Christiane Kruse Book order

What makes an image offensive? — This question is addressed in this volume. It explores tensions and debates about offensive images and performative practices in various settings in and beyond Europe. Its basic premise is that a deeper understanding of what is at stake in these tensions and debates calls for a multidisciplinary conversation. The authors focus on images that appear to trigger strongly negative reactions; images that are perceived as insulting or offensive; those subject to taboos and restrictions; or those that are condemned as blasphemous. In light of recurrent acts of violence leveled against images and symbols in the contemporary, globally entangled world, addressing instances of “icono-clash” (Bruno Latour) from a new post-secular, global perspective has become a matter of urgency.

"This book is the result of intellectual and physical journeys that artists, scholars, teachers, and students from China and Germany have undertaken together, in order to gain a better understanding of the connections between old Chinese philosophy (with an emphasis on Daoist writings), traditional Chinese painting, and contemporary art practices. The texts collected here give an introduction into concepts that are more than 2000 years old, yet still raise relevant questions about our current relationship to nature: both to nature in the sense of environment and ecology, and to our inner nature and its connection to the world we live in. The answers each of us gives to these questions also inform our way of life, the way we act in society or politics, and of course our art. They are important to anyone trying to find a position in a world that is about to shift from a cosmos that was 'naturally so' (ziran 自然) to an increasingly manmade world, controlled and designed for the sole benefit of human beings".--Page 9