March 2008 Archives

Alchemists attempted to regenerate their souls and transform them into a divine condition by following different paths throughout history. Their goal and method was united in one ‘process’ that is ultimately never ending. In this everlasting journey through philosophical and spiritual exploration, their aim was to reach a point of personal understanding about the fundamental nature of the universe and its workings. In order for this exploration to take place, alchemists created a field of exclusion sharing a language of complex codes and symbols in order to communicate secretly with one another, fact which made sense in an era when the price for evoking in the alchemical heresy was death.

Christianity always had a predefined path for someone to follow, without allowing space for discovery, exploration and the creation of something ‘new’.  It is restricted on linking the present to the past through a range of navigational stories and traditional liturgies, without moulding the ground of an unpredictable and emerging trajectory into the future.

My aim is to displace the ecclesiastical reality into a new field condition where imagination is the guiding principle structuring everyday life. By using all possible methods for guidance through this culture of fantasy, the church becomes a site of sensual inhabitation where one immerses himself to find his way though. 

Based on the formation of the Kabbalistic Tree of Life –a diagram used by alchemists to picture the nature of reality as the intersection of 22 paths or ‘states of becoming’ and ten localities- and the most ancient symbol of the cosmos –the circle-, the church becomes a network of discoveries;  a  pataphysic universe of transformations. This ecclesiastical heterotopia of esoteric dynamics, of continuity and connectivity within the different places it envelops, becomes a matrix unifying diverse elements into a total whole.

“The Church of the infinite paths” takes Christianity as a starting point into an erratic journey to the future. 

Envelop which would enclose a set of places connected through a network of paths

1.        Using the tree of life as a starting point to create a system of paths and localities

2.       At that point not thinking about the actual program of these localities, but developing a strategy of linking the different places of the structure.  Goal was not to have a straight forward way that someone moves through but emphasize the feeling of discovery.

3.       At that point became important the issue of how is the church detached from the surrounding environment.

4.       The church is not a place to spend a few hours but a place where someone immerses himself, and for a period of time lives an alternative everyday reality.  It is not very different from a theme park.

5.       At the same time I looked into iconic master plans where seclusion and formal totality within the structure guide the organization of the project.  Palmanova star fort, the Radiant City by Le Corbusier or the world in Dubai. Diverse projects but all of them are distinguished for their iconic formal autonomy.

6.       In history, many events and happenings had to escape to an autonomous utopian world, as their principles were opposed to the ones of the given reality. For this reason they had to escape to a world-refuge which would envelop their dreams and materialize their visions.

7.        It wasn’t only the alchemists who attempted to develop a field of exclusion where they could dedicate their full time on philosophical and spiritual exploration, but also many others throughout history.  François Fourier imagined a world of cooperation and pleasure, where people are organized in communities called “phalanxes”, Constant (member of the SI) envisioned ‘New Babylon’: a world where its inhabitants could enjoy a life of play, drifting within the different sectors.

8.       The church of the infinite paths has its own reality, and understanding this reality requires from someone to spend time to base on it, surrender to its fantastical culture and then make his personal interpretations.

The Architecture of this world is a fictional proposition which embraces this utopic vector of constructing imaginative realities.

9.       It envelops libraries, workshops, farms, a cemetery, chapels and a main gathering place acting as the main church of the community and panopticon of the whole structure.

10.   In the same way that churches draw attention to the ceiling, where ornament and stone gargoyles are overlooking the visitors, in the church of infinite paths, the focal point becomes the ground. The ground which is moulded in order in its turn to mould fantastic realities.