Accumulated around Islam in the Western world, many controversies and stereotypes. In Poland, both this religion, and grown on her land and culture, are still relatively little known. The exhibition in the MEK is an attempt to read Islamic culture through the ornament.
Looking at the rich ornamentation of everyday objects from the Middle East and the Maghreb, the plurality of geometric and floral forms, which appear on the local ceramics, fabrics, articles made of wood and metal are rarely aware of the fact that elements of the ornament they convey meaning. Both geometric figures and numbers related to the art complex symbolism of Islam, are a kind of cipher, which saved the whole vision of the world.
Algebra and geometry are of Muslim scholars and mystics link between material and spiritual reality. Logic and order forms are a reflection of the divine harmony prevailing in the universe. The artist, devoid of most (though not always and not everywhere, as well as you will see on display) the right to reproduce images of humans and animals, seek other means of expression, approaching toward abstraction. A multitude of decorative elements, and repetition are the result of horror vacui, fear of emptiness, yet symbolically indicate that the act of creating, establishing the beginning and end, is the domain of God.
Visiting an exhibition in the MEK turned into a kind of journey through the world of symbols: Each stop is one digit, one geometrical figure and the multiplicity of meanings which can be read from the objects shown. Each member of the audience also gets a special decoder, which enables him to decrypt at least some of the symbols written on the carpets. Something also to remain hidden in the exhibition - a "hidden", "inaccessible to the eye" (hijab) is well known that an important category in the Muslim culture. |
