added 29 Aug 2010
Looking at the rich ornamentation of everyday objects from the Middle East and the Maghreb, the plurality of geometric and floral forms that appear on the ceramics, fabrics, wodden and metal articles we are rarely aware of the fact that elements of the ornament convey meanings. Both geometric figures and numbers related to the art complex symbolism of Islam, are a kind of cipher, which saved the whole vision of the world.
Algebra and geometry are for Muslim scholars and mystics a link between material and spiritual reality. Logical and ordered forms are a reflection of the divine harmony prevailing in the universe. The artist, devoid of most (though not always and not everywhere, as well as you will see on display) the right to reproduce images of humans and animals, seek other means of expression, approaching toward abstraction. A multitude of decorative elements, and repetition are the result of horror vacui, fear of emptiness, yet symbolically indicate that the act of creation, lays down the beginning and end, is the domain of God.
