While we are living everyday the phenomena of globalization, this global village where continents are only separated from one another by a few hours of flight, or even by seconds with internet; where humanity's past, present and future is telescoped, a time where we have at hand all the documentation we need thanks to numerous translations of fundamental texts made available for the very first time in our own epoch, it can finally seem clear that Spirituality is one, just as our earth is one, our condition is one.
This principle of spirituality, always alive, always springing forth, has given birth to a multiple of particular religious forms, which, while flourishing within their respective human communities that welcomed them, have become crystallized, hardened and institutionalized. These religious forms that we call 'religions' seem above all today as if they must conflict in their beliefs and applications while it is true that they seem sometimes more preoccupied with opposing one another than with guiding all humankind along the path to liberation.
The çûfî poet Sanaï of Ghazna (Persia), was writing this tale in as far back as the XIth century : A few blind men encounter a strange beast, an elephant. Each man approached it and extended a hand to feel how the elephant must look. - This animal has the shape of a rug, claimed the first man as he was was touching its ear. - Rather a tube, declared the second holding its trump. No, it is like a pillar, contested the third man, hugging the elephant's leg ! It is like a snake said the fourth man caressing its tail. Thus, most men just see a small part of the universe and their minds are filled with ghosts. We can also read in the Book of Akbar by Abou'l Fazl (XVIth century) the following lines : One day I visit the church, the following day I go to the mosque ; yet from one temple to the other, it is but Thee that I seek.
Therefore, our gallery's approach, which proposes to present plural-faith sacred art, old and new, resituating the works in their primary function as symbolic vehicles, aims to trigger an awareness of the secret unity that underlies the particular forms: The convergence of all spiritual traditions towards the same intangible reality.
What we are interested in presenting to the public is the works that go beyond their specific forms and their historical and geographical place, the works that manage to move us, evoking a sense of awe, in touch with the universal rhythms. Religion before religion; this Ocean towards which all rivers flow.
The gallery seeks, thus, to exhibit works whose primary motivation is to contribute to the clarification of the persistent enigma that constitutes for us reality, by reorienting our view inwards, along the path of potential transcendence.
As well as mounting permanent exhibits of religious iconographic collections with their references to the past, we intend to promote young creators who give a vision, or even better, an introspection of that which precisely is not visible.
The gallery has taken the name métanoïa, since the Greek term referring to a discernment of the beyond and that which is found with Plato as well as with the Evangels, seemed to us the best designation to bring together all traditions and the best adapted to transcribe the original vocation of all Spirituality: The act of transcending the mental limits of discursive and discriminatory thinking to a point where a change in consciousness takes place. In other words: The awakening of our true nature.
