THE STRUGGLE OF JACOB the-struggle-of-jacob | Page 23

Mark Rotsaert, S.J. Spiritual Exercises and Struggle.
Silvano Giordano Struggle and Ascent: Saint John of the Cross.
Théoneste Nkeramihigo, S.J. The Struggle Between Will, Passivity and
Recognition.
Alessandra Bianchi Hermeneutics in Art as a Spiritual Exercise.
Philipp Renczes, S.J. The Struggle of Jacob in the Thought of the Fathers of
the Church.
Joseph Bonfrate The Struggle of Jacob and Inspiration.
Tiziana de Blasio The Struggle of Jacob in in Film.
Giorgio Monari Musical Experience as a Struggle Between Sound and Silence.
Barbara Aniello Between Agony and Regeneration. The Night of Jacob, an
Iconographic Excursus.
Andrea Dall'Asta, S.J. Centro San Fedele: The Struggle of Jacob and the
Artists of Today.
Stella Morra The Establishing Break: a Body that is Born from a Wound.
It should be emphasized here that the conception and design of
the work date back to the invitation for the retreat in Cologne -
nothing more was required - while the execution relied upon
my own personal will, a posteriori, to bring the work to
completion.
Therefore, having to represent The Struggle of Jacob with my
own form of expression, the first choice that I had to face was
how to deal with the subject.
Listening to the lectures deterred me a priori from any wish for
exegesis. The only creative options left to me were either to fix a
crucial moment in the story or to tell the story at length. The
narrative choice immediately presented itself as the closest to
my own sensibilities, absolving myself of the need to express
any categorical opinion, whereas the unraveling of the story
merely seemed to weaken the intrinsic drama of the subject in
the telling. It was like tiptoeing into someone else’s house.
In order to narrate the story more scenes were needed, as in
the case of a story-teller or a theatrical piece. So either I had to
depict more than one scene in a single composition, or I had to
develop several panels. At this point I imagined a triptych, and
of large dimensions.
When we say “large dimensions” we are generally referring to
the fact that such a work doesn’t lend itself to the living-space
of a normal home. Hypothetically, the artist needs to visualize,
if only as imaginary, an appropriate destination for the work
(in this case a virtual exhibition in the church of Sankt Peter
in Cologne).