Innsbruck: bishop defends the altarpiece with a half-naked man
innsbruck
Bishop Hermann Glettler defended an art installation he had chosen during Lent in the Innsbruck University Church of St. John. The picture, which shows a half-naked man, had caused criticism.
On the web portal Katholisch.de, the theologian and art historian opposite explains to “critical reactions to conservative news portals” that the large-format photo by the internationally renowned photo artist Carmen Brucic, which functions as a veiling altarpiece and is entitled “tired?” similar to a Lenten veil to encourage compassion and not be a nuisance”.
For Glettler, the depiction of a shirtless man on a striped linen cloth, whose posture simultaneously represents exhaustion and resistance, follows the tradition of medieval Lent cloths.
Presented on Mardi Gras
On Shrove Tuesday, the bishop explained Carmen Brucic’s work during the presentation of this and two other art installations in three churches in Innsbruck’s city center during Lent.
The temporary altarpiece – the first such art intervention in the New University Church on the Innrain – shows the Georgian activist and queer artist with non-state roots David Apakidze. His arm shows a kind of “V” as for “Victory,” says Glettler. He evaluated this ambivalence as “a very strong fasting and Easter symbol”. With her altarpiece, Brucic poses “questions about the state of exhaustion in our society, about forms of resistance to regaining human freedom and self-efficacy”.
“Resistance, also against war”
The photo artist herself explained in an interview with Katholisch.de: “Apakidze sees herself as an artist in the resistance, also against the war.” Even as a child he witnessed the Russian attacks on Georgia in the Caucasus War and still suffers from it today. “We are currently at war in Ukraine and the children and young people dying there are experiencing exactly the same trauma as he did when he was ten,” said Brucic.
When selecting the photo, neither Bishop Glettler nor the artist herself could have guessed that the “ambivalent state between falling and resting, powerlessness and surrender” that was brought into the picture would trigger a prophetic effect, so to speak.
A fasting or hunger cloth covers the pictorial representations of Jesus in Catholic and Protestant church buildings during Lent, usually the crucifix, which depicts Jesus’ death on the cross. Art on the topics “tired? lost? displaced?” can still be seen in Innsbruck churches until the end of Holy Week.