International exhibition of contemporary sacred art
PORTRAIT IN THE ICON 2024
27 Aug. to 7 Sept. 2024
Art Gallery
As a cultural phenomenon that has significantly determined the nature of what we understand by the term icon today, Byzantine iconoclasm could also remind us of the importance of the portrait in the icon itself. Indeed, contemporary research on the iconoclastic controversy shows that it was precisely the portrait icons that took center stage – primarily icons of Christ, but also all other portraits of saints.
To put it more vividly: If Christian art had been primarily concerned with narrative (allegorical) depictions and had been content with the role of the (retold) ‘Bible for illiterates’, iconoclasm would most likely never have come about. Then as now, portrait icons are characterized by a specific potential to evoke the real presence of the painted figures, albeit only to a limited extent.
During the iconoclastic crisis, the danger of an idolatrous attitude towards images was recognized in this phenomenon, while the iconophilic theology of the icon, born in this crisis, explained the reasons why this kind of presence is particularly valuable for Christian piety and created the space for the later practices of icon painting to develop into the most authentic ‘theology in colors’.
Finally, from the perspective of contemporary media world, and given the fact that icons are once again finding their place in the piety of various Christian denominations, one has the impression today that the manner of the mystical presence of holy persons in portrait icons is moving to the centre of interest of Christian culture in a novel fashion; not only for the historical reasons mentioned above, but also for some quite innovative, contextual reasons.
In a world that has definitely become a civilization of the image, even a civilization of moving images – in which every kind of narrative unfolds ceaselessly and relentlessly before our tired eyes and over-saturated minds – the portrait icon, with the stillness of its forms and the reduced purity of its ancient media matrix, calls for a kind of interruption of narrative and a slowing down of the flow of time/information, in which our senses, minds and hearts can concentrate on the kind of authentic depth that the human personality still contains.
And this is possible because the portrait icon depicts a person in the kind of openness and nakedness that persistently, quietly, and almost exclusively reminds us of the authenticity of their personal depth. Portraits of saints in this kind of painting do nothing other than look at the viewer openly and fearlessly, and ask the questions that today seem more unbearable and precious than ever: What if all the people whose bodies we encounter every day (now more often in the media than in real space) are not just sensations that exist one moment, only to be anesthetized and conveniently stored in memory space the next?
And what if the gaze of human eyes could completely stop and even reverse the function of time? What if, ultimately, this gaze hides/contains something more complex and dynamic than the entire media space, than all its dazzling power and storage capacities – something greater and more infinite than culture itself and even the cosmos itself?
It is precisely on the assumption (or in the knowledge) that the answers to these questions are positive that today’s Christians are increasingly turning to icons and thus to those experiences of openness, freedom and infinity that the sacred figures boldly manifest through the calm and constancy of their presence. Ultimately, therefore, one has the impression that the theme of the portrait on the icon is at least as topical today, if not more so, than in the past.
PhD Todor Mitrović
Exhibition will be open until 7 Sept. 2024 – Mon/Friday from 10 to 20, Saturday from 10 to 16.