kunst und kirche. Zeitschrift für Kritik, Ästhetik und Religion

Not a year was so intensively shaped by Megeavents as 2017: documenta 14 in Kassel and Athens, Sculpture Projects Münster, Venice Biennale, the Reformation’s anniversary – to single out the more important, at least of (middle-)Europe. … kunst und kirche comes afterwards: when the exhibition halls are closed, the urban space is cleaned up, the artists have departed, the curators are silent and balances are made. kunst und kirche looks beyond the places of the events to the frayed margins. For this volume, a photo-artist was exclusively commissioned to document border areas and Georgia Kotretsos …

to the volume Megaevents. daneben und danach 

together with Hannes Langbein

Is art a practice of research? Can one understand art as a genuine way of thinking? Does it cover a specific form of knowledge?
These questions are not new. Since the eighteenth-century the question is posed: besides the insight of mind and the insight of reason – is there also a sensual form of insight. During the last 15 years the question has taken a new direction: with the so called Bologna-reform, art academies are also confronted with the benchmark of scientific thinking Can one understand works of art as works of research in a scientific manner? And what are the consequences of this for science? Until now theology did not take notice of this debate …
The contributors to this volume include Rose Breuss, Silvia Henke, Dieter Mersch and Giaco Schiesser, among others.

to the volume kunst forscht

edited together with Thomas Erne

Could a visitor to dOCUMENTA (13) by his/her promenade from the Brain in the Fridericianum, to the Ottonoeum, the Documentahalle and the Orangerie, passing through the Karlsaue to Neue Galerie and Kulturbahnhof, also experience something about religion today? And what might a religious approach tell us about the artworks? What insight might it bring with regards to their sensitivity, their intellectual dimensions, and their political implications?
The contributors include Stefan Balkenhol, Brigitte Bothe, Susanne Jakubczyk and Wolfgang Ullrich, among others.

to the volume dOCUMENTA (13)

edited together with Isabel Zürcher

Shame lies in the eyes. – Recently shame became a privileged topic of art critical, philosophical, psychological, sociological and theological interest. However, what is surprising? At first glance it is not, at least not explicitly, a topic of contemporary art. Shame affects art historical and aesthetic discourses concerning the gaze and voyeurism; shame is a silent partner regarding pictures of nudity and pornography; shame is part of the abject; shame hints at taboos and their transgression; shame is hidden in the bright and dark zones in photography and film. Shame is constituted while looking at being seen.
The contributors include Linda Hentschel, Nicolaj van der Meulen, Sigrid Schade and Jan E. Schlimme, among others.

to the volume Scham

edited together with Isabel Zürcher

Do you know the story about the painting crocodile? His neighbor, the elephant, may choose a picture. Eagerly, crocodile works at the easel; day after day a new work appears: a mighty tree, a comfortable house, a … But none of the paintings convince elephant. Suddenly crocodile has an idea: it recommends elephant to choose a white painting. Full of happiness elephant takes the empty canvas, runs home, nails it on the wall and day after day, he looks at his picture/s … We can’t catch reality other than through processes of projection. Artists are masters of the projective …
The contributors include Michael S. Falser, Lászlo F. Földényi, Dora Imhof and Sven Lütticken, among others.

to the volume Projektion

«European Capital of Culture is the most successful project by the European Commission in the field of culture […]» – one can read this at the homepage of Vilnius, which shares the title European Capital of Culture with Linz in 2009.
The «Cities of Culture» (till 1999) or «Capitals of Culture» were first put on stage by the Greek minister of culture, Melina Mercouri, in 1985. Since then they form an increasingly dense network all over Europe. …
The contributors include Richard Ferkl, Martin Heller, Peter Pawlowsky and Gudrun Quenzel, among others.

to the volume Kapital Kultur. Kulturhauptstädte Europas

It is not by chance that image theory becomes established as a leading discipline in the humanities, the cultural sciences as well as the social sciences since the turn of the century. The ‹pictorial turn› as it was promoted by W.J.T. Mitchell’s study Picture Theory. Essays on Verbal and Visual Representation (1994), brought to mind the eminent role of pictures within social communication: not just language determines human behavior and political acting, but pictures also do, as they slide over billboards and monitors. …
The contributors include Martin Hochleitner, Josef Marsteurer, Marie-José Mondzain and Eva Schürmann, among others.

to the volume bild – körper – raum

edited together with Ebba Koch

This volume of kunst und kirche was initiated to offer a debate about «Islam», beyond headlines that dominate newspapers, radio and television today …
In the first part the reader will find some fundamental articles and essays about the «clash of civilizations» (Huntington), the role of pictures in «Islamic» art, and the meaning of ornament. In the second part s/he will find some astonishing examples of contemporary art.
The contributors include Reinhard Schulze, Ebba Koch, Günther Jäger and Julia Allerstorfer, among others,

out of print

edited together with Klaudius Wintz

Is there a need for (good) design or is this gesture of objects something superfluous? … The question about liturgical objects and clothes cannot be posed in isolation. It has to be related to everyday life, to the rules and charms of consumer culture and to our dealing with things. …
The contributors include Lucius Burckhardt, Thomas Sternberg, Johanna Schwanberg and Leo Zogmayer, among others.

out of print