Traces of the Sacred

PARIS

CENTRE POMPIDOU

May 7-August 11

Curated by Angela Lampe and Jean de Loisy

This enormous, multidisciplinary exhibition explores the destiny of the sacred and the transcendental in an age of "religious crisis," as the curators would have it. Under headings such as "Cosmic Revelations," "Doors of Perception," "Nostalgia for Infinity," and "Sacred Dances," the Centre Pompidou's, well, far-reaching enterprise will feature works by some two hundred artists, from Kandinsky to Cage, from Goya to Chan (Paul, that is), most of them jibing with cultural critic Mark C. Taylor's notion of "theoesthetics." The catalogue, edited by Mark Alizart (and available only in French), may struggle under the somewhat burdening curatorial scope, but it also promises to become a veritable reference work on everything you ever wanted to know about art and spirituality, from Adamism to Zen. Travels to the Haus der Kunst, Munich, Sept. 19, 2008-Jan. 11, 2009. -Tom Holert