Page - 87 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 01/01

Religion, Belief and Medial Layering of Communication | 87www.jrfm.eu 2015, 1/1, 75–88 viewers in light of their unconscious desires and their entrapment in such promises of deliverance. The video’s criticism is thus directed not only at consumer culture, but also at the notion of an anticipated “millennium”, a “thousand-year reign” and at expectations of messianic salvation in general, as well as at the various ways in which such expecta- tions have been culturally and historically articulated. No serious alternatives to con- sumerism are proposed, but when old fantasies of salvation are reconfigured as new promises of happiness, the old and the new promises mutually reveal each other’s true nature. frenkel’s video is a mise-en-scène, as it were, of the seductive advertising strat- egy of a messiah competing for preference over other saviours (“choose the Messiah with the right credentials”). The unconscious entrapment of the viewers begins with that assurance that they will not be told what to do (“Don’t worry. No one will ever force you to do anything you don’t want to do.”). Nonetheless, the “false Messiah” inveigles them to go shopping. Ultimately, the video is about the interpellation of subjects (via inclusion or exclusion) into linguistic and other communities by means of various media, and also about their sharing in the promised happiness and commodi- ties (“Or someone will shop for you”). frenkel’s translation of a criticism of consumption into a criticism of media leads to her question “Whose stories are we living after all?” her criticism of media is not, however, a criticism of the (new) media, but rather instructions for their intelligent use, which means, above all, not having blind faith in them. in frenkel’s case, this means using media as artistic means for critical reflection and analysis of (visual) cul- tures and cultural practices, among which religion would be crucial. To believe in its core is to believe in words, languages, symbolic systems and whatever they seem to promise. BiBliOGraPhy auerochs, Bernd, 1999, Kunstreligion. studien zu ihrer Vorgeschichte in der deutschen literatur des 18. Jahrhunderts. habilitationsschrift, Universität Jena. Bal, Mieke, 2002, Traveling Concepts in the Humanities. A Rough Guide, Toronto/Buffalo/London: University of Toronto Press. Bal, Mieke, 2003, Visual Essentialism and the Object of Visual Culture, Journal of Visual Culture 2, 1, 5–32. Bal, Mieke, 2007, Working with Concepts, in: Pollock, Griselda (ed.), Conceptual Odysseys. Passages to Cul- tural analysis, london/ New york: i.B. Tauris. Bal, Mieke/Bryson, Norman, 1991, semiotics and art history, The art Bulletin 73, 2, 176–208. Bätschmann, Oskar, 1997, ausstellungskünstler. Kult und Karriere im modernen Kunstsystem. Cologne: DuMont. Belting, Hans (ed.), 2007, Bilderfragen. Bildwissenschaften im Aufbruch, Munich: Wilhelm Fink. Bryson, Norman/Michael, ann holly/Moxey, Keith (eds.), 1991, Visual Theory. Painting and interpretation, Cambridge: Polity Press. Cherry, Deborah, 2005, art: history: Visual: Culture, Malden: Blackwell, 3–23.