Page - 37 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 03/02

SinnRäume. An Exhibition | 37www.jrfm.eu 2017, 3/2, 37–51 DOI: 10.25364/05.3:2017.2.3 Celica Fitz and Anna Matter SinnRäume – An Exhibition on Contemporary Religion in Germany Exhibition Practice as a Medium in Religious Studies aBstraCt In the research and exhibition project SinnRäume, students at the Philipps University Marburg examined the materialization of contemporary religion, exploring how reli- gion is practiced at home, how a domestic room becomes a religious space, and how beliefs are materialized. The rooms in which religious and spiritual individuals live are often filled with objects that are attributed special meaning. Be it in a Ganesh figurine, a decorative Buddha, a simple wooden cross, or even a painted mandala hanging on the wall, the research team discovered a great variety of design elements with personal religious meaning in the private spaces they were permitted to explore. These objects have in common that their meaning is defined by not only collective but also individual crite- ria and by how they are integrated into everyday life. Just as the meanings of these religious objects are individual, so too are the religious lifestyles of their respective owners. The results of this project are shown in the exhibition SinnRäume – Insights into Lived Religiosity in Germany, which opened in November 2015 at the Museum of re- ligions (religionskundliche sammlung) at the Philipps University of Marburg. the ex- hibition concept, the presentation design, and the strategies of communication ap- plied are an attempt to present not only religious studies research data but also the research process by which this data was acquired, as well as to relate how religious studies approaches contemporary religious culture in all its plurality. KeyWords Museum, exhibit, material religion, religious aesthetics, mediation, museology, Collec- tions, religious objects, spatial discourses BioGraPhy Celica fitz is a research associate at the institute for Church architecture and Contem- porary religious art (eKd-institut für Kirchenbau und kirchliche Kunst der Gegenwart) at the Philipps University of Marburg and co-curated the exhibition SinnRäume. she