vienna

sales on Avenue Champs Elysées in Paris, many show windows
were attacked with stones. A true iconoclastic act? 195
The seasonal sale triggers a crisis because the prices are
brought down from one day to the next, for example, by 50%.
And this is when the show window, interpreted as a picture,
gains social importance. Mitchell relates the importance of images
to social crisis:
“The value and life of images becomes most interesting, then,
when they appear as the center of a social crisis.” 196
Images and their ability to create magical effects are historically
related to their origin. Icons were precious at the time
when they originated in Byzantium. Today, the origin of catwalk
images from places like Paris, Milan or New York impart
magical powers to the fashion collections presented there
during the fashion weeks. Fashion introduced elsewhere
possesses fewer magical powers within the system of glamour
fashion journalism. The places of origin are related to cult
legends, which guarantee power and awaken expectations of
healing. 197 While Byzantium was the capital of icons, Paris is the
capital of fashion. And fashion that comes from this mythical
place is charged with the mythical power of the legends of
couture. In medieval Venice, religious images were dramatised
in a certain way by being shown only on special days. Belting
describes this rite in the following:
“As cult image, the original was concealed from the view of
others by a curtain in order to make a stronger impression on
the weekly feast day.” 198
This example bears a striking parallel to the introduction
of the new fashion collection because the windows are often
covered over during the sales. Removing the cover and presenting
the new collection to the public aims at the same effect as
in the mediaeval religious practice in which ritual was linked to
the art object. But today, “we do not bend our knees anymore”. 199
195 See Weibel/Latour (2002) for a broad discussion of iconoclasm in the fields of art, science and religion.
196 Mitchell (2005:94).
197 Belting (1996:196).
198 Ibid., p 186.
199 See Liessmann (1999:38 and 99) on the end of the relation between art and ritual as described by Hegel and Benjamin.
The
Death
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