… Man is cast into a world defined by three mutually intersecting axes. Two of these, the horizontal axes, are familiar to us. They anchor us firmly in the material world. The third, vertical, axis fills our soul with eternal questions. It is the connection between heaven and Earth, between our material existence and something that goes beyond it and gives it a deeper meaning. We all sometimes find in our lives that moment of strength when we fully realise the sanctity of the point on which we are standing, buried firmly in the earth, surrounded by the ocean, water, above us the sky, air and the fire descending from it – a symbol not merely divine, purifying and creative, but also demonic and scorching. Fire, as the only element we are able to create, is strongly linked with mythical and religious values and with creative imagination. It is always an image of new and living ideas, eternity – the opposite of death and darkness… And as man’s material existence ordains him to make his ideas material and bring them into the horizontal world, so the VULCANALIA exhibition is, as yet, a humble image of human aspiration from the flame to alchemy and hermetism, from symbol to elaborate pyrotechnical art. There are a number of stops along the way in this area of ephemeral creation.... more here (PDF 352kB)