What is Damanhurian art?

Ancient peoples have always created their own art. Art, in fact, is the best means of transmission and communication known to man. It is a fundamental means by which the discoveries, knowledge and traditions of the collectivity are made eternal.

In ancient times, in what some people call "primitive" populations, the artist had a primary role, even that of a priest.

According to the principle of "the similar responds to the similar," in fact, the act of painting hunters who had good results in the hunt brought these advantages to the entire population. The rituals connected to the deceased, moreover, were closely related to artistic events that highlighted tradition, in painting as well as in music and dance. This is because art was considered a ritual, a fundamental magical technology that has perpetuated and immortalized the traditions of the people.

Greece, the translation of "art" sounds like "techne," then transformed into "technique," craft, capacity of realization in matter. With an ever more marked decline in the consideration of art with this meaning, as humans we have gradually lost the fundamental ingredient that brings about art: alchemy, work in groups - intended as generational exchange and transmission of this exceptional discipline. So then, the art of the individual came about, the unbridled individualism of private clients, forgetting the ideal of the artist as demiurge of collective thought.

In Damanhur, from the beginning, we have recuperated the ancient and futuristic idea of art:

It is in the art of the People, where everyone recognizes themselves because everyone belongs to it, that we might venture to say art has two faces: the sacred art of the Temples of Humankind and the everyday one, that is, the one of sweaters, decorations, "colonizations" (making an object culturally your own), plates, glasses, kitchen items, tents, plaster, paints, gardens, sheets, blankets, scarves... The most important example, the tip of the diamond, is the Temples of Humankind, but all the expressive arts must rise to a similar level of importance, so that they become the daily dress for Damanhurians themselves and those who want to make use of it.

Sacred art, in the meaning that we confer to it, is precisely the code that recalls and connects us to the immense forces that we have reawakened, and of which we are the testimonies, ones that are, we hope, are ever more worthy and aware. It's a very ancient ritual, in all means, and we participate in it with dedication and joy, as it befits those who are building a new civilization, far from contemporary consumerism that is currently tied exclusively to the immediate profit of money.