Visualizing the Invisible. GRACE – The 3rd Art Prize of the Archdiocese of Freiburg

Abstract

In 2013, the Archdiocese of Freiburg invited artists to take part in a competition on the subject of “grace” in a religious context. Out of nearly 750 submissions a panel of art critics, art historians and curators chose 17 works to be presented in an exhibition, from which in the summer of 2015 three would be awarded with the Art-Prize of the Archdiocese of Freiburg. The seventeen nominated works of art are of a particular interest as they show a high variety of possibilities as to how a given religious term can be interpreted. Out of the nominated works three examples are chosen which describe different approaches to the use of signs within one and the same religious thematic context. They range from the specific use of Christian iconographic signs, to performing codes and a specific story-telling in video-art. What all three have in common is that they allow a deconstructive view of religion, as we can find it in the works of Jean-Luc Nancy. Finally, the article asks how this approach can find its context in the Catholic Church, defining the specifics of an open use of Christian iconography