'Jezus is boos' in de kerkdienst. Reacties op drie hedendaagse kunstwerken tijdens de eredienst

Samenvatting

One of the projects of research of the Institute for Liturgy Research of the state university of Groningen concerns the use of present-day art in the divine service. During the months April till September 1995 a comprehensive practical research took place to which church-goers and pastors in nine Protestant services rendered their assistance. The question in this research was if it would be possible to have church-goers react on an work of art during the service and incorporate these reactions in the whole of the service. The present article forms a description and analyses of this experiment. The research took place during the exhibition 'Jesus is angry. The image of Christ in contemporary art' in the 'Museum Catharijneconvent' in Utrecht and the selected works were part of this exhibition. All three works of art portray the Passion of Christ, be it in quite different ways. The question was how people would react on the works separately and in what way the reactions on the three works are associated with each other. The painting 'King of the Jews' of Henk ter Horst shows amidst bright red in the central part of the cross a white area behind which the black beams of the cross disappear. The essence of the work is that Jesus brought a light of relief right through the sufferings. 'Corpus' of Hans Kanters shows a figure of Christ in traditional styling hanging on a clothes-hanger against a bare wall with graffiti. Clothes-hanger and wall have a strong alienating effect. An essential part is that Christ holds to the cross beam himself and that the main theme is not cynicism, but self-sacrifice. In the work 'And they turned off their faces from the Cross' of Lucebert the crucified Christ is painted as a grey battered body in the background. In the foreground three misshapen figures with different looks turn their faces off from him, whereas at the top we see a figure who does keep his eyes on him. Turn away from Christ, but what are the feelings of these people who do so? Both as regards the number and the intensity of the reactions in the seven services there are great differences to be noticed. The question in this research was if it would be possible to have church-goers react on an work of art during the service and incorporate these reactions in the whole of the service. The main conclusion is that this is not an easy matter. The time is short, the presence of many people and the atmosphere of the room is for a great many people too high a threshold to speak in public and a conversation is hardly possible partly due to the fact that the people sit in pews in rows behind each other. It cannot be denied however, that by the possibility of reacting the attention to the works of art is greatly stimulated. The best way of getting reactions from people by which they express their associations with the works of art freely and without restriction is in an informal atmosphere. This can take place in a group conversation some days before the service and it is possible to do this in a meeting preceding the proper service. The important advantage of this last mentioned idea is that the sometimes very personal reactions and feelings are directly embedded in the preaching of the Gospel. The only practical disadvantage may be that the 'church service' lasts twice as long, but when having an intensive conversation this will hardly be experienced as an objection.