THE SPIRITUAL GATE — 2012

Created several years before The Gate of the Soul, The Spiritual Gate represents the first stage of a reflection devoted to dialogue between spiritual traditions, cultures, and humanity’s deepest aspirations.

The work follows in the lineage of the great gates in art history, particularly Auguste Rodin’s The Gates of Hell, begun in 1880, which itself echoes Lorenzo Ghiberti’s Gates of Paradise, begun in 1425 for the Baptistery of Florence.

Through this symbolic gate, different spiritual traditions, past and present, come together within a single composition. Rather than merging them, the work seeks to reveal what may connect them: the search for meaning, peace, and self-transcendence.

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This exploration would lead, several years later, to the creation of The Gate of the Soul.

Although the two works share a common lineage, The Gate of the Soul marks a profound evolution. While The Spiritual Gate was conceived and sculpted entirely around spirituality, The Gate of the Soul opens the concept to a much broader field, bringing together cultures, philosophies, monuments, symbols, and traditions from different civilizations. It also combines sculptures I created myself with references to, and forms inherited from, the history of art.

The two gates are therefore connected by the same artistic exploration, while remaining profoundly different works in both their conception and their scope.