This book illuminates the interconnections between politics and religion through the lens of artistic production, exploring how art inspired by religion functioned as a form of resistance, directed against both Romanian national communism (1960-1989) and, latterly, consumerist society and its global market. It investigates the critical, tactical and subversive employments of religious motifs and themes in contemporary art pieces that confront the religious 'affair' in post-communist Romania. In doing so, it addresses a key gap in previous scholarship, which has paid little attention to the relationship between religious art and political resistance in communist Central and South-East Europe.

Considers how artists have refashioned the meanings and purposes of religious art for political ends during and after communism Spans the fields of contemporary history, political theory, history of religion, art history and theory, and memory studies Explores the multifarious connections between religion, politics and artistic production

Autorentext

Maria-Alina Asavei is Senior Lecturer at the Institute of International Studies at Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic, and an independent curator of contemporary art.

Inhalt

1. Art, Politics and Religion in (Post-) Communist Romania: An Introduction.- 2. On the Varieties of Cultural Resistance during Romanian Late Communism.- 3. Godless Religious Art of Romanian National Communism.- 4. Art, Nature and Ecologies of Transfiguration during Romanian National Communism.- 5. Spiritual Ecologies and Meta-Byzantine Music during Nicolae Ceauescu's Regime.- 6. Contemporary Aesthetic Mysticism and Religious Revitalization Movements.- 7. The Body in (Post-) Communist Art: a Site of Salvation and Resistance.- 8. Religion Inspired Art and Politics: Neo-Orthodoxism as Neo-Traditionalism?.- 9. Art as Resistance to the Religious Affair and Consumerist Religion in Post-Communist Romania.- 10. Looking Forward: Looking Back through the Three Lense of Art, Politics and Religion.