With its inclusion of woven an architectural motif and its orientation towards Mecca, the prayer rug isolates worshippers from their immediate surroundings, transporting them symbolically elsewhere, symbolically creating an architectural 'surrounding'. The prayer rug is the subject of the final instalment of the series on platforms for the human body.
Platform. Prayer rug. Photo Petra van der Ree
The prayer rug is often used by those who have no mosque to pray in. It is used by people who are in transition, nomadic, isolated. The architectural motif of the Mihrab (the prayer niche in the wall of a mosque that indicates the direction of prayer), and the suggestion of permanence connected to architecture, runs concurrently with an idea of fragility, of displacement, of portability. Alessandra Covini from Studio Ossidiana researched the significance of the oriental carpet and the prayer rug, and their association with architecture.
