The Kitsch in Eucharistic Monuments of Holy Week in Colombia Cover Image

El kitsch en los monumentos de Semana Santa en Colombia
The Kitsch in Eucharistic Monuments of Holy Week in Colombia

Author(s): Zuly Usme
Subject(s): Christian Theology and Religion, Visual Arts, Cultural Anthropology / Ethnology
Published by: Instytut Studiów Iberyjskich i Iberoamerykańskich, Wydział Neofilologii, Uniwersytet Warszawski
Keywords: cultural text; popular religion; kitsch aesthetic; cultural representation; Eucharistic monument

Summary/Abstract: In this work, 27 Eucharistic monuments of Holy Thursday erected in churches of Colombia between 2004 and 2017 every second year have been analyzed. In these constructions the expression of kitsch aesthetics has been identified through an iconographic analysis of the symbolic structures embedded in the visual surfaces of the objects placed in the monuments, as well as in the materials used for their construction. The religious kitsch is not intended to arouse intellectual reflection in the public, rather its purpose is emotional; it appeals, instead, to the power and fervor of the religious tradition that, in the context of Holy Thursday, embraces everything. They separate from the reality both the believer and a potential churchgoer, and they evoke the episodes narrated thought their palimpsestual character and emotional and ephemeral metonymy.

  • Issue Year: 2019
  • Issue No: 29
  • Page Range: 257-278
  • Page Count: 22
  • Language: Spanish