The Return of Religion and Other Myths: A Critical Reader in Contemporary Art

Another engrossing entry in BAK's Critical Reader series, this pocket-sized book brings together texts by artists, art historians, scholars of religion and sociologists to consider the current conventional wisdom that religion is returning to artistic practice, the public sphere, contemporary politics and media in the West. A group of cogent thinkers unpack the historical underpinnings of religion s so-called return,
art's long-standing relationship with iconoclasm and connection to religious representation, the manipulation of certain religious imagery in the mass media, and contemporary art's potential to complicate commonly-held beliefs about the role and potential of the image in today's world. With contributions by Jan Assmann, Christina von Braun, Paul Chan, Boris Groys & Maria Hlavajova, Arnoud Holleman, Marc de Kesel, Kenan Malik, Maria Pask, Dieter Roelstraete and
Jorinde Seijdel.