Mundus Imaginalis | © Tatjana Rudenko
How to connect to the realities in which the world of the senses does not belong to?
The senses represent gateways which enable us to access the certain corner of our soul where the images are manufactured, an area where feelings and thoughts are generated. Now the question is: if there are limits to our perceptions and furthermore, how far can we consider its reality? It might be possible to open doors to the world of spiritualities. Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), affirms the impossibility of research that surpasses beyond this phenomenon or perhaps, by means of the intellect alone. However; one cannot claim to embrace the complexity of the cognitive possibilities of the human being. Henry Corbin (1903 – 1978), French philosopher, orientalist and Iranologists argues that we can investigate the noumenon thanks to a specific soul-spiritual openness that appears in the forms of images. He tells us about the Mundus Imaginalis (Imaginal World), a place that is neither imagination nor fantasy. It is instead a state of consciousness in which images appear with a special intensity, or when they arrive in the mind without having been invited. According to him, these images appeal to a deep sense of existential truth that convey the spiritual contents of ancient wisdoms. You may have already encountered these forms such as: figures, faces, symbols, objects or actions, which appear totally disconnected from everyday life, and its meaning might be out of your comprehension. Or perhaps you may have experienced a fervor, an enthusiasm for certain fascinating images found in ancient tales. All this constitutes the Imaginal World. Most of the time we give them neither importance nor credibility. But why shouldn’t they be real? Corbin says that they can be experienced because they are sedimented in the culture and in the collective unconscious, that we just need to open our eyes to be able to contemplate them. This activity of the soul does not appeal to rational logic. However, there lies the possibility to access the divine.
Our research is based on a story by the Persian philosopher and theologian Shihab al-Din Suhrawardi (1154-1191) of his book Aql-e Sorkh (L’archange empourpré), a philosophical subject that Henry Corbi had studied.
Suhrawardi, was the founder of the Philosophy of the Enlightenment, Hikmat al-Ishraq, in which the light is the source of wisdom.
According to Henry Corbin: Suhrawardi ’s proposition was to create a renaissance of the ancient Persian wisdom. Suhrawardi, in fact, tells in a poetic manner the story of “Soul” from its original descent into the world of “Matter”, then to abandonment and its final return to the source to the place of which he always tries to be connected.
The story abounds in metaphors that Corbin describes as belonging to the Imaginal World. It can be said that the story could have been generated by the Imaginal World.
Entstanden während der Dutch Artist.inResidence des Eventeurythmie.TanzFestivals°2.
Duur
35 | 40min
Première
15.07.2022 | De Roode Bioscoop Amsterdam
Choreografie & kostuum:
Marie-Pierre Murigneux
Muziek:
Fuad Ahmadvand
Coaching [dans]:
Bernard Thiry
Coaching [muziek, tekst]:
Alan Kushan
Marie-Pierre Murigneux
is a French eurythmist and artist born in Lyon in 1992. In 2012 she graduated from ENSAAMA in Paris in Architectural Decoration and Fresco. She continued her artistic training at the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice and obtained her master’s degree in 2019. In 2018 she carried out her training in eurythmy at the European Academy of Eurythmy Venice. She obtained her bachelor’s degree with the show A fior d’acqua, curated by Cristina Dal Zio and Gia van den Akker in 2018. She has participated in various projects in the artistic environment collaborating with artists and choreographer as: François Chat, Geometrie Invisibili with costumes of Sonia Biacchi, 2016. Erwin Wurm, One Minute Sculpture for the Biennale Arte di Venezia, 2017. Gia Van den Akker, Dante Alighieri: Rime Petrose e danza, 2018. In 2020-21 she co-created the show Risonanze with Cristina Dal Zio, Enrica Dal Zio and Giacomo Benvenuto. In 2021 she obtained the level 1° diploma of Spacial Dynamics ®. Since September 2021 she has been a member of the Dutch Euritmie Dance Ensemble, DeDae where she is working on different productions: Bach beweegt, Ik val niet, ik dans, Albolina in Den Haag where she currently lives and works.
Fuad Ahmadvand
I have a double degree in Architecture “Venice, Italy” and Textile Dyeing Technique Engineering “Yazd, Iran”. For most of my life, I have been staggered by looking at amazing monumental architectural works of the western and eastern world and fantasizing that these constructs were composed by musicians or perhaps those involved, might have had a musical background on some level. I have studied Persian folk and traditional music for many years on three different musical instruments including: The Santur (a trapezoidal hammered dulcimer). The Tanbour (a long-necked lute) and the frame drum known as the “daf”. Lately I’ve been studying a more complex instrument called “Nou-Taan” (tempered tuned musical instrument, a cross between Eastern and Western Santur). My inner quest for understanding European folk and classical music has brought me into contact with many wonderful musicians as a result of this I have been giving many concerts and workshops. The experience of these musical activities and my experiences as workshops and courses in architectural fields was indeed the most instructive for my ultimate goal of connecting architecture and music to the new interpretation where these two disciplines interact.
