4.26^E

Il buon odore di Christo
 

" Il buon odore di Christo "
Aria d'artificio, vers. 1.3

The sweet odor of Christ

It is through its spatial form that Christian architecture has traditionally defined itself. By resorting to symbolism, the typology of churches, cathedrals and abbeys, with their naves, transcepts and choirs, fully evoked the form of Christ's cross. Sign of health, the church was the incarnation of the body of Christ where the true believers dwelled. The essence of modern architecture set out to liberate itself from representation and symbolism: it abandoned the form of the crucifix; it presented the abstraction of light as the final sign of religiosity.

Our project for Fuori Uso is to prolong the modern disappearance of form and symbol to the profit of physical immanence and immersion into space. Religious architecture is no longer concerned with representation but with « impregnation, » using the sociologist Jean-Pierre Albert's definition of « the odor of sanctity. » By relying on numerous Christian texts, we propose to reconstitute and diffuse the « sweet odor of Christ, » that smell which is said to have embalmed him during his life and even after his death. The descriptions of the natural odor of Christ evoke that of a perfume « exquisite, the sweetest, the most delicious, so strong that it surpassed that of musk, amber and civet. » Through the cross-referencing of different historical witnesses, this perfume was to have been composed principally of the Baume de Judée, a little myrrh, incense and cinnamon. Diffused within the ferrotel of Pescara, " The sweet odor of Christ " is a modern project of immediate religious architecture.
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Décosterd & Rahm, associés
smell by Quest International (Christopher Sheldrake with the participation of Christine Nagel )
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Exhibition: Dal Paradiso all'Inferno
Curated by Giacinto Di Pietrantonio
6 May ? 23 August 2004
Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa, Venice, Italy
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link: www.bevilacqualamasa.it