Lund Cathedral, Sweden 1145

Curator: Looking at this image of Lund Cathedral in Sweden, I'm immediately struck by the sense of quiet, grounded strength. The stone, the symmetrical towers, the way it seems to rise right out of the earth… Editor: And it *literally* rises from the earth. We’re viewing a print of a photograph depicting the Cathedral, a site-specific example of Romanesque architecture, completed around 1145. Romanesque cathedrals functioned as important ideological structures. Curator: Ideological structures? Ooh, tell me more. All I see are the shapes and angles. It almost looks like a child's drawing, pure and simple, though monumental at the same time. Is that crazy? Editor: Not crazy at all. The apparent simplicity hides a deeply considered plan. Think about how religious institutions deployed images and architecture to communicate power during a time of enormous upheaval in Europe. Who was allowed within those walls, who was excluded, whose labor built this, and for what purpose? Romanesque architecture, in particular, with its massive scale and fortress-like quality, reinforced rigid hierarchies and spiritual authority. Curator: Yes, yes, I know this, and yet standing – virtually, digitally – before it, I just see that earnest upward reach, that attempt, even in stone, to brush the sky. Editor: Absolutely, and even today the church owns valuable land globally and enjoys significant wealth, despite criticisms regarding transparency, abuse scandals, and homophobia. The legacy of power structures lives on. Curator: Ugh. You're so good at bringing me back to earth. Still, I can’t help but appreciate the building as an expression of collective will, even if that will has been tainted… What can I say, I find myself drawn to it, the soft grey tones and overall… determination! Editor: And perhaps it’s through facing these contradictions—the beauty and the problematic—that we find more profound truths about ourselves and the world. Art serves to reveal both heaven and earth, after all. Curator: Precisely. What you said. It's complex. So many echoes and reverberations… Anyway, on we go.