Who is afraid of images?

The heresy of representation between iconoclastia and cancel culture. Implications for the cultural heritage preservation

Abstract

The article discusses the ability of drawing and visual representations to take on symbolic solid and ideological values, to the point of being stigmatised and taking on heretical connotations. In particular, the article will highlight how the prohibition of graphic-visual expression stimulates new artistic forms, channelling the inescapable need for iconic communication of human nature towards new horizons of experimentation. From the best-known iconoclastic traditions of Byzantine, Protestant, and Islamic culture to the most current cancel culture phenomena linked to the affirmation of political-ideological movements and historical revisionisms, censorship, removal and destruction of images and visual representations in their most diverse declinations become the most effective tool for making the change of ideas tangible and influencing public opinion. For the same power and effectiveness that has always made them a privileged means for transmitting knowledge and learning and propaganda in the various spheres of society, images become the easiest target to hit to communicate cultural contrasts and discontinuities to the public. The heretical caricatures published in the French newspaper Charlie Ebdo, the statues of Buddhas in Bamyan, and the memorials dedicated to the Confederate States of America, are only the most recent episodes of the phenomenon that Bruno Latour defines as an iconoclast, i.e. the conflictual relationship between the production and destruction of images in the different fields of religion, politics, science and art, which will be investigated in this article based on various case studies identified both in the historical tradition and in more recent current events.