Eretica, The Transcendent and the Profane in Contemporary Art

Forty leading international artists explore the complex relationship between man and the sacred.

Published for the exhibition in Palermo, “Eretica” focuses on the concepts of sacredness and spirituality, and looks at themes such as the contrast between good and evil, sanctity, and the relationship between eroticism, sex and death through the work of forty contemporary artists, including names such as Marina Abramovic’, Vanessa Beecroft, Maurizio Cattelan, Robert Mapplethorpe and Paul McCarthy.

The theme of the body and the relationship with the transcendent was a part of the art of the twentieth century, and became especially important from the beginning of the 1970s. As examined in this publication, in contrast to themes relating to the bionic body (a trend which was established in the 1990s with the term “post human”), current trends manifest an increasing exploration of themes concerning transcendence, focusing on areas such as religious interaction, rebellion against dogma, piety, and sacredness. Eretica analyses the intensification of these tendencies in the art of our times, but also their manifestation in the artistic exploration of the past few decades.

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