Sacred Copies

Postcards. 10.5 x 14.8 cm. Herder Church, Weimar, Germany. 2013.

Performative lecture led by Dr. Boris Buden. Herder Church, Weimar, Germany. 2013.

When I first arrived to the city of Weimar I decided to visit Herder church so as to see its famous altarpiece created by Cranach. When I got there I was astonished to find out the painting was missing. Instead, a copy with the same dimensions installed in a momentary fake altar, replaced it. It was then when I started to ask myself: what is the value of this copy? What would be the destiny of the poster when the original piece is put back in its place? To preserve its memory in time, I decided to make postcards and placed them in the church so visitors could take them for free. The day of the exhibition I was expecting to hand them out and, at the same time, to show the public the reproduction live. In addition one of my professors accepted my invitation to give a lecture there. Surprisingly, when we arrived, the reproduction had disappeared and the painting was back in its place. While a man worked in the final details of the re installation Dr. Boris Buden gave a lecture regarding reproduction and cultural heritage.