Pepe Deluxé

Imagine a Man who does Not Exist

Imagination is our sixth sense. Unlike other senses that are about the here and now, imagination allows us to perceive things through time and space. It is the only sense that we really need, not just to live our lives, but to be truly alive. It’s also the sense that we can develop the most and that can improve our lives the most. It supercharges our other senses and turns consumption into construction.

The Hindu god Shiva creates, protects, and transforms the universe. Furthermore, Shiva is the god of destruction, time, and arts. Imagination is our Shiva: it allows us to create, alter and destroy worlds, both figuratively and literally. It is imagination that will eventually help us to leave our cradle and take us back to stars – or it will add us to the long list of species that once lived on this planet.

Art and science are two sides of the same coin, powered by one engine: imagination. The higher the quality of the fuel and the more we give it to the engine, the better and faster that engine runs. Observation helps to guide it, but observation alone is barren.

Imagination is the immeasurable warehouse at the end of the film Raiders of the Lost Ark. We don’t need to know what’s in there to be able to fill every single box with items, and we can pick any box and take a peek inside. We can also store information with imagination and stories.

Imagination is seeing the connections: everything is connected to everything else. We are slowly beginning to understand this, and this understanding is essential to mankind. We are here not just to survive but to become whatever we can imagine ourselves to be.

Pepe Deluxé is a fellowship of extraordinary gentlefolk on a quest for quests, captained by Paul Malmström, an explorer of worlds both known and unknown, and James Spectrum, Baron of Sealand. Pepe Deluxé is not to be confused with PEPEDELUXE, who is a hair artist in Switzerland.