Reincarnation of the Material Spirit

The fragment rises as a fundamental theme of the indivisible, of expressive continuity in relation to the eternity of Matter. Traversing the distance between the perceived universe and the conceived universe, through the mathematical concept of the limit, one arrives at the formulation of the Whole: the primal and indivisible elements are the geometric magnitudes themselves.

The intuition of the two realms, perception and thought, is laid bare by calculation. The science of precise measurement makes its entrance into modernity. The telescope, in its discovery, "discovers" a constellation of re-found objects, to be inserted not as new objects into common optics, but as new realities.

The perpetual transformation of the real condition reminds the eye of knowledge of the elliptical trajectory of the planets and the apotheosis of the spherical work, the essence of the circle. Art, made into a "magnifying lens" for the re-found objects, ceases to be chronicle and becomes a tool of knowledge, once again expanding the horizons of sensitive optics. This very instrument compresses distances: between spaces of perception and between the space-times of an eternal becoming.

Thought and Reality sign an armistice, a long-awaited union that humanity has not yet grasped in incisive form, but has at least intuited in the indivisibility of the two hemispheres. The variation of figurative effects that emerges remains, more than ever, mysterious and unknown.

Science, the rationalization of the conceived universe, serves as justification and, even in art, rationalizes. The beauty that imposes itself in a painting, a sculpture, an architecture becomes science, having made use of the artistic nature of science. Not as its sole genesis, but in a creative act that transcends any pre-established historical and cultural reference.

Faced with the perception of rational knowledge and beauty, the figure of the scientist intensifies his rational fervor: his wonder is not comparable to the gaze of the artist upon science. Art becomes science precisely when it detaches from it, only to return at will, thus completing the historical rhythm of the specialist dynamism of becoming.

From "Design of New Words"
Metempsychosis of Architecture by Filippo Lo Presti 1989