Veeno's mandala "Gong" is hanging in my study. Now, in the days of the tediously repetitive annual world climate conference, I often look at it. It seems to me to be a reflection of what I experience as my own situation, but also as the overall world situation.

What touches me the most is the disruption in the picture. What was once a connecting fabric between people and powers has been torn apart.

In or behind this destruction, however, a wholeness becomes visible: the circle. It holds together, creates a protected space. Filigree lines also indicate possible orientations. As if our longing for wholeness becomes more urgent in the disruption. Or vice versa: as if the circle and the lines make us aware of how torn we often are.

GONG hints at a miracle: In the darkness shines a golden base; and a golden keystone is resplendent in the vault of creation. From below and above, everything seems to be held, the circle like the shreds. How can this be?

To make the incomprehensible visible; to interweave opposites; to give gold its place: these are the possibilities of art that Veeno Regula Mäder elicits in her Mandalas from the mystery of life.

Rudolf Högger, President of the Board of Trustees, Tibet-Institut Rikon, 2004 - 2016, co author of  Presents for Buddha: The Meaning of the Eight Auspicious Symbols in Tibetan Buddhism