Eumancy

Philosophy almost never speaks about this phenomenon directly, yet again and again approaches its boundary. It concerns a state in which a person ceases to be the source of meaning and becomes the space of its appearance. Many thinkers — from Plato to Heidegger — have described this shift, but most of them were not artists. They observed it from the outside. The artist, however, encounters it within the very practice of creation.

Eumancy is what I call a state of artistic presence,in which the author is no longer the center of meaning,but becomes a transparent participant in its manifestation —while preserving clarity of form and responsibility for its presence in the world.

In such moments, the work is not constructed or invented — it happens. Sometimes through an image from which meanings are born. Sometimes through meanings that gather into form. In both cases, the source does not coincide with the author’s ego.

At times a work emerges with such inner undeniability that the artist no longer perceives it as a personal statement. A signature here is not an act of possession, but a recognition of responsibility for what has taken place. Authorship remains, but it is no longer the center — only the condition for the form to appear.

Eumancy is not a technique and not a method.It is a predisposition of vision and presence — one that must be consciously cultivated. Without inner discipline, art easily degenerates either into uncontrolled expression or into a psychological game in which experience replaces form. This is why it is vital for the artist to distinguish the boundary between the “self” and that which is being shaped through it.

This becomes especially evident in abstract art. There is no narrative here to hold the structure together. Everything arises from a state of being. In this context, Eumancy ceases to be “inspiration” and becomes an instrument — a mode of presence into which the artist can enter deliberately.

An image can be sought.Or one can create the conditions in which it arises on the canvas by itself.

This requires inner silence, discipline, and a temporary suspension of the authoritarian “I” — without abandoning responsibility for the result.

The artist and the person who experiences the world as something unfolding through them are working with the same mechanism. But the artist takes one step further — they fix this event in form and assume responsibility for its presence in the world.

And yes — such a perspective can provoke resistance.But art always begins where comfort ends.