"OF ALL THINGS VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE" NICAEA 1. AN EYE-OPENER TO SYNODALITY

The exhibition proposes to decode the theological meaning of art in relation to the First Ecumenical Council of the Church from two complementary perspectives: historical-archaeological and contemporary-phenomenological. The aim is to draw visitors into a deeper contemplation of this defining event for the Church, then and now.
Various representations of Nicaea I, spanning almost two millennia, are confronted with the fundamental concern of art to ‘giving form to space’. It will be shown how the experience of Nicaea, ‘to gather in common faith’, provided a new direction for the experience of space and led to the creation of a public and communal spatiality. Particular attention will be paid to common spaces as sites of synodality. 
The exhibition is arranged around seven thematic areas: 1) Biblical roots for the iconography of the council 2) Nicaea at the time of Constantine and the emergence of a new visual horizon in the transition from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages 3) The public confession of the True Faith and the defeat of heresy. 4) Birth of the "Council Icon" 5) Communicating a universal message 6) Meeting the other 7) An invitation to “Ressourcement” (“Return to the authoritative Sources”).