Sine and Catal Try See Bated by Baas erase rh nd Roy Weintrand BLoeo. 136 pele On the Modern Cult of the Factish Gods Bruno Latour Ft chapter rosary Catherine omer nd Heather MacLean Dike Univer ress thane annx Prete Devereu in Pars. ranted a check the st teat on fetishism and ish agrnst abe seul pete of el practioner The Sst haper of te prevent book isthe transition ofthe pamphlet pubs shed on his experience The, for fou year, ad th ood foun of reazing the exhblion onadsh for which was curator, wit seve ‘ends, and which opened in 2002 Ihe notion fallow one 0 ‘spend te ble of eli har of nach aims a suspending ooo. slamic gestures. Instead of another lenoclatic exibition, we wasted ‘0 do an exibition stout iconoclasm, uansforing this notion fom = ‘esoureto atop. The sumpeuous etal bela tof prin, sce good det repels is itrodocton? Since the quston of height ‘way consider mages and more general matios isa the eat of alle issues of feiss and ionodlat, Ihave adda thie chante ‘which Jeompare religous inagesto thse of inte practice, so 5 to propose another take onthe siece and eligion debate? ‘Taebookthus composed egies noting mre fom he reader than ‘thesuspeasion, no doabe momentary, of belief in belie andinccgu. eis in my experience, the ony way to focus of the cretons of out ands, and to pay one's exact ues to creator and to create aie. “Teonoclash” fro Latour and Peter Weibel Copyright 2005, ZK ‘Zenwam for Kunst und Medientecoologe Ktlsube, Germany and “The MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass, Al ight reseed “Thou hal Not reeze-Frame, fom Science, Rg on the man Be eet, e, James Proto, 27-48. Copyight 2005, Oxoré University res. Repsiced by permission fhe publisher. On the Cult of the Factish Gods "he gh inl pnp sn te ater ahs of te ote ei ae erway of weg the gs. They oon expen to ber ins, rts of hei ges, ad deste tem ge efi, sige ‘thee af Pei eho shan sh bra ngage em sn rg, mms, a gh ey i har hae a fs nd ats iirc dso freer nations om ck ings, hey em ohare ue {igen hr itis phn on lh ad he pole wo oe ted ths ey by inl geste ep Mk Den end whe or ‘east eth, eset ote ad te ae st many tmp nd erty oie he eas ig, Fn, and bark ios, Dag set reno ested fl genes 2 rat hy sa el es tl amen Tyas eg few fom te arenas frome ty hae feds fom Be gods ‘Seyan dower hy ae. Tg tan milf hor art hf dos and Tere ls, tof ol apse forbeilaceiey west One sex isha nde the pope wsdl nto dep dei tft of shee automat bt a te raps fr neigh, hi they cl uma’ Fel bj —or eet ee. on econ ht hy esol ating al nd ht hy re en preset eal so eal jes (ets an ude nn ou anu Than afte by ee ari oni overt pat an endo despa he Meh Ds gps ey asi rake, mtn comers ed erfis:ty ptgds bk pat hess lg hn tery nog verter tars ‘Deyo seid where a adi Bb oun nage—incth wes oes Ie theses, omnes ave maser of al be es, nd somtimes ope ones Tas hsba ppd tse undo ohare Yo” “—Repoaed by Counselor De-ru-Osh, emlsar to China om the ‘Koreen Roel Court inthe mi-eighteenth cacy2 Capers PartOne airy objers, axe objerts ‘tw oder to mock both ou ova foolish belief and those of oes, our Sethiking ancestors handed down wows the scofing one set by Vol- tate among others. But in oxdr to mock al frm of worship i this vn onder co oveehrow allo ols, we had oben in eso, he only fore capable of seeing trough ll chose follies. How can we pea ‘symmetrical about ourselves and others without believing either se ono: bel, while sl respecting both fetishes and facts? The eed syyhand at this, somewhat ww, by defining epasioeas way easing to beleein bel. oh Moon bia ehh Lado Peleg Next Bais ota tate of ming bata result of relationships among peoples we hive known this since Montaigne. The visor knows; the person sted belive. Convers the stor knew, the person ited makes ‘im understand that eon thought be knew. Lets apy this pape tothe case ofthe moderns Where hey drop nh, they 000 Setup fetishes thats the se al he peoples hey encounter as worhippes of meaningless objets, Since she Moderns natty have to come up ‘withan explanation for the strangeness of form of woth that cannot be used objectively, hey abate othe sages 2 meatal sate eat ‘sincera rather than eteral reference. sth wie of oonzation sdraces, the world fils up wih elves. Modem is someone who belies that others beleve. An agnosie, conversely, doesnot wonder ‘wheter itis necessary wo blew or ot, but why the Modersssodespet- stely need ele in order o sue ups eationship with thes. ‘kal stared onthe WestCoast of Altes, somewhere ia Guinea, with ‘he Poragues.Conered wth amulets of he sunt andthe Vega them Seles, theyacusd the Gold Cousblaks of worshipping tishes When the Pomguese demanded an snaver tthe ist question, “Have you ‘ade thesestons, cli, and wood oe ouhonorwithyour own hands?™ Donte cutoff Godt a ‘he Guineanstepledatoncethatindeed they ad. Ordered toansnerthe second question, “Ae thes stone a, and wood Kas tre dines?” ‘th Slack anemeced Ye" with wtmorianocene ye, ofcbae ober ize hey would not have made them with thee on hans! The Por ‘pete, shocked bat erapulos, not wanting 1 condemn without proof, ‘gave the Afcans one last chance: "Yu cart say both tat you're made yout own fetishes and that they ae tru ies: yu hase hos’ ‘throne othe othe, Unless" they went on indignant "you relly ‘bave aa sing, and you're a oblivious to he principle of contradiction as yow are thes of ol Stunned slave fom the Blacks, who fed to see contrition, proved how many ring separated ters fiom flan complete humanity. Bombarded wih questions, they per sted in epeatinghat hey di make chee own ial andthe these ‘were indeed tue vines, Confronted with sah tas bad Et, the Borsgies cold only respond with jes, delsion, and disgust. "To designate the aberaion ofthe costal Gina Bsc, 20d 19 coves up theron misunderstanding, the Roreaguse (very Catal, rplorers, conquerors, and to a cera exten ave traders a wel are ‘aught hase used theatre fii, fom to, the pat ppl of the orraguese eb "to do, to make" Av nous, Itmeans frm, gure configuatin, but a an adjective, artificial, ebsised tions and ‘ial, enchaned* Right from he sar, the wor emolgyzefisd, like the Blac, to choose beteen wh shaped by work and what sults fil, his hesitation, induced fasination and brought ‘on sels. Been though ll exymologlaldleionares agree onthe oi ‘in ofthe erm, hares de Bross, who invented the word “fess” (Preach étichisme) in 276, lnked ies olga wie frum, o sig, the source ofthe French noun Fe, “ue” an ofthe adjective fem in the noun ise objet, robert” also of he English adc “fey “me lake fom the wertoset of ies, snd even tose om the interior al he way up to ubl, along the Egyptian border, wor ship catia dvnis that the Baropsns cll ihe, aterm de