vienna

into the discussion on design as well. 537 And religion, too, is greatly
experienced in using images to create power, especially in Germany,
where Luther’s influence triggered a war of images. This was a battle
between Protestant and Catholic aesthetics. 538 Images are dangerous
because they activate intense emotion. Marketing consciously deploys
this emotional intensity of images, which, sooner or later, leads to
iconoclasm as we have seen in the history of religion. The seasonal
sale contains this iconoclastic moment as well because it turns the
everyday practice of advertising images upside down. Here, the beautiful
face is replaced by the grimace. And there is yet another clue from
religious production of images: the images must be opaque; 539 they
must obscure vision, and they must redirect attention.
SPITALER STRASSE
The street parallel to Mönckeberg Straße is full of smaller fashion
boutiques for young customers. We stop in front of one of them:
This tiny show window is covered by two white posters. Bold red letters
on each of them spell out the word: “SALE (bis zu) 70% (reduziert)”
[SALE (reduced up to) 70%]. There is a tiny gap between the two
posters. In the middle, behind the poster, stands a naked female
mannequin. When we peer into the show window from the side, we
see that there are two more hidden naked mannequins. Seen from the
store’s interior, they are hidden by a white paper backdrop.
Hubert and Mauss maintained that the Christian mind was built
on ancient models. 540 Going by what we see in the seasonal sale
window, we could claim that the capitalistic imagination is also built on
ancient models. Examining the dialectics of the Enlightenment 541 , Max
Horkheimer and Theodor W. Adorno asked how it could be possible
537 Erlhoff (1988) held a conference on the relation of things and rituals. The fetish character of the objects was the subject
of most contributions.
538 Hofmann (1983).
539 Latour (2002a:66).
540 Hubert/Mauss (1981:94).
541 Horkheimer/Adorno (2002).
The
Death
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