†KUNST†
At the end of 2023, Markus Söder’s Kreuzerlass – the decree requiring a crucifix to be displayed in all Bavarian government buildings – was legally upheld. Söder justifies this intervention by arguing that the cross is not primarily a religious symbol, but rather stands for “cultural identity.” This line of thought has many supporters – from the conservative Christian culture minister Wolfram Weimer, to various AfD politicians, to the deeply religious tech billionaire Peter Thiel, an influential thinker and trailblazer of current U.S. government policy. At the same time, an affirmative play with Christian symbolism can be found in subcultures within the young music, art, and fashion scenes of the United States, for instance in bands such as Salem and Snow Strippers or the fashion label Praying. Within this constellation – between conservative symbolic politics and the half-ironic gimmickry of fashion – the artist group Frankfurter Hauptschule, together with the exhibition collective pip, develops a curatorial scenario that interweaves readymade, intervention, and staging. At its center lies the idea of understanding religion not as an armory of identity, but as one fiction among many others: as KUNST.