Gold, both as a color and material, has long held a profound allure in spiritual traditions, art, and philosophy. In sacred art, gold has been used to represent realities beyond the visible, enveloping subjects in a timeless aura, ensuring their eternity and universal significance. Within the realms of alchemy and mysticism, gold has symbolized transformation and purification. Consider the vast literature inspired by the idea of transmuting lead - a dark, saturnine, and symbolically negative material - into luminous, solar gold. In 4th-century China, the pursuit of this transformation led to the birth of Waidan (external alchemy), a practice aimed at turning human flesh into gold. The method involved ingesting small quantities of gold with food, in the hope that its absorption would transform the body and bring it closer to divine immortality. Today, ironically, gold is still consumed - albeit in the form of “Golden Sirt,” steaks coated with edible gold leaf, whose sole purpose is to flaunt luxury and wealth (at €2,360 for a 300-gram slice). Times change, and so do paradigms. Let us return to the past, however, when this noble material served equally noble purposes. In ancient Egypt, gold was considered essential for enabling the passage of high-ranking individuals to the afterlife. It is no surprise that pharaohs’ tongues were often replaced with gold ones; its incorruptibility was believed to grant speech in the realm of the dead. In 438 BCE, Phidias gilded his Athena Parthenos: 12 meters of radiant gold elevated her not only above the earth but straight to Olympus. In mosaics, beginning in the early Christian era, gold symbolized divine light and spirituality. It first appeared in painting during the Byzantine period, where gold leaf adorned the backgrounds of icons, allowing painted figures to appear intangible, belonging to an otherworldly, timeless dimension. Countless examples from history attest to gold’s enduring symbolic power, far surpassing our ability to recount them all here. To walk the Path of Gold is not for the faint-hearted. It is a road filled with detours, obstacles, and sudden turns, but it promises to lead to a place of eternal stability. G.I. Gurdjieff described this process through the “law of octaves,” a universal principle governing life’s cycles and processes. According to this law, every process follows a pattern akin to a musical scale: it progresses through phases, or tones, with moments of acceleration (the full tones Do, Re, Mi) and moments of slowing or “deviation” (between Mi and Fa, Si and Do). Maintaining direction and completing the process requires conscious effort at these deviations. Symbolically, the law of octaves describes the inner journey of transformation, where energy must be continually renewed to overcome obstacles and reach completion or transcendence. In this symbolic scale, gold represents the final Do, the ultimate destination. It is the culmination of the process of perfection, a connection to a higher, eternal, and immutable reality. It symbolizes a vibration that endures unchanged over time, linking it to the idea of a permanent center of gravity - a state of inner stability so eloquently celebrated in Franco Battiato’s work. This condition allows individuals to navigate life without being swept away by its fluctuations. Yet, how challenging it is to face life’s relentless flow without losing oneself! The artists in this exhibition invite us to explore the plurality of paths one can take, while gold dares us to observe, to pause, to step away from the distractions of daily life. Behind its luminous surface lies something deeper, timeless. In this sense, gold is not merely a color but an experience - a journey toward higher awareness. Like an inner voyage, contemplating gold brings us closer to our essence, encouraging us to seek balance not in external circumstances but in a profound connection with the self. As a metaphor for immutable transformation, gold becomes a pathway, a bridge between the human and the divine, the ephemeral and the eternal. In a world that often drives us toward superficiality, appearances, and transience, gold calls us to stop, to look beyond illusions, and to rediscover our core of authenticity, stability, and peace.