where the angels hesitate to rest their feet

italian version

As Gregory Bateson observed, beauty is inextricably connected to the ‘sacred’. Not in a transcendent sense, but a sacredness that is immanent to the ‘mind’, and to the world of life. In the final metalogue of Mind and Nature, Bateson states, “To be conscious [1] of the nature of beauty and sacredness, is the madness of reductionism [2].” I recognize in your photographs, in an immediate and profound way, that immanent ‘sacredness’ of every human being, which lies at the border between the unconscious and the conscious—it is the presence of a territory where “the angels hesitate to rest their feet.” It’s abundantly clear that you, too, are very careful to not step on anything.

 Marcello Cini 2006

 

[1] Being ‘conscious’ means here ‘to bring up to conscience’, ‘to rationalize’. [2] Bateson means here that beauty and sacredness irreparably lose their nature when translated into purely rational terms.

 

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