A jump in the Universe, a journey into Lidia al-Qattan’s life: visit to the only House in the World covered entirely with Mirror Mosaic.
My job has given me another opportunity to live an unforgettable experience; what I am about to describe is a journey through the cosmos, through the thought, work and hands of the artist Lidia al-Qattan in her Mirror House in Kuwait City.

At the home of Khalifa and Lidia al-Qattan

It was like plunging into a magical place that envelops all around and inside your soul, every beyond the limit of imagination, every single piece of mosaic of the house of Khalifa al-Qattan and his wife Lidia instill love, compassion and connection with the whole universe.

La Casa degli Specchi

It all started by chance, exactly with a mirror broken by little Jalila, her daughter, and by the superstition to not keeping a broken mirror at home. The broken glass was an inspiration for Lidia, supported by her husband Khalifa, she started her work in 1972.

From a small work of art was born the idea of decorating the whole house, initially Lidia created her works on wooden panels that were then attached to the walls, but in 1985, a termite infestation forced her to completely redo the work , so she had the idea to decorate every rooms with different themes.

In fact, every room has a specific reflection theme:
– the corridor has a dual theme, Shark, Dolphins, and other wonders of creation and corridor of nations;
– the Universe Hall;
– the Sea World Hall;
– the Knowledge Hall;

– the Ispiration Stairs that connect the ground floor to the first floor where Lidia kept the works of art of her husband Khalifa, inspired by the key concepts of cyclic philosophy, the cardinal concept of Buddhism;
– the Dark Room that Lidia also calls “Art Therapy”;
– the nucleus of Galaxy where Lidia created satellites, stars on walls and the ceiling.

What impressed me most was the Universe Hall, the creation of the universe where Lydia emphatically explains the value of the connection between all human beings, the basic principles of Hinduism (Vedas books), universal principles that go beyond time and space. On the walls a flock of birds flying together following the same line and a pair that instead fly in the opposite direction.

La Casa degli Specchi

As Lidia explained us: “Humanity is made up of two categories of people, leaders and follower; there are two kinds of leaders, one is good and makes humanity move forwards, the other is bad and makes humanity to regress”.

“And there are two quality of followers, the majority are easy followers, but a minority use their brain, they investigate and analize the situation and only when convinced they give their support to the good leader”.

“Gandhi, Jesus, Prophet Mohammad, Mandela and other great leader needed the support of this kind of people before the rest of society could follow”.

In the world there are some leaders who have dared to go against the current for the good of humanity and the earth, to us the task of following and supporting them.

La Casa degli Specchi

A shiver runs through me as soon as I enter the room of the galaxies, a journey into the Cosmo, now is the time to change, each era is marked by well-defined events and just right now we, all human beings have chance to change, to choose, to save our wonderful planet. Lidia explains all this to us by referring to metaphysics and quantum theory. How much dedication and how much love in his works and I start to reflect on every single word, on every single piece of art.

La Casa degli Specchi

Lidia emphasized: “We are all responsible in saving the planet and humanity. For this reason we have been endowed with a transcendent mind, which we have not even started to develop.

Diversity is a great advantage.

Different people, different nationalities, different cultures coming together, getting to know one another and respecting one another can learn a great deal. The greater the diversity of people and cultures the richer is the source of inspiration.

Self-interest in cooperation with the interest of everyone else is the key to success, it is the only way of living in harmony with our own kind, with all leaving things and with our own planet. Bacteria have done it, why not humanity? We are the living proof of their success”.

La Casa degli Specchi

Lydia is right, we are wasting our time, there is no more time, together, connected with each other, we have all the knowledge we need to improve, to love all the creatures around us.

Everything is within us, we are interconnected like every single cell in our body.
Thanks Lidia, your message is not just hope, it’s real, it’s alive inside all of us: “The cycling phenomenon of nature pervades the whole creation, as one cycle begins another ends; our own body is in a flux of interconnected cycles harmoniously correlated, we keep healthy as long as that harmony is maintained”.

Pasquale Florio

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