The House Of Exaltation

THE HOUSE OF EXALTATION

In the Bauhaus Manifesto written in 1919, Walter Gropius (the founder of this great German avant-garde art school) said: "the only difference between craftsmen and artists is that the artists are exalted craftsmen."

In other words what differentiates an artist from a craftsmen (both being craftsmen) is that the artist is EXALTED.

What is exaltation ?

The word “exaltation” comes from the Latin word exaltare: raise aloft.

To raise aloft… what would that mean ?

In our clinically oriented world, we would probably use the word “manic,” to express the counterpart of depression.

Plus, the almost religious overtones Gropius had in his manifesto, exemplified by the fact that the word “heaven” was used twice, are definitely missing in today’s world…

What would exalt us today ? A new car ? Shading away a few pounds and burning some fat on our belly ? Getting a promotion ? Becoming a millionaire ? Buying a new refrigerator or the newest gadget ?

What makes us exalted today ?

Usually, sad to say, material things, sadly pedestrian.

But can we reduce the horizon of life to the myriad of frivolities promoted with incessant vigor by a Capitalism that likes to sell, sell, sell, elevating the verb “to have” to the highest altitude and prestige in our lives ?

We propose a break and a resistance.

We propose a return to innocence, to purity, to intense feelings that refuse to be conditioned by lucrative aims.

Thus, we invite you to imagine THE HOUSE OF EXALTATION in lofty, idealistic terms, to passionately celebrate the Bauhaus Centennial, this very year.

Don’t you feel / think that we might be in great need of a dire idealism that is most often missing ? Steven Holl said it beautifully: “Remain idealistic! The soul needs the ideal more than the real.”

It is this idealism that warms up our soul and makes us fly. Yes, fly.

We invite you to have wings. To invent architectural scenarios that would embrace something worth dying for, that is, worth living for.

Let’s say a vigorous NO to refrigerators, vacuum cleaners, bank accounts, credit cards, astounding “insurances” or fantastic trips to “exotic lands…” Let’s find a GENUINE EXALTATION that is based on a real warming up of the heart, that very human heart that is assaulted, so very often these days, by depression and stress. 

Let’s imagine a great HOUSE OF EXALTATION, a HOUSE that would envision that Cosmos of Hope without which it is very hard to live.

Please send us your work by December 31st, and please register before the deadline on our website. Please send us your work on maximum two sheets format A0, vertically oriented. If you have any questions, please be kind and write to us.

Thank you,

ICARCH Gallery

http://www.icarch.us