Abstract
The origin of the word “sacred” is uncertain. Its root may be Indo-European, “sac/sak/sag”, and connected to the concept of “adhering, keeping near, being entwined” and in this sense it could be close to “religion” (“re-ligio”); or it may derive from the Sanskrit “sac-ate” with the meaning of “following, accompanying, worshiping”.
In this issue of Progetto grafico we have tried to look at and beyond the concept of sacred, trying to avoid the lens of irony that is often used at all costs to talk about sacredness. We posed the question as to whether being irreverent was necessarily right or whether this approach may sometimes be simply a sign of the times. We noticed how sacredness and religion, albeit connected, are not exactly the same thing. While the concept of religion may today seem far removed from the disciplines of design, that of sacredness can lead to some interesting questions.
Our choice of narrative based on the observation of small fragments and details proved a particularly useful way to deal with this topic. We interpret the sacred as a complex and contradictory concept that needs to be approached from different points of view – sometimes dispassionate, at others up close and, at others still, with irony. While, at least in the world of culture, it seems sign of a common perspective the language of idolization is used regularly in many contexts, not least as a weapon to arouse political consensus. However, it may just be that we ourselves are not entirely extraneous to the veneration of certain cults, perhaps secular ones. Using the eye of the entomologist we attempt in this issue to observe how we worship and how we laugh at worshiping, to try and grasp something about ourselves of which we are often scarcely aware.