Post-Secular Space: on the Strange Place of Contemporary Art in Old Active
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Post-Secular Space: On the Strange Place of Contemporary Art in Old Active Churches in Germany, 1987–2017 Inaugural dissertation to complete the doctorate from the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of the University of Cologne in the subject Art History presented by Lilia Sokolova born on 17.05.1992 in Yoshkar-Ola, Russia Cologne, 14.10.2018 Primary advisor: Prof. Dr. Norbert Nußbaum Second advisor: Prof. Dr. Christian Spies Third advisor: Prof. Dr. Stefanie Lieb Oral examination: 14.12.2018 - Von Franz Marc ist der Ausspruch bekannt, daß er hoffe, die Bilder der neuen Kunst würden einmal auf den Altären der Zukunft ihren Platz haben. - Franz Marc hat selbstverständlich recht, Herr Schreyer. Aber ich bin nüchterner als Franz Marc. Die Zukunft hat bereits begonnen. Sie ist schon heute da. Und es bedarf nur eines kleinen Mutes einiges einsichtiger geistlicher Herrn, um der Kunst des 20. Jahrhunderts in den Kirchen Raum zu geben. Die Kunst [dieses] Jahrhunderts aber bestimmen wir. - There is a well-known claim by Franz Marc, that he hoped for the examples of new art to be one day placed at the altars of the future. - Franz Marc was indeed right, Mr. Schreyer. But I am more prosaic than he was. The future has already begun. It is already here today. And what is needed in order to set the art of the twentieth century in a church space is merely a bit of courage in a single insightful spiritual man. The art of [this] century, though let us specify. Conversation between Lothar Schreyer and Wassily Kandinsky, Weimar, 1922 from Lothar Schreyer, Erinnerungen an Sturm und Bauhaus (1956). Table of Contents 1. Introduction 1 1.1. Subject of investigation 3 1.2. State of research 8 1.2.1. In the field of theology and religious studies 8 1.2.2. In the field of art history and art criticism 16 2. Preliminary questions 28 2.1. Problems 29 2.1.1. Catholic and Protestant approaches to church art 29 2.1.2. Urban and rural churches 36 2.2. Objectives 38 2.3. Methods 40 2.3.1. Case studies, 1980s–2010s 40 2.3.2. “Image as insight” 41 2.3.3. Theoretical framework 44 2.3.4. Sources 45 3. Towards the contemporary situation 47 3.1. Approaching the 1980s 47 3.2. The 1980s: thematic exhibitions in Germany 50 3.2.1. Zeichen des Glaubens, 1980 50 3.2.2. Menschenbild–Christusbild, 1984/1985 53 3.2.3. Ecce Homo, 1987 58 3.2.4. GegenwartEwigkeit, 1990 62 3.3. The 1980s: first commitments in Krefeld and Lübeck 65 3.4. The 1980s: art’s arrival into public space 72 4. The avant-garde establishments of 1987: Cologne, Stuttgart 79 4.1. Saint Peter, Cologne 80 4.1.1. Early history of the church 80 4.1.2. Church space and its art objects after the reconstruction 82 4.1.3. Friedhelm Mennekes at Saint Peter, 1987–2008 87 4.1.3.1. The beginnings, 1987–1994 89 4.1.3.2. New approach, 1994–1997 96 4.1.3.3. Renovation and latest projects, 2000–2008 100 4.1.3.4. Summary: theory and practice of Friedhelm Mennekes 110 4.1.4. Recent activities, 2008–2017 119 4.2. Hospital Church, Stuttgart 124 4.2.1. Early history of the church 124 4.2.2. Church space and its art objects after the reconstruction 126 4.2.3. Helmut Müller at Hospital Church, 1987–2014 130 4.2.3.1. The beginnings, 1987–1992 132 4.2.3.2. Ten years in hindsight, 1997 140 4.2.3.3. Twenty-five years in hindsight, 2012 145 4.2.3.4. Summary: theory and practice of Helmut Müller 157 4.2.4. Hospital Church after the renovation of 2012–2017 167 5. Contemporary art in old active German churches 172 5.1. Saint Peter and Hospital Church: comparative profile 173 5.1.1. Pioneering steps 173 5.1.2. Liturgy and contemporary art 176 5.1.3. Church space and its aura 180 5.1.4. Influences in Cologne and Stuttgart 187 5.2. Paradigms of coexistence 196 5.2.1. Artwork as a guest 197 5.2.2. Artwork as a surround 205 5.2.3. Artwork as a bridge 213 5.2.4. Artwork as morals 219 5.3. After thirty years 225 5.3.1. Permanent integration of contemporary art 226 5.3.2. Public reception 230 5.3.3. Catholic and Protestant approaches to contemporary art in Germany 234 5.3.4. How strange is the place of contemporary art in churches? 240 6. Post-Secular Space 243 6.1. The spatial analysis 244 6.1.1. Old church architecture 246 6.1.2. Architectural atmospheres and churches 253 6.2. The post-secular analysis 264 6.2.1. Post-secular person 265 6.2.2. Post-secular potential of contemporary art 272 6.3. Post-secular space 280 7. Conclusion 295 Illustration credits 300 Illustrations 305 Bibliography 320 1. Introduction Thirty years ago two West German churches, Saint Peter in Cologne and Hospital Church in Stuttgart separately from each other commenced series of contemporary art exhibitions within their sacred spaces. Today, in addition to their ongoing activities, over 3000 religious institutions across Germany welcome non-traditional art forms to their ritual spaces.1 While the early developments of the 1980s were met with criticism and even opposition, today one can almost take for granted the presence of abstract painting or sculpture inside of an urban church, and be mildly astonished by similar objects in a rural parish. Indeed when contemporary art seems to be ubiquitous, a Christian place of worship becomes yet another location for its public appearance. However, one’s encounter with art in a hotel lobby or a train station cannot be accurately compared to experiencing art in a space of worship. In the case of Christianity, the relationship between art and religion has historically ranged from entwined partnership to extreme animosity. The character of such relations has usually reflected the social and cultural situation at a certain time and place. Likewise, the current tendency to engage with non-religious and non-sacramental examples of contemporary art among German churches can provide insights into the socio- cultural situation in Germany at the turn of the twenty-first century. By investigating prominent exhibitions and installations of contemporary art in ecclesiastical settings of Cologne, Stuttgart, and ensuing cases elsewhere in the country, this thesis deliberates emergence of a new type of space in old active churches in the twenty-first century and phenomenological meanings of this process. The title, “Post-Secular Space: On the Strange Place of Contemporary Art in Old Active Churches in Germany,” comprises two key aspects of the current thesis. Its second part refers to 1 “Daten und Fakten zum Kulturengagement der Kirchen,” in Olaf Zimmermann and Theo Geissler, eds., Die Kirchen, die unbekannte kulturpolitische Macht (Berlin: Deutscher Kulturrat e.V., 2007), 97–105. 1 the book by an American art historian and art critic, James Elkins, On the Strange Place of Religion in Contemporary Art (2004), in which he expresses a concern about the inability of art historians and art critics to acknowledge the religious dimension of modern and contemporary art because such interpretations go against the grain of artistic progress and prevailing definitions of modernity and postmodernity.2 The problem is namely that “a certain kind of academic art historical writing treats religion as an interloper, something that just has no place in serious scholarship.”3 A decade down the road this trend gave way to a growing interest in the field of “contemporary-art-and-religion.” Among some of the topics covered by art historians are visual studies and religion, global perspective and non-Western religions, blasphemous art, religious aesthetics, and religious popular culture. The study of contemporary art exhibitions in sacred spaces adds to this conversation. The current thesis is therefore a micro-discourse that focuses on case studies limited to a single country and a short span of time. It denies being either a cognitive paradigm of or a meta-discourse about the relationship between an institutionalized religion and contemporary forms of art. The first part of the title, “Post-Secular Space,” has to do with the theoretical framework undertaken for this project. The consequences of the thirty-year coexistence of Christian sacred spaces and contemporary art in Germany can be viewed through a post-secular lens. This term, advanced over the past decade primarily by Charles Taylor and Jürgen Habermas describes the situation in which the so-claimed “return of religion” disperses the illusion of our culture being utterly secular. On the other side, the increasing significance of the spatial turn in the humanities suggests that a close look at specific qualities of ecclesiastical space can provide the researcher with high explicative values. Since this thesis focuses on old church buildings the question of 2 James Elkins, On the Strange Place of Religion in Contemporary Art (New York: Routledge, 2004). 3 Ibid., xi. 2 historical architecture and its distinctive character is necessarily addressed; it is analyzed by means of Gernot Böhme’s theory of architectural atmospheres. By consulting two recent discourses, a synthesizing concept “post-secular space” serves to describe a contemporary person’s experience of encountering profane art in active sacred settings. The notion can thus become a valuable tool for an interdisciplinary conversation about contemporary art in churches. Ultimately, post-secular space responds to the main question that has arisen during the research stage of the thesis: “What happens to a person in the space where living Christian religion meets secular artistic expression?” 1.1.