Chorography ( Chôra, Chôros, Chorós ) - A performative paradigm of creation of sacred space in Byzantium (original) (raw)
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CHOROGRAPHY (CHÔRA, CHORÓS) - A PERFORMATIVE PARADIGM OF CREATION OF SACRED SPACE IN BYZANTIUM
Hierotopy, a compound term based on the Greek words hierós and tópos constructed by Dr. Alexei Lidov some few years ago (2001), has lately received a great audience among scholars, and is now on the point of becoming a true discipline. Hierotopy is no doubt Lidov's remarkable contribution to the studies of the phenomena of sacred space in Byzantium and beyond it. His vision we all share, and in return we may all reflect back many visions. Chorography aims to be one of these many, yet in agreement with hierotopy and the idea that the quality of being hierós remained, since the Homeric times, imbued with what defines god as a god, which is, holiness and movement , vitality and circularity. According to Benveniste, on the evidence of Homeric examples, in the Greek world hierós belongs to the domain of the 'sacred' 1. Thus, the term tà hierá denotes the sacrificial act, sacrifices were hierà kalà, and they were offered on the hierôi…bômôi; the priest who presides over the mystery of sacrifice was hiereús, the victim was hierêïon, and the verb of his action was hiereúô. Benveniste derives other qualities of hierós, such as movement and liveliness, swiftness and vitality, from a comparative study in the examination of the word 2. Finally, circularity was associated with things of hierós, among which exemplary remains the image of the judges sitting "in the hierós circle" (hierôi enì kúklôi) 3. Chorography intends to test these qualities of being hierós against the Byzantine context, and reveal the presence of hierós in the space chôra (chôros), drawing on the intimate relation between chôra and chorós, between space and movement, deeply rooted in the ancient Greek language and imagination. I will start with a brief philological clarification. Chôra
Hierotopy. The creation of sacred spaces as a form of creativity and subject of cultural history
Hierotopy. The creation of sacred spaces as a form of creativity and subject of cultural history. In the book: Hierotopy. Creation of Sacred Spaces in Byzantium and Medieval Russia. Edited by A. Lidov. Published by “Progress-tradition” in Moscow, 2006, p. 32-58. , 2006
In this article I introduce a reader to the concept of ‘hierotopy’ which is understood as the creation of sacred spaces regarded as a special form of creativity as well as the field of historical research which reveals and analyses particular examples of that creativity. One way to explain hierotopy is through making a distinction between hierophany (direct manifestation of the sacred) and hierotopy (creation of the sacred space by human hands to commemorate a specific hierophany). This can be illustrated by the example of Biblical patriarch Jacob who erected the altar (hierotopy) at the place of his Divine vision (hierophany). Hierotopy shows a new way to look at the history of art: it considers all the individual objects of art constituting a sacred space as elements of a hierotopic project. Hierotopy focuses on the inspiration of the creators of sacred spaces, such as famous Abbot Suger (creator of the first Gothic cathedrals), whose masterminded the whole hierotopic project and conceived its kernel concept, which would define it as a unique work of art, give it purpose and meaning and unify its elements. The perception of sacred spaces is described in terms of ‘image-paradigms’, which are evoked by the sacred space in its entirety rather than any particular image or symbolic object. Hierotopy is not a philosophical concept, but rather a form of vision that helps to recognize the presence of a special stratum of cultural phenomena, which should be historically reconstructed.
The Creator of Sacred Space as a Phenomenon of Byzantine Culture
The Creator of Sacred Space as a Phenomenon of Byzantine Culture. In: In: L’artista a Bisanzio e nel mondo cristiano-orientale, ed. Michele Bacci, Pisa, 2007, p. 135-176, 2007
In this paper I shall argue that in our discussion of Byzantine artists and donors one might find some room for a specific group of makers – the creators of sacred spaces who were responsible for an entire project of sacred space realised in a particular church, or some other environment. This figure should not be identified with the artisan making concrete art objects like walls and vaults, sculptural decorations and paintings, liturgical vessels and textiles. Nor can his role be limited to financial support of the project. It is noteworthy that this form of activity had a very powerful artistic aspect as well. In a sense, the creator of sacred space is the artist, whose role seems comparable with the contemporary activity of film directors leading the efforts of various ‘artisans’. From this point of view, the creator of sacred space might be discussed in an art-historical context. At the same time, it seems important to emphasise that he belongs to a particular field of creativity, which has been recently named Hierotopy.
JSAH 73, pp. 592-594, 2014
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When someone looks into the representational depth of the mosaic compositions that have settled in the Chora’s onastery (Cariye Camii) in Istanbul what fully emerges is a rich representation of the chora in Plato’s Timaeus (48e-52c), documented and evidenced in the enclosures of this architectural space. This monument is the result of a major renovation that took place between 1315 and 1321 under the supervision of Theodore Metochites (appx. 1270 and 1332), a scholar and Prime Minister to Emperor Andronikos II Palaeologos. The subject matter, the religious mosaic representations and their spatial arrangement echo a pictorial discourse: while the narrative is based on an iconographic polysemy, the mosaic decoration depicts the attempt to restore the ecumenical order. The mosaic’s decorative fusion may be interpreted as an alliance between the identical and the distinct which are revealed as degrees of complexity in the execution of the iconographic display. An incision into the architectural space exposes various forms of otherness that allow the real and the imaginary to coexist, as well as the perceivable with the conceivable. So an unconscious power and disorderly nature coincide with a conscious awareness and the shaping of the visual and composed space that make up the “creation.” Thus, the mosaic art places the subject matter in its architectural space and the Chora’s receptacle establishes the site’s history.
Zbornik Instituta za arheologiju / Serta Instituti Archaeologici, Vol. 10. Sacralization of Landscape and Sacred Places. Proceedings of the 3rd International Scientific Conference of Mediaeval Archaeology of the Institute of Archaeology, 2018
Human settlement of landscape raises the question of marking the landscape with one’s own religion. Changes of religious systems or their coexistence documented in the landscape raises further questions, particularly those pertaining to broader socio-cultural phenomena and dynamics. Even if such processes are not documented in written sources, they could often be recognized in toponyms, folklore, archaeological finds and in contemporary religious practices. This publication presents analyses of sacred landscape from the perspective of: archaeology, folklore, ethnology and cultural anthropology, literature, architecture, history, art history, mathematics etc., and at the same time covers the period from prehistory, through antiquity and Slavic period and the Middle Ages to the modern period and contemporary times. In addition to this, it also compares different processes from different regions and times, by and large from Europe.
A. Simsky. The Discovery of Hierotopy // Visual Theology, 2020, No 1. P. 9-28, 2020
This paper outlines the genesis of hierotopy, a notion serving to conceptualize the creation of sacred spaces as a particular form of human art. The concept encompasses the entirety of the multifarious components employed in Byzantine sacred spaces and analyzes the ways in which their cooperative interaction results in the formation of a 'spatial icon', or a kind of sacred ambiance. The very notion of a 'spatial icon' draws upon the central place of icons and iconicity in the Eastern Christian worldview. In Byzantium, icons were seen as windows opening out onto an otherworldly reality, or, rather, as doors opening up a two-way communication; in this way, the icon was understood as a means or a place, of immediate contact with the divine, or a sort of platonic chora, in which ideal divine forms assimilated material contours. Within the context of a sacred space, the icon appeared not only as a principal meaning-making agent, but also as a conceptual key for understanding the way in which other components, as well as the sacred space as a whole, effectively worked; each component was thus understood and experienced as being 'iconic', or icon-like, in the sense of providing other points (or, rather, spaces) of contact between the earthly and the divine. As this paper recounts, Alexei Lidov made his first steps towards forging the concept of hierotopy while studying the design, as well as the perception, of Byzantine iconographic programs; as his studies revealed, icons acted not simply as images, but also with the full deployment of their wonder-working potential evincing a powerful expression of religious meaning, particularly when purposefully employed together with wonder-working relics. Lidov's next step was to realize the fully performative nature of spatial icons by taking into account the crucial role played by the surrounding liturgical context, in which each beholder, or liturgical participant, played an active role in giving life to the spatial icon. Hierotopy was thus discovered (and formally defined) as a special form of art involving the performative creation of spatial icons. The paper also discusses the concept of 'image-paradigms' as multimodal units of meaning within sacred spaces, or as compound mental constructs combining together dogmatic ideas, imagery and holistic emotive components (so-called atmospheres).