Tolerance n. (Latin tolerare, to endure).
Respect for the freedom of others, for their ways of thinking and acting, for their political and religious beliefs.
Larousse, 2000.

This installation is conceived as a riddle of nine sculptures, both characters and letters forming the word “TOLERANCE,” each one evoking a faith or spiritual tradition.

Like the letters of a word—each essential to its meaning—so too are the various spiritualities of the world: in my view, they can coexist and complement one another harmoniously, provided there is mutual respect and a bit of goodwill.

The mosaic of beliefs and peoples makes up the world…

Although all human beings share a spiritual quest, inherent to our nature because it stems from the awareness of our vulnerability, we are constantly confronted with the media spectacle of oppositions and conflicts waged in the name of religion.
This situation is worsening by the day. A growing sense of urgency now strengthens my conviction that we must act to restore dialogue and kindness.

With this sculpture, I wanted to highlight the shared nature of that quest, regardless of the god to whom it may be addressed.

It is this similarity and this convergence that should be shown, rather than the differences caused by idle speculation or fanatical claims about the divine, which by nature is intangible and cannot be proven.

Each of the letters in T.O.L.E.R.A.N.C.E, through its particular form, evokes one of the world’s spiritual beliefs. For example, the “T” might suggest the cross.
But I chose not to fix the interpretations, which are intentionally left open to each viewer’s imagination.

From a practical perspective, this installation of nine letter-characters reflects the notion of equality among beings: same pedestal height, same footprint, same lighting, etc.

By coming together in the same space, these characters speak to us of encounter and harmony, of secularism, peaceful complementarity, and goodwill.

Guy Ferrer