Raw purity of the captured moments of consumerist fervour in a monument dedicated to today’s worship, an edifice built for human faith witnessed by the love of human folly for the exception, the grandeur and fame.
The first cathedral builders promised fascination by creating extraordinary jewels that are always higher, larger and more majestic than the precedent. The Sagrada Familia in Spain is no exception to the rule. Subject to many controversies, it is well known around the world, it is fascinating.
In this holy place, many visitors, tourists and faith practitioners are mixed up to go through the same ritual, global and acultural, the communion, not with the holy spirit, but with the object of all covetousness: the pophoto.
Pophoto, the contemporary ritual born with the digital revolution.
Popular, instantaneous (pop!) and garish (pop art), defining a new level of universal communion for all humanity in which everyone recognises oneself, whether it’s for a selfie or Instagram to display on his wall. Photography has become preaching, its worship will assert power and recognition to its prophet.
This media fervour has extended over places of worship, and even more so in the case of the Sagrada Familia, the ritual takes the form of confession prayer, between oneself and another through the medium of camera, the holy spirit’s third eye, more powerful than the omniscient priest, connecting men not only with their gods but also with one another, virtually and effortlessly. Prayer to the invisible 2.0, awaiting an augmented, impalpable reality, each individual seeks to know better oneself and to stand out from the galloping globalization.
Text by Mozygus
