Another spirituality

Le Corbusier said: “Architecture is the skilful play of volumes under the light”.

Every built work, in its existence, tends in fact to have conscious or unconscious relationships with light which is therefore, even in its absence, an element of every architectural work.

Regarding the architecture of the sacred places of Christianity, regardless of the historical period, on a very personal level I have always had the feeling that the management of light (and therefore of shadows) has been wisely modulated in order to create highly impacting atmospheres. on the human soul.

Even the volumes, often “enormous”, the majesty and, frequently, the magnificence of the structures initially generate a feeling of “disorientation”: one can feel lost and small in large multidimensional spaces, sometimes even oppressed.

If in the believer the brightness that descends from above, the height of the aisles with the translucent walls of polychrome stained glass windows, the altar placed in the East suggest religious spirituality, the desire to rise, in an atheist like me all this generates at first a feeling almost of alarm, which pushes me to seek “refuge” in the shadows. Often in the cool stillness of the shadows another world opens up to my eyes in which I begin to calmly observe those details that I had not become visually aware of in a first overview. And it is in the observation of these forms, modeled by light and shadows, in which artistic references, curious expressions of religiosity or more generally compositions dictated by the light-matter interaction are often present, in which my gaze is often lost. Here I reach an inner peace nourished by a form of spirituality that could be defined as “atheist” in which in the end I find the human that expands in time and space into a sort of infinity. This spirituality is for me an “open space”, without churches and without dogmas imposed by an ecclesia.Mystical shadows, the smell of fresh. Symbols of hope, threatening shadows. Peace and restlessness intertwine in the heart and guide the eyes where they want to go. Our mind, pregnant with memories, pierces deep darkness. Nothing can hide anymore, lights and shadows, equally legible, tell their stories.