Against the background that symbolic signs also play a role in all civilizations as a fundamental expression of life, growth and spiritual maturation, the cultural officer of the Regional Association Saarbrücken, Peter Michael Lupp, and the graphic artist Elke Birkelbach developed the idea of conveying the development potential of the UNESCO Biosphere Reserve Bliesgau via the very own language of nature and to represent it in a symbolic image. For the "fleeting glance" along the highway sections flanking the Bliesgau Biosphere Reserve, this special image has served for some time as a recognition sign of the Bliesgau UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. As an exemplary initiative for cultural education for sustainable development, the duo has now completed a subtle publication in book form that creatively decodes and conveys this SinnBild in a way that is close to the people.

The title is: UNESCO Biosphere Reserve Bliesgau - inspired by the creative power of nature and its symbols. The content poetically illustrates the connections between man and nature. The "golden section" as a harmonious universal relationship in nature comes into play. It reflects the cognitive process of man with regard to his responsibility for the environment, its sustainable development and ultimately as a guide for a good life. The initiative for this came about in the Saarbrücken Regional Association as part of the strategic cultural work of regional development.

Nature speaks many languages. If we gain knowledge about it and look more closely, it opens our eyes to new visions of designing living spaces in harmony with it. The revelations of nature's laws provide us with the building blocks, so to speak, for a harmonious coexistence between nature and human culture. Our focus on facts, statistics and figures sometimes narrows our view. What is needed is a new form of storytelling and debate. Whoever wants to understand the deeper meaning of biosphere reserves must develop empathy for our habitat earth, and this awakens when people can translate and empathize with the language of nature. This is how the idea was born to derive a future vision of this earth from the Bliesgau biosphere reserve using the language of nature and its symbols, and to communicate it in such a way that as many people as possible can recognize and experience it.

Author Peter Michael Lupp and designer Elke Birkelbach

This publication and the accompanying educational campaign see themselves as an experiment in the dissemination of meaningful as well as ecologically, economically and ethically sustainable ways of life in the Bliesgau Biosphere Reserve within the framework of cultural education for sustainable development. We want to create a new level of understanding, to discover nature in its holistic diversity anew, to perceive it consciously, to realize that we are a part of it and that we can improve our actions for the future through this knowledge. This is one focus of the UNESCO research mission for the Bliesgau Biosphere Reserve.

Association Chairman District Administrator Dr. Theophil Gallo and Regional Association Director Peter Gillo

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The trio formation bears the name "Autochthon" (ancient Greek: Αὐτόχθων = "Erdentsprossener" for "native, native, long-established or originated here") and in this sense the musicians see themselves as natives of the Central European region, as natives they are down-to-earth, as citizens of the world long-established. Rooted in the traditional and open to impulses and questions from outside, they are connected to the richness of sound and the vitality of improvised music.

At a time when humanity is being tested by a virus pandemic, the formation moved to the Bliesgau Biosphere Reserve in the summer to record a concert for sheep and, with the same tone, for biodiversity. The venues were the cultural site Wintringer Chapel on the Wintringer farm near Kleinblittersdorf and open sheep pastures between Seelbach and Heckendalheim.

On site - in the open - the trio formation linked in an artistic way (sound - film - poetry) to the relationship of man to his habitat - the biosphere earth. Under the motto "Man and the Biosphere", UNESCO sums up its vision of sustainable coexistence between man and nature.

The artist/friend of the trio KunstSchäfer Rudolf Schwarz inspired the project with his expertise as a shepherd and was able to win the Bliesgau-Bio-Schäferei Ernst in Assweiler/Seelbach with their flock of sheep as participants. The cinematic editing was realized by Katharina Bihler, Stefan Scheib and Hartmut Oßwald. Peter Michael Lupp (Cultural Officer Regional Association Saarbrücken) reflected on the work with a poetic prologue and current references to, among other things, the Biosphere Reserve Bliesgau.

The result is a synthesis of the arts: whimsical worlds of sound and images that at first glance even make you smile, and a texture that invites you to think and think some more. At the latest on the second view the spectators guess, what the trio has written itself on the flags beside cheerful joy in the experiment, in an enchanting, late summer cultural landscape: To perceive reality from a different perspective, also against the current background of Corona and ecocide, and to enter into a direct artistic relationship with the cultural landscape - biosphere - Bliesgau, and not in the form of a classical performance, a concert in front of people. The accompanying texts let understand the intention in the core and weave the images and sounds together like a poem.

In search of fields of hope for an ecologically and ethically justifiable form of human existence, the unusual idea ultimately also experiments with the question of the extent to which sound worlds, poetic images and textures can trigger a transformative energy between living beings and habitat.

Peter Michael Lupp on the experiment