The skies on earth

“The story of the Church has taught us that often artistic expression coherently introduced in the liturgical context prompted the creation of works of art marked by universal value, alongside with the production of new artistic languages”. It’s important to “promote situations enabling the potential of art to be implemented”. Father Stefano Russo, Director of the National Office for the Cultural Patrimony of the Church of the Italian Bishops’ Conference, thus summarised the lectures delivered on June 2 to 4 at the 11th International Liturgical Conference. The meeting titled “Ars liturgica. The art at the service of the liturgy” took place in the monastery of Bose (Italy), to the presence of theologians, liturgists, architects, artists and persons responsible for the construction of churches from 14 European Countries belonging to the Catholic, Orthodox, Lutheran, Anglican, and Reformed Churches. The true meaning of the Eucharist. What is the concept of the sacred for contemporary man? To which extent is the tension towards the transcendent present in contemporary art? How can we mend the Church – artist relationship, to which we owe the creation of art masterpieces across the centuries, currently affected by the rupture of modernity? The speakers in the Bose Conference sought to provide the answers. “If we discover the true meaning of the Eucharist – said Christos Yannaras, Professor Emeritus from the Pateion University of Athens – architectonic expression will ensue. The Church places no limits to artists provided that the ecclesial experience is expressed”. “We don’t know what has happened in the passage from the Romanic to the Gothic style, but certainly there has been a change in the practice and in the liturgy which brought about architectural modifications”. In fact, art “is a language, just like the grammar of words, just like music, colours, sculptures, which give a shape to space through architecture. These are ‘languages’ aimed at transmitting the unique human experience”. Thus the question is: “what do we express in liturgy?” “Liturgy – Yannaras underlined -, which in Greek means ‘the work of the people done together’, is not individual participation. Rather, it means to share a way of existing that is the Communion, i.e. reproducing the Trinitary model”. Thus the criterion enabling to discern ecclesial artistic expression from other forms of art is “the service of the liturgy, which expresses the overcoming of individualism and a love relationship”. Inasmuch as “the artist overcomes individualism, he will be able to express his personal alterity. Indeed, 16th century iconographers didn’t sign their icons yet we can identify the hand of the artist nonetheless”. Dialogue with contemporary culture. Not “art and liturgy” understood as two separate things. Instead, “indivisible cultural unity based on the theology of world transfiguration”, thus Robert Taft, from the Pontifical Oriental Institute in Rome described the orthodox liturgical experience. This is the reason why liturgical action “isn’t just a ‘ceremony’. It is also an object of contemplation” and the icons “are called the ‘windows’ opening up unto another world”. In fact, “the humblest village churches are ‘the sky on earth'”. “Iconographic projects – Taft explained – are not fixed with rigidity nor are they placed at the total availability of the artist”. We must avoid “a tradition that is more an imitation than a creation”, as well as “a culture that gives a primary role to the artist’s creativity and not to the history of salvation”. What’s important “is to address contemporary culture by harmonising architecture and iconography in the liturgical celebration”. In this perspective, “there aren’t single models and each Church can learn from the other, the East and the West”. The great value contributed by the Latin Church is “the courage of having faced modernity in the Second Vatican Council and the dialogue with contemporary culture”.In man’s heart there is nothing more beautiful. “Art and Liturgy – said Paul De Clerck from the Institut Catholique in Paris – are both the mediators of the sacred, art in its secularized profane expressions”. In this secularized world – he added – “art and the Church both refer to what best there in the heart of mankind”. Thus “they can mutually benefit from the promotion of generous cooperation”. Art and liturgy can therefore “give oxygen to the flame burning in men’s hearts, give space to transcendence compared to the market, the same struggle for beauty that will save the world”.