‘Material Religion’: special issue on iconic religion in urban space
A special, Open Access issue has been published of the journal Material Religion: , based on the HERA-funded project 'Iconic Religion' in which Prof. is one of the principal investigators.
The special issue includes an introduction on iconic religion, articles based on the research we conducted in Amsterdam, Berlin and London, an additional contribution by Charles Hirschkind on Granada, an in-conversation section on the icon, and an interview (by Brent Plate) of Aaron Rosen on his art project “The Stations of the Cross” in London. With contributions by Kim Knott, Volkhard Krech & Birgit Meyer (Introduction), & Pooyan Tamimi Arab, Steph Berns, Rolf Engelbart & Volkhard Krech, Charles Hirschkind, Hans Belting, Sonja Luehrmann, and Robert Yelle.
Iconic Religion
Within ongoing processes of religious pluralisation across Europe, materialized religion, in the form of icons in public space, has been becoming increasingly important. Whenever religious icons, such as sacred buildings, signs, and sites, such as clothing, and public events are associated with religious traditions that beholders are unfamiliar with, they comprise or generate imaginaries about how different religions should co-exist. The main question of the project is: How do imaginaries of religious encounters – visually expressed in pictures, sculptures, symbols, graffiti, performances etc. – structure urban space and vice versa?
‘Iconic Religion’ is a cooperation between Ruhr-Universität Bochum, ľϸӰ of Lancaster and Utrecht ľϸӰ. The project is funded by HERA (Humanities in the European Research Area).
Exhibition ‘The Urban Sacred’
Another result of the ‘Iconic Religion’ project is the exhibition ‘The Urban Sacred’, which is on view in Amsterdam until 2 July. It explores how former church buildings in Amsterdam have been given new functions, and what kinds of emotional responses the reallocation of church buildings elicits.