Natasha V. Moody, Logos VI, Ph(y)toforms, photograph 8×10’’, 2021
This conference focuses on the aesthetics of esoteric practices through materialities, performances, and the senses. It aims to explore the extent to which esoteric practices are socially and culturally constructed and effective because they are practiced, performed, sensorily perceived and embodied by participants as practitioners as well as spectators. The conference evolves around aesthetics as the relations between esoteric practices, the practicing individual and their social and cultural environment.
The event is organized jointly by Fondazione Giorgio Cini (Centre for Comparative Studies of Civilisations and Spiritualities), DFG-funded Center for Advanced Studies “Alternative Rationalities and Esoteric Practices from a Global Perspective” (CAS-E) at the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Center for the History of Hermetic Philosophy and Related Currents at the University of Amsterdam, and the Research Network for the Study of Esoteric Practices (RENSEP).
The event will be enriched by a Piano Concert organized by the Institute of Music.
Download the program of the conference here.
Admission is free upon registration on Eventbrite:
– Conference registration (12-13-14 November)
– Concert registration (13 November at 6 pm)
For questions about availability, please contact: civilta.comparate@cini.it
Among the salient features of twentieth-century music is a widespread interest in forms of knowledge and spiritual experiences that in recent times have been traced back to the category of ‘Western esotericism’. The confrontation with non-European cultures, the adhesion to the Order of the Rosicrucians, the approach to the themes of anthroposophy and the attraction towards the mystery and visionary aspects of Christianity represent transversal phenomena, which are sometimes limited to the private sphere of composers, but often translate into unprecedented ways of sound organisation.
The compositions on the programme, selected by pianist Luca Ieracitano and Gianmario Borio, director of the Institute for Music, offer a journey through this complex galaxy. From Aleksandr Skrjabin and Erik Satie, two key figures in the grafting of esoteric thought into the processes of musical creativity, we come to Renato De Grandis, founder of the International Centre for Theosophical Research in Cervignano del Friuli, with the performance of his rarely programmed works. With the compositions of Olivier Messiaen and Niccolò Castiglioni, the horizon extends to the most intimate and radical spiritualities of Catholic religiosity.
The manuscripts of the compositions by De Grandis and Castiglioni are preserved at the Institute for Music, which preserves the archival collections of the two composers.
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