A Popolo of Artists E-Book

Stambecco Pesco

• Herausgeber: WS
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 58

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2017

Beschreibung

Art is a spiritual language with the ability to awaken the creative potential in each human being.
Take a journey through the various Damanhurian artistic expressions to discover a place where the creativity of individuals is harmonized to create a cultural identity that tells the myth of a new people.

Leseprobe

DAMANHUR CON TE Series

A POPOLO OF ARTISTS

Stambecco Pesco (Silvio Palombo)

Unicorno Arachide Diorite (Fernanda Calati)

Ciprea Calendula (Mirella Crapanzano)

Translation: Tigrilla Gardenia (Yvette Soler)

First English Edition DEVODAMA srl, Vidracco (TO), Italy

ISBN 978-88-99652-71-5

COPYRIGHT 2017© MIL Associazione di Promozione Sociale

The current volume was created by the Associazione di Promozione Sociale MIL as part of the activities and functions of the statute.

All rights reserved. No part of this work can be reproduced in any form without the express written authorization of the editor, except for brief texts to be used in reviews.

Printed May 2017

The writer Stambecco Pesco (Silvio Palombo) scripted and edited the comic books Il Baule delle Memorie (The Chest of Memories) and Scacco al Tempo (Checkmate to Time) and worked on the volume Credere è Reato? (Is believing a crime?) (EMP). For Devodama he authored Una visita a Damanhur (A visit to Damanhur) and Viaggio nei Templi dell’Umanità (Journey into the Temples of Humankind).

Unicorno Arachide Diorite (Fernanda Calati), attrice, regista, formatrice teatrale, ha pubblicato La bambina che aveva perso la voce (Curci), Viaggio nei Templi dell’Umanità (Devodama).

Ciprea Calendula (Mirella Crapanzano), pittrice e poetessa, ha pubblicato Terracqua (Terra d’Ulivi) e La stanza del fiore nero (LietoColle).

Cover: Door in Tiffany glass.

A Popolo of Artists

Music, painting, theater and more at Damanhur

Sacred dancers at the Open Temple in Damjl

Popolo art

It is impossible to visit Damanhur and not recognize how art represents a funda-mental value in the lives of Damanhurians. Just about everywhere—from the biggest to the smallest community—the houses are painted with bright designs, there are mosaics and statues, and posters announcing upcoming plays and concerts organized by citizens of the community catch the eye. Across the territories, nature and art blend together in a continuous search for a harmony that can become the visual background of a daily existence imbued with beauty and meaning.

To give and create meaning is the founding principle of a community in which spirituality is defined by the ability to see and read the meaning in everything—tracing and retracing the threads that connect the human being to the universe and all the entities that inhabit it. Adding meaning is the foundation of the artistic processes of every culture and people—to transcend what things, objects and actions are, and enter a field of symbolism, metaphor and what the artist attributes to the object itself in order to reinvent and rediscover meaning for the artist and for others. A work of art has value if it strikes a chord, if creates movement, if it produces an emotion or new way of thinking that did not exist before, or if it touches the spirit or creates that union in which artist and spectator recognize each other as parts of the same whole.

Damanhurians define themselves as a popolo—a coming together of people from different ethnicities and cultures that share a strong ideal and daily life. A popolo is born by choice, and not by coincidence it is another founding principle of the Damanhurian spiritual vision.

The stages that signal the birth and formation of a popolo have always been articulated by the artistic works they create to tell their history—daily experiences and the entirety of a shared existence that can be seen and touched, and can become a tangible heritage for future generations. “Symbols are best handed-down carved in stone rather than printed on paper.

Words transform over time and change value, while the symbolism superimposed over a figure is preserved with greater density.”1

Art therefore becomes the crucible of a collective culture—it tells the myth of that popolo—and is used to create a cultural identity, not just as the expression of the individual artist.

The art in Damanhur aims to be art of the popolo—of the people. Through the artists, it attempts to transcend individual identity and immerse itself in the values of the popolo. To give life to this collective identity and its unique expression, the artists recognize themselves in a common vision and together create a connective tissue from which derive the shared canons of Damanhurian art—canons which express themselves through the sensitivity and flair of the individual artist. The strength of working in groups is that it allows for a wider vision, and each person enriches the work by adding a new point of view, additional sensations and individual professional and artistic talent.

The Damanhurian artist wants to give value to individual uniqueness, while at the same time, value the ability to be and participate with others in the creation of a singular piece. Art grows if the artist grows, and the latter becomes the medium of a creative act that is also art of the popolo. It is the union inspiration-artist-observer that gives value to what is created and enriches the sense of collaboration and the know-how to integrate and forge together different languages. It is this combined language that creates and tells the myth of the popolo.

In this way, art returns to its pure vocation: to “recreate” reality. Only a popolo is able to create a new reality—a new world, new values and to dream a new dream instead of continuously nourishing the dreams of others. As such, each individual is the protagonist of a creative process, while simultaneously being inserted into a crucible of ideas, inspirations and emotions that give birth to an interpretation of reality that then becomes, in and of itself, creation.

There is a desire to create something that does not yet exist or give energy to something that is just coming into being. The design on a dress is painted by drawing inspiration from Damanhurian art, adding this drop to the sea of its energy; a house or a building embodies the canons of this art so it can be of inspiration to other artists, architects, jewelers and stylists. To paint a masterpiece with special care to the details or to create clothing or everyday objects, suggests a style—a taste—and gives life to a culture and a new way of thinking. This is how myth narrated through art becomes a model, and is then superimposed over reality.

To do this, Damanhur has had to take on a function of art that has been fading in the last centuries with the prevalence of solitary artists and their marginalization with respect to the society in which they live, and take on a role whose pure expression was last seen in medieval and Renaissance times.

1 Falco Tarassaco, public meeting, January 25, 1988

The mosaic art studio

Effetto Bottega2

The construction of the Temples of Humankind—the monumental subterranean work of art dug by hand and decorated with mosaics, Tiffany glass, sculpture and painted walls—was the first opportunity to create a hotbed of artists, and also the catalyst to discover and develop a calling for many individuals. Artisans and artists worked together to create, experiment and have fun.