Paths to Europe

Art is moving but can also cause commotion, is venerated and destroyed. These two phenomena are timeless and the international controversy about the Mohammed cartoons a few years ago are a potent demonstration of the power that images can wield and the controversies they can cause. We all vividly remember the shockwave that IS caused by destroying antique sculptures. But what provokes this emotional response in people? Semiotics have shown that art only exists by the grace of the individual who “uses”, “reads”, “praises” it or “treats it with contempt”. The more violent the emotions that images provoke, the more interesting the work often is or becomes. Welcome to this symposium on the complexity of imagery and the impact of its use.

Authors and essays:
RALPH DEKONINCK, Cosmoclasme. Les images de la destruction du système des objets du culte aux XVIe et XVIIe siècles
KOENRAAD JONCKHEERE, A sheep in the uncanny valley. The manipulated image
BARBARA BAERT - The statue of the woman with the bloodflow
TILL-HOLGER BORCHERT, The innovative power of destruction
JORIS VAN DE MOORTEL, The sound of, an iconoclasm to scale
DAVID FREEDBERG, What is there left to say about iconoclasm? Image destruction and image removal in the age of digitalization