On the church steps
In the Middle Ages, art spontaneously took place on church steps. There sang the troubadours and minstrels, there was staged theater : passion play first, passionate courtly love thereafter.
Throughout the centuries, we resorted to churches when seeking shelter from floods or forest fires, plague or deportation, war and bloodshed. Then we became too busy, could not stop, could not stay : so much to do, so little time. We moved to other temples to worship more mundane gods and get elated on less other-worldly incense. Tourists have taken over where the faithful used to stand.
But still, from time to time, like a perennial sprouting up in a long abandoned garden, an artist comes back and performs the ageless ceremony wherein art communes with holiness.
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