this is based on the statement of الله و كله و شربه حتى يتبين لكم الخيط الأبيض من الخيط الأسود من الفجر الله tells us to eat الله tells us to drink until the black rope becomes clear from the white rope okay so this is your own observation also the Prophet ﷺ says إذا أقبل الليل من هنا وأدبر النهار من هنا و غرب و غرب و غربة شمس فقد أفضل الصائم that if the night comes from here and the day starts to leave and wear off and the sun sets then the fasting person has broken it fast so if you're saying that now I'm going to follow how the prophet mentioned it are you with me this is not these ناريشن are implemented on the basis of what when the fasting is a fasting which is تطور or voluntary and also if the fasting is obligatory such as fasting which is never you've made that fasting obligatory in yourself by making a oath but you're doing it on yourself by yourself it also falls under the second type that I'm speaking about it will falls under the second part so that is how to also ريقنس out between the Prophet ﷺ and also how to deal with this issue that comes up every year and what's to be done now the third question is I'm a brother who owns a restaurant here in Birmingham and I work there even in the month of Ramadan sometimes non-Muslims and even Muslims come to my restaurant who aren't fasting and I know the Muslims who come some of them are not sick nor do they have any justified legal Islamic reasoning what do I do in this particular situation it is not permissible for any individual to aid and to help somebody in the disobedience of الله سبحانه وتعالى anyone who is obligatory on them to fast in the month of Ramadan and the people who Ramadan is obligatory are on two the believers the fasting on the believers is obligatory a Salatan by default and it's also obligatory on the disbelievers but there is a dispute amongst the scholars and this issue is known as هل الكفار are the disbelievers مخاطبون بفروق الشريعة are the disbelievers addressed in the sub branches of the religion are they being addressed in the branches of the religion what we mean by the branches here is that or what the scholars more like mean by branches here is that is the disbeliever addressed when الله is saying وقيم الصلاح established a prayer are they also being addressed when الله is saying وقاتل زكا or they are only being addressed to come into Islam and all of those are not the scholars they've taken two opinions and in depth and in details we've dealt with that in our explanation of الورقات رتم با يبوم عالي الجوينة رحمه الله و تعالى so the strongest of those two opinions is that the disbelievers are being addressed they are also being intended in the branches of the religion and they will be punished for that the evidence for that is the statement of الله سبحانه و تعالى where he says ما سلككم في سقر قالوا لم نقوم من المصلين when they asked what brought you into hellfire what brought you into سقراء which is a hellfire what brought you into this place their response they give is say قالوا لم نقوم من المصلين we were not ones who used to pray so they were addressed when الله was saying سبحانه و تعالى و أقيم الصلاح established a prayer they were being addressed سبحان الله سيزياء ايها الذين امان و كتب عليكم الصيام و كما كتب على الذين من قبلكم نعلقوا تتقون ايام المعدودات they are being addressed here but their addressing is not direct as it is for the believers their one is after what تحقق الشوروط الإسلام first cover with the condition of إسلام and then this is needed for me whereas the believer it is needed from him since he has come into the since he has come into the religion so what I mean by this and the reason I mentioned in this is because for the believer you're not allowed to help him in that which is disobeying الله تبارك وتعالى as Allah says in the Qur'an وتعاونه على البر والتقوى ولا تعاونه على الإثن والعدوان and the same is that you can't serve the disbeliever food in the month of Ramadan as much as you're not allowed to serve the believer who is forced and obliged to fast in this noble month so is the disbeliever so a believer is not allowed to serve Muslims whilst it is the period of fasting at night time it's permissible after after after and before but anytime in between until you're not allowed to serve the believers and you're not also allowed to serve the disbelievers and you're not allowed to feed them because it's a time it's a time when the individual is what obliged to fast based on the statement of الله سبحانه وتعالى يائيه الذين أمن وكتب عليكم الصيام وكما كتب على الذين من قبلكم لعلكم تتقون and the statement of the Messenger صلى الله عليه وسلم وشي said بني الإسلام وعلى خمسين إسلام was built upon five pillars and from the five is what صيام رمضان fasting in the month of رمضان and it by consents the scholars have transmitted that so that has to be understood so people who own restaurants have to know when it's fasting time that they should try to close their restaurants and they should try to open it or takeaways they should try to open it after مغرب or anytime before فجر this question will be the last question i'm a sister who's pregnant and last year i was breastfeeding breastfeeding as well i've heard many different opinions from trustworthy reliable schoolers here in america they say i just have to bring back the fasting and some say some who say i need to feed the poor so i'm confused what shall i do in this particular situation if the woman is pregnant or she's breastfeeding and she feels that is going to become hard on her or she even fears for herself or she fears for her child then the sharia has given her a leadway it's given her it uplifted the obligation from her now the scholars they differed with each other on this particular issue in three views some scholars who said قضاء is upon her in other words she has to bring back that fasting the second opinion is that no no no no بضاء is not upon her but she just has to feed poor and the third one is فدية and قضاء are both upon her on the basis of who did she leave it for if she left it for herself then it's قضاء and if she left it for the child and fear for the child that she's breastfeeding that he may not get milk or the child that's in her womb then they said upon her is what فدية the strongest of those opinion and that it seems to be strong to me is the opinion that says that all that is needed from her is فدية all that is required from her is فدية the reason is because all the other opinions are based upon قياس and رأي opinions and analogy whereas this opinion that says that she needs to pay فدية is based upon textual evidence ونقاعد مقرر عند العلماء is what لجتهاد بمورد النص there is no each tihad when there are textual evidences as also the scholars they say if the river of Allah سبحانه وتعالى is found it was a man whose name was called معقل معقل used to have a and معقل he used to have a well he's have a well so he would charge the people water to take money from them and when he took money from them he would make them pay him and then he would give them the water in return so if Allah sends rain down سبحانه وتعالى and then little ponds and water stream come other people going to go to معقل and asking for water or they're going to use the free water that has come down they're going to use the free water that comes down so the قاعدة is إذا جاء نهر الله بطى لنهر معقل if Allah's river comes or Allah's ocean comes then بطى لنهر معقل معقل is river or lake or pond whatever he had it's out of the window what it means is that once the statement of Allah سبحانه وتعالى and his messenger come then the opinions that are standing become null and void before that we were using it and we were rely on it and it was a source of evidences for us but the minute that the textual evidences arises this all becomes something we put aside and this is something that the scholars قرنا بعد قرن in generations after generations they emphasize on that as Imam Malik said كل مؤخذ من قوله where you read everybody statements either taken or rejected إلا صحب هذا القبر except the one who owns this grave or not the one who's in this grave referred to the messenger and أمام الشافيق رحمه الله بروت كنسانس on this particular issue which is what that is by consents of the scholars is that if the sun of the Prophet ﷺ becomes clear to you and then it is not permissible for you in that particular situation to leave it off for the statement of any particular individual however high and however noble and however virtuous this particular person may be so this sister her situation is الفيدية she just has to feed poor every single day of whenever she calls fast and as the Prophet ﷺ I said إن الله تعالى وضع الشطر الصلاة that الله تعالى up lifted half of the prayer meaning ضغر الله lifted half of it meaning only two is required so شطر means half it means the sun of the wayات and some of the weddings is what نصف الصلاة وصومة عن المسافيق the one who is traveling the one who is traveling الله uplifted from him half of the prayer so he doesn't have to pray ضغر for and I said he doesn't have to pray for and I said he doesn't have to pray for he had it is praise half and the one who is is breastfeeding and the one who is who is pregnant now these two which is the one that's breastfeeding and the one who is pregnant there is not that the heart prayer is half no there is is that the fasting is uplifted from them because another story says إن الله عزي وجل وضع عنه عن المسافر الشطر الصلاة وعن المسافر والحمل والمرضع الصومة أو الصيامة وعن المسافر والمسافر والمسافر what's uplifted from them is the fasting the fasting is uplifted from them but they're not the same the traveler and the breastfeeding and the pregnant are not the same the fasting person so the traveling person sorry the traveling one and the breastfeeding and the pregnant one are not the same because the traveler he has to do because it's a delir for him which is what the one who is a traveler upon him is to bring back those days which he missed as for the women whose breastfeeding are you with me the woman whose breastfeeding and the one that is pregnant and the elderly individual male or female very old they have fidia to come with based on the statement of الله وعلى الذين يطيقونه فيدية طعام مسكين take your evidence and upon the ones who are what the ones who it's like on them fidia طعام مسكين this is referring to the hamil the مرضع is referring to them and that's the تفسير of ابن عباس and the تفسير of ابل عمر and it's authentically transmitted from both of them ابن عباس and ابل عمر ابن عباس clearly said إذا خافة الحامل وعلى نفسها if the woman who's pregnant فائز for herself والمرضع على ولدها and also the breastfeeding one فائز for her child في رمضان he said يفتراني they break the fast ويطعماني مكان كل يوم مسكينا and every single day they what they feed a مسكين ولا يقضياني صوما and they لا يجب ان يجب ان يرغب المسكين also ابن عباس he saw a slave girl of his who was pregnant for him انه رأى ام والدي the slave girl who becomes the she becomes the mother of your children he saw her pregnant or have her breastfeeding one of the two وييقضيانه ويجلس القرن as he was fasting هو مدرس اميل كما في الهاتف وهو انت بمنزلة اللي لا يضيقونه عليك ان تطعمي مكان كل يوم المسكين ولا اقضاء عليك هيسعتها you are at the station you are the ones who اللي لا يضيقونه those who don't have the ability أبان يوصول كل مرخص يوميسكين وإلا يوصول لتبعه ألو أوسع الإمام الدار قطنيو نريت من إبن عمر شاكو الإسلام أبان رحمه الله تعالى أثندي كيت فيه إنه كتاب إلوائل غليل يقول بيساند جيده أباني أثندي كيت هذا which is that أباني الله نعمر إن إمراءته هو his wife asked him she was pregnant وهي حبلة she was pregnant she said to him do I have to fast and what's my ruling or do I have to bring back the fasting he said to her after he break your fast وأطعيمي عن كل يوميسكينة and every single they feed a miskin ولا تقلي and do not and do not bring it back you don't have to pay back that fasting now here there's a powerful understanding here which is that first of all we have an eye from the Quran then we have the understanding of two noble companions and finally something that even makes this opinion to be the strongest is that the speech of Ibn Abbas and the speech of Ibn Omar both of them it's spread amongst the companions وَلَمْ يُعْلَمْ لَهُمَا مُخَالِفٌ we don't know anyone who pose them in it and this according to the ulama is known as what إجماع سكوتي it's a consensus of agreement and acknowledgement from the other companions because the companions are known if they don't agree with a particular stance of another companion that they make their stance clear they show disagreement if they don't agree but the fact that they want silent and they didn't say any form of disagreement shows that there's a موافق on their side agreement and this is as I said is known according to the ulama إجماع سكوتي إبنة حقية رحم الله in his Kitab if you look at it you'll find he speaks about this in details also المسودة written by Ali Taymiah it goes into details and also many other books of usul they speak about it so here's إجماع سكوتي we have a consensus amongst the companions and also another thing that makes it even more stronger which is that تفسيل إبنة عبس إبنة عبس was a commentary on the ayah وعلى اللذين يطيقون وفي دياتهم طعام بسكين it was commenting on that particular verse and as you know which is مقرر again it is affirmed and it's established في علوم الحليث in the books of hadith and also in علوم في أصول التفسيل and we spoke about it when we were explaining the Kitab مقدمة في أصول التفسيل written by sheikh الإسلام إبنة عبس إبنة عبس رحم الله we spoke about it there which is that the Tafseed of a companion if what he's commenting on has a direct relationship with the verse then this is given حكم الرفع right like a sub-nuzul and that's why إراقي says in his ألفية وعد ما فصله الصحابي رفعا فمحمول على الأسبابي that whatever the companion's Tafseed of a verse is the ruling is given what رفعا and of course this is an issue of Iraq with the issue of أبو عبد الله حكم إبنة عبوريو and that's another whole issue right there but the point here right now is that the Tafseed of a Sahabi that is connected to a سبب النزول له حكم الرفعي it has a حكم الرفعي it tastes as though the Prophet said it عليه الصلاة والسلام it tastes the ruling as though the as though the as though the Prophet عليه الصلاة والسلام he said so as I said all the other opinions that are out there they are all based upon الرأي والقياس they are all based upon الرأي والقياس والعلم عند الله وآخل جعوانا الحمد لله رب العالمين سبحانك اللهم بحمدك أشهد أن لا إله إلا الله أستغفرك وأتوبني


Do you feel like Salvia is higher dimension, like 4D or 5D, or something completely different? Salvia is the great teacher. Salvia to me is the entheogen that really made me understand the shamanistic realm, that made me question reality on that level, even though I had done a tremendous amount of mushrooms before in the past, before experiencing Salvia. Salvia is the ally that really made me understand who I am, what this reality, present form of existence is, and what exists beyond this. Salvia is the one that linked everything up. I don't want to say it's another dimension, because I don't think we can fully grasp higher dimensions, because we are occupying matter-based existence. But Salvia is the only one, really is the only thing that I've ever tried, that I've ever experienced that literally cut all links to matter, to the material, where it was a form of death and rebirth to a certain degree, where all of a sudden you're completely pulled out of your body, and you don't even know what your body is anymore, let alone who you are, or where you should be, or where you might see, you might be pulled out, and see your own body in a room, and have no concept of what that is. The only thing you could have a concept of is the Salvia realm that you're in, which is all-encompassing. So as soon as that happens, time is eliminated, right? Because time, and speaking from a geophysicist, mathematician, scientists, if you want to think about it, time to me is a by-product, it is a property of matter, like we would not experience time if we were energy beings, right? Because there would be no matter, right? And Salvia de Vinore, what it did, was eliminate matter. So all of a sudden, time was meaningless, right? And one of the unique things that would happen was you could actually experience all of your existence instantly. You realize that there is no moment, or moments, it's all unfolding at the same instant, right? And you are at that, when you go back into your body, or just before you entered the Salvia, that was where you were placed as an entity, where you were in the book of life, if you want to think about it, but all of it is already done, all of it exists, and your focus is at that moment, and as soon as you do that, you realize that, then you can live in the moment, learn from the past, look forward to the future, but really focus on who you are, when you are. So it really eliminates the three, the four-dimensional world, right? So I would say Padre, it's not that it takes you to a 2D or 5D, I think it eliminates the 4D, or yeah, the four dimensions, right? It eliminates the three spatial dimensions and it eliminates time. So Salvia de Vinore cut the link to our four-dimensional existence. Now what's beyond that? Do you want to say it's a D dimension-based thing? I don't know, it's a realm. What is that realm? It wasn't a dimension-based realm, even though there was space to a certain degree and entities.


The soldiers came knocking on the door. Dad, wondering what to do, realized he had a picture and it has a girl with black hair in it, so he took it out and showed it to the soldier and the soldier dismissed him. Dad, trying to figure out what to do, called Uncle Henry. They decided that mom and the girls would go to his house. He lives near the water, very near Sweden. If you look across the water you can see Sweden right there. Dad didn't go with them. If you're curious go ahead and read.