Sir John Soane’s Museum, 12 Lincoln’s Inn Fields, Holborn, London, –
The ‘Min at the Soane’ is a project at Sir John Soane’s Museum that interrogates the origins of the sacred through architectural form. Drawing on the ancient symbolism of the arch—from its derivation in Etruscan tombs as a phallic figure to the transformative transition from square to circle—the work is inspired by the Egyptian god of fertility, Min, and resonates with elements of Soane’s canopies and Giles Gilbert Scott’s iconic design innovations
Text
Antonino Cardillo
Dionysian Mysteries were a ritual of ancient Greece and Rome. […] They involved liberation from civilization’s rules and constraints. They celebrated a return to the source of being. […] Festivals were orgies of wine and sex: over all reigned the Phallus.
— Wikipedia, Dionysian Mysteries (2013)
Since the Etruscan tombs, even before appearing as a structural element in the history of architecture, the arch derived its figure from the phallus.
Inspired by the Egyptian God of fertility Min, a series of seven sculptures at Sir John Soane’s Museum investigates the origin of the sacred. The transition from the square to the circle has been a fundamental theme of architecture.
Min resolves the passage from the parallelepiped to the sphere through an intersection of the two solids, identifying a monolith shaped by arched sides and hemispherical dome. The form of Min is also reminiscent of John Soane’s canopies and the London Red Telephone Box designed by Giles Gilbert Scott who, in turn, took inspiration from the Soane family tomb in Old St Pancras churchyard.
the exhibition ‘Space and Light’, Sir John Soane’s Museum, London, 13 Sept. 2014.
Data
Time:Design (Aug 2013); Production (Aug 2014); Photography (Sep 2014); Exhibition (13 Sep – 11 Oct 2014)
Venue: Sir John Soane’s Museum, 12 Lincoln’s Inn Fields, Holborn, London, United Kingdom
Material: limestone (VII), marbles (I – III, V), onyx (IV, VI)
Typology: Talisman
John Soane, Sir John Soane’s Museum, Portico, 13 Lincoln’s Inn Fields, London, 1812. Photography: Antonino Cardillo, 2014
What we know about the things of architecture is derived from the endless manipulations and prejudices of the millennia. Fragments of content are often encountered that suggest that eroticism, then repressed during the history of civilisation, may have been a possible origin of the sacred.
Dessauer Gespräche, Dessau Institute of Architecture, 13 November 2019. (en, it)
Cardillo’s Min sculptures, inspired by the homonymous Egyptian god of fertility, gives shape to what could be regarded as a contemporary image of a talisman; a symbolic magnet, an object imbued with magical properties.
Design Exchange, no. 12, London, August 2015, p. 109. (en)
Past year I designed seven sculptures for the Sir John Soane’s Museum of London. Min investigates the origin of the sacred. There I conveyed diverse references synchronised in a single shard of mineral stone. Min is about permanence of life.
Baunetzwoche, no. 403, BauNetz, Berlin, March 2015, p. 25. (de, en, it)
Sir John Soane’s architecture always put great emphasis on the use of light and shadow and he has been described as the ‘Master of Space and Light’. This aspect of Soane’s work will be explored by leading contemporary designers in a pop-up exhibition, entitled Space and Light for London Design Festival (13 September – 21 September). The curated display […] will be installed in the Museum’s historic No.12 Breakfast Room. Space and Light features a collection of one-off pieces and never-before-seen products, all available for sale, offering visitors a rare opportunity to own unique and limited edition designs from some of the world’s most exciting designers and creatives.
Sir John Soane’s Museum, London, 7 August 2014. (en)
At the invitation of director Abraham Thomas, the bespoken series of seven sculptures Min were part of the exhibition ‘Space and Light’ in the breakfast room at number 12 of Sir John Soane’s house-museum in London.
Sir John Soane’s Museum, London, – .
Publications
2019 – 2014
Antonino Cardillo, ‘A synchronicity of cultures and civilisations’, paper presented to the Dessauer Gespräche ed. Johannes Kister, Hochschule Anhalt, Dessau Institute of Architecture, 13 Nov. 2019. Transcript published on antoninocardillo.com, 15 April 2023.
Antonino Cardillo, ‘Falsche Freunde’, Baunetzwoche, no. 403, ed. Kristina Herresthal, Lisa Kadel, BauNetz, Berlin, March 2015, p. 25.
Maxwell Blowfield, Space and light[media release], Sir John Soane’s Museum, London, 7 Aug. 2014.
Credits
Architecture: Antonino Cardillo
Patron: Sir John Soane’s Museum (director: Abraham Thomas; MD of Soane Museum Enterprises: Xanthe Arvanitakis; communications assistant: Maxwell Blowfield; retail manager: Olly Perry)
Producer, sponsor: Daniele Ghirardi (Ghirardi Stone Contractor)
Buyers: Ana Araujo (II), Banca d’Italia a Londra (IV, VI), Massimiliano Beffa (III), Antonino Cardillo (V), Daniele Ghirardi (VII), Anna Marra (I)
