The HOLOTROPIC ART is the art which is the result of transpersonal experiences and which can transpose the beholder into states of overconsciousness. (Dr. Edi Apostu, 2006)
In 2006 Edi Apostu introduced the concept of Holotropic Art in the field of arts based on the Zen Philosophy and also on the idea of ”self discovery” through introspection.
The term “holotropic” was taken of the American psychiatrist of Czech origin, Stanislav Grof and means literally “moving toward wholeness” (from the Greek “holos” = whole and “trepein” = moving in the direction of something).
In 2007, Edi Apostu founded the Holotropic Art Association in Romania, and expanded the group in 2008 to France and Italy. In 2009, he called artists to join to the first artistic-scientific holotropic art experiment and organized and curated the International Symposium of Holotropic Art, the first international artistic-cultural event whose idea is to demonstrate the applicability of the artistic-scientific concept.
The event was held again in 2010 and 2011.
The symposiums was addressed to all the artists who embraced the concept of Holotropic Art initiated by Edi Apostu.
Through this symposium, the organizers wished to also accomplish an identification of the complex painters and artists who have polivalent artistic activities, those artists who paint, but at the same time write music or poetry, play a musical instrument or who can work in more than one field of art.
In order to participate in the symposium, the artists has received a CD with the holotropic music especially composed for this event (the holotropic music aimed to produce in the listener`s mind modified consciousness states; serene, monotonous, obsessive musical passages, along with tough, atonal, strident sounds).
Following the audition of this CD the artists had to realized the paintings which it entered the symposium.
Besides the works, the artists was asked to write a summary of the experiences they had as following the listening the music and the connection they felt between the receptive-auditive act and the creative-artistic act.
It was also important that the involved artists to try to catch the mood and emotions they had as well as the detailed description of the way they transposed the music into the accomplished work of art and of the way in which the artist considers that his work can transpose the watcher into the modified conscieousness states.
Holotropic Art later influenced movements in other countries including Argentina and the Czech Republic, where in 2017 the International Exhibition of Holotropic Art was held.