The exhibition features twelve sacred buildings of the Swiss architect.
Eleven of them are Catholic churches, the twelfth is the famous Zimbalist Synagogue in Tel Aviv. This is an original building, consisting of two identical towers, which contain prayer halls for adherents of Orthodox Judaism and more liberal believers. Thus, the idea of tolerance and respect for the ideas and spirituality of others is carried through the architectural form.
Botta managed to work with Le Corbusier during that period of the great architect's work, when he tried to convey the postulates of Christianity in architecture - in the Notre Dame chapel in Ronchamp and in the monastery complex of Sainte-Marie de la Tourette near Lyon.
Mario Botta tried to continue this line in his work, combining modern architecture and ancient ideas in a situation where Europe is becoming more and more mundane.
His buildings tend to complete geometric shapes - spheres, cylinders, cubes. From the history of architecture, the ideal sacred building for him is "Tempietto" by Donato Bramante in Rome.
Among the most striking buildings of Botta in recent years is the Church of John XXIII in Seriat near Bergamo. Its walls are faced with red natural stone, a powerful volume with accentuated corners hides the interior space, decorated with marble and wood, where light plays a special role.
The Church of Santo Volto in Turin, built on the industrial outskirts of the city, is a "bouquet" of towers arranged in a circle, which are also light wells. The main space is covered with a vault resembling a cover spread over the altar, the clergyman and the faithful.
In Genestrerio, a small Swiss town, Botta added a redstone façade to an old parish church - a modern take on a forward-looking portal.
The exhibition "Architecture of the Sacred: Prayers in Stone" will run until January 14.
