Between Concept and Identity

Between Concept and Identity
Author: Esteban Fernández-Cobián
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Total Pages: 490
Release: 2014-10-02
Genre: Art
ISBN: 144386837X

The identity of places of worship is one of the most difficult problems faced by religious architecture at the start of this new millennium. Contemporary globalising experiences demand, peremptorily, a reflection, both conceptual and situational, on the origin of objects, people and institutions. Nevertheless, the chance of these migration flows annihilating already-existing religious identities is perceived as a problem. This problem is directly linked to the survival of architecture as a system carrying a material representation of the divine and constituting a self-reference system for the community of believers. Therefore, it is important to define the extent to which the new religious architecture has given room to an abstract type of formal experimentation which is disconnected from social reality. Does this architecture maintain its bridging, sacramental value, or, on the contrary, has it given way to the conceptualist trends still alive in the artistic world? Is metaphor a valid concept for the Christian religion? Is there an essential aspect linking this architecture to the centuries-old tradition of the Catholic Church? Different architectural, pedagogical, exhibition and formal initiatives have arisen in recent years and it is necessary to get to know them, with the purpose of understanding where contemporary religious architecture is heading in its eternal search for a permanent identity.

Theology of Contemporary Art

Theology of Contemporary Art
Author: Felix Hernandez Mariano
Publisher: ATF Press
Total Pages: 102
Release: 2018-11-01
Genre: Art
ISBN: 1925872068

In today's world we want everything to be clear, effective and instantaneous, a useless desire that, in addition, locks the human being into only appearance. Contemporary art, as a reflection of the concerns and needs of today's humanity demands attention, silence, reflection and a discerning eye. For this reason, it becoems a privileged platform for the encounter with Mystery, with a God who escapes all configurations or concepts. This function is what makes the work of the Dominican, Kim En Joong OP, an internationally recognised artist, so remarkbale. These pages deepen, from a novel theologhical perspewctive, the different elements that nmake up his work: colour, shape, light, composition ... a persoewctrive that guides us towards the contemplation of the Mystery that the painter shows us. A fascinating book, which is one and the same time accesible and a gift for all, believer or not, who feels the thirst for depth.