spiritual devices

Spiritual Devices, 2010
Exhibition: »Territorien des In/Humanen- Territories of the in/Human«
At: Württembergischen Kunstverein, Stuttgart. Germany
Institution: Akademie Schloss Solitude, Solitude 3, Stuttgart, Germany in cooperation with Württembergischer Kunstverein
Curators: Hans Christ and Iris Dressler.
Design: Matilde Cassani
Engineering and manufacturing: Sebastiano Conti Gallenti, Sara Galli
Audio engineering: Norbert Schliewe
Photos: Ivan Sarfatti
Post-production: Giovanna Silva
Website :www.wkvstuttgart.de/en/programme/2010/exhibitions/territories-of/
4 mobile modules, ca. 2 x 1 m
 
For this project, Cassani spearheaded a comprehensive investigation of the pivotal needs for prayer rituals of four world religions as regards space, furnishings, and other objects. The artist’s orientation here was particularly geared toward the makeshift, sometimes unofficial prayers rooms of religious minorities in European cities. She developed four mobile modules in which the most important standards for praying in Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, and Sikhism were addressed and fulfilled while engaging the smallest amount of space possible. The elements are all mass-produced objects, that, in abscence of the proper ones, act as sacred objects. The container is a 1 x 2 metres large box, foldable and transportable. The site is an airport, a prison, a cruise liner, a street or a garage. As a metaphore of the current reality the “Spiritual device" act as solidified heterotopy. The iconic, central, clear image of a place to worship becomes a box to be treated with strong faith.