Lech Szporer

The Sanctuary of Hope (New York, USA, 2008-2009) 

The Sanctuary of Hope: The Deterritorialized Church (Ridgewood, NY, USA, 2007-2009)

On the corner of Harman St. and Onderdonk Ave. in Ridgewood, Queens, New York, stood The Sanctuary of Hope, a former local community Christian center that had closed down because of an electrical fire.

We took over the lease in 2007 and converted The Sanctuary of Hope into a living, theological, architectural, all-encompassing collective art project. We kept the name of the church, the awning, and what artifacts remained inside. But most importantly, we kept the agenda behind the church, but created our own religion by synthesizing the anthropological research of George Bataille, the philosophy of Guy Deleuze, the anarchitecture of Gordon Matta-Clark, Artaud’s Theater of Cruelty, with humanitarian anarchism and the typical American Christian church,

The Sanctuary of Hope soon became a deterritorialized antinomian church. That is until we needed to reterritorialize The Sanctuary of Hope onto North Brother Island. These Deleuzian deterritorializations and reterritorializations led to experimentations with anti-art aesthetics, readymades, theological détournement, and theatrical ceremonies for congregations whereupon our network of artists collectively coordinated solstice events for the local community. We essentially replaced religion with art and philosophy, while having the same intentions of building a community as a project.

Matta-Clark’s Lot #116

Gordon Matta-Clark was an important feature to The Sanctuary of Hope. The church was a short walk from Matta-Clark’s Lot #116 (from his Fake Estates project) and we took pride in this. During our first event The Revival, we took our congregation to Lot #116 for a group photograph.

Repairing The Sanctuary of Hope

Repairs played an important role in the transforming of The Sanctuary of Hope into a living community art space and we meticulously documented the reconstruction of the church. We had also signed onto the lease wherein we had taken the place “as is” and initially the church had no heating system, no bathroom, no kitchen, no bedrooms, and the electrical wiring was suspect. Not to mention, we had to demolish the preexisting walls because they had been damaged by the fire and waterlogged with black mold because the fire department had to put the previous fire out with water hoses. Therefore, after demolition we had to build new walls, a bathroom, a kitchen, four bedrooms, and address heating, plumbing, electricity, etc.

The Development of Anti-Art

Living amidst debris and constant construction encouraged the development of ideas around anti-art. We shared a motto: All The Art Is Trash And All The Trash Is Art.

Residuals/Artifacts of The Sanctuary of Hope

We kept what artifacts remained from the Sanctuary of Hope prior to our reterritorialization of the church. We also kept artifacts from our project.

Solstice Ceremonies

From The Revival to The Awakening, The Witnessing, and finally The Becoming, we hosted a series of large-scale, multi-artist, theatrical vaudevillian chaos experiences during each solstice. We also hosted various classes, readings, drawing sessions, exhibits, rehearsals, benefits, and many others community-oriented events. All events held at The Sanctuary of Hope were free of charge and open to the public. We were Ridgewood before Ridgewood!

Residency For The Artist In Need

The Sanctuary of Hope operated a residency-for-the-artist-in-need program where artists facing financial hardship could participate in the church art project and receive an affordable room and a team of support.

Birdism (New York, USA, 2008-2010)

Birds played an important role in The Sanctuary of Hope. We lived with pigeons, a chicken, peafowl, and ducklings. Every solstice bore a new bird with new meaning. A reconnection to the animal and to animality was a key factor in George Bataille’s anthropological work on prehistoric humans. In the midst of New York City, we sought to reconnect to our cave-dwelling ancestors through a consistent cohabitation with birds and other animals.

Yellow Fingers (New York, USA, 2009)

Lech Szporer’s series of bird-inspired (or bird-like) finger drawings with graphite powder on yellow construction paper (48” x 48”).

Con Edison Explosions (New York, USA, 2009)

The Sanctuary of Hope was no stranger to fire. We had acquired the church following an electrical fire which had decommissioned the previous church, and ironiccally, Con Edison electrical explosions under the sidewalk in front of the church marked the end of our lease and the beginning of our court settlement with the landlords.

Lines of Flight

Deleuzian Lines of Flight played an important role in how the church was deterritorialized (reconceptualized/reembodied) and reterritorialized (relocated/spread) throughout other secret allegorical parts of the city. From direction-specific collective walkings to maritime expeditions, the lines we drew were physical offshoots on a conceptual map. The Sanctuary of Hope essentially collapsed into a splashing, a spreading, an ever-expanding ‘once was’. Our final line of flight as The Sanctuary of Hope was a canoe expedition from Newtown Creek to the Manhattan Bridge in the middle of the night during a rainstorm. It needed to be life or death to be as real of an artwork as we could make it.

Vestibule Aviary (New York, USA, 2010)

We constructed a Vestibule Aviary between two buildings to house and train 12 Chinese Owls (a pigeon breed). This project was done at Flux Factory, a not-for-profit art space in Queens, NY.

Unrealized Proposals

Acknowledgments: The Sanctuary of Hope operated under the directorship of three ministers of art: Andrew Wingert, Matthew Blair, and Lech Szporer. We also had clergy assistant directors: Marissa Blair, Ryan Brown, Andrew K Thompson, Andy Janbek, along with the countless artists from across North America who contributed to the deterritorialized church project.