Model Sophia Thomalla hangs like Jesus on the cross in a lightly aproned dress. The whole thing for a promotional campaign. The ZdK shows indignation. An art expert from the Archdiocese of Cologne, on the other hand, describes it as meaningless and advises calmness.
Interviewer: The scene is under the slogan "Christmas is now even more beautiful". There is something wrong?
Dr. Anna Pawlik (art historian of the Archdiocese of Cologne): That was also my first thought. What does Christmas have to do with the death of Christ on the cross?? In the ecclesiastical history of salvation both events are of course connected, only then the chronologies are here yes strangely twisted. I don't believe that the creators of the campaign thought that far ahead. Therefore I stick to my first impression: Something is misused in a very meaningless way.
Interviewer: Can you detect any hint of art in the depiction at all??
Pavlik: The history of art and what art wants to be or can be in the eyes of the beholder have changed massively in the last thousand years. In the last two hundred years, a multitude of new media have been added, especially in contemporary art, video art, for example, or light art – and thus also many new possibilities. Part of this is that art can also be an emotional and intellectual challenge, and perhaps in certain contexts it must be. This means that the viewer should engage with art, should enter into a kind of dialogue with it. You don't always have to understand everything right away; not every inscription sign can immediately explain to you what the artist wanted to tell you. But there is, of course, a line to what is art and what is just a cheap misuse of a Christian symbol. The latter is the case here.
Interviewer: Especially since we are dealing with an advertising campaign here, it's about buying, about commerce.
Pawlik: Exactly!
Interviewer: The president of the Central Committee of German Catholics, Thomas Sternberg, has described the campaign as "tasteless and stupid. Do you agree with this unreservedly?
Pavlik: I would immediately agree with the verdict "stupid", because the whole thing is literally nonsense. Somehow you get the impression that just because it's about Christ, Easter and Christmas are mixed up. Of course, the question is also: What does that tell me in terms of the advertising message for a lottery company? Tasteless – that's always in the eye of the beholder. In my opinion, we are dealing here primarily with the display of a person, which is completely devoid of meaning here.
Interviewer: Do you also feel the portrayal is sexist? After all, Sophia Thomalla is hanging there lightly dressed in a lascivious pose?
Pavlik: The staging with this open hair is probably also supposed to tie in with representations of Christ, I suppose. This is of course more than difficult. The whole thing is probably no more or less sexist than other advertisements that we know and have unfortunately long since become accustomed to.
Interviewer: In this combination it has of course once again a special taste, goes so in the direction of blasphemy?
Pawlik: Yes, in some way the whole thing plays with breaking taboos, otherwise the person who conceived it probably wouldn't have thought of it. I think that's ultimately what's behind it, and in a certain way it's already worked.
Interviewer: How do you personally feel when you see something like this?? Do you feel hurt in your religious feelings?
Pavlik: I don't feel hurt in my personal religious feelings, perhaps I saw through it too quickly for that and somehow shrugged my shoulders and thought: "Oh – that too now!"
Interviewer: Of course, the debate that immediately flared up around the advertising campaign is also interesting.
Pavlik: That is, of course, exactly what the creators of the campaign ultimately wanted: Everyone is now talking about a company that, at least to me personally, was not known at all beforehand. In this respect the advertising aspect has unfortunately already worked.
Interviewer: Perhaps a word to the tabloid that made the whole thing public, the "Bild".
Pavlik: The Bild-Zeitung now thinks it has to inform its readers that Good Friday and Christmas have nothing to do with each other here. So she likes herself a little bit in the role of the honorary savior of the church.
Interviewer: What do you think is an appropriate way to respond to this campaign?
Pawlik: The best thing would be to ignore it.
Interviewer: We are not doing that right now. But let's imagine that someone had "used" the Prophet Mohammed in a similar way in an advertisement. All hell would probably break loose. Which shows that Christian symbols can be abused in such a relatively inconsequential way?
Pawlik: This is a question I have often asked myself. I think that we as Christians are more thick-skinned in this respect, even if we may already feel hurt, offended and also somehow addressed. It is difficult to make such a sweeping statement. The president of the ZdK has commented on it, we are commenting on it right now, condemning it in a certain way.
Interviewer: But we would not go and torch a poster.
Pavlik: Of course, not every Muslim would do that either. The question is what we can basically stand. Tolerance and a thick skin come into play here. Just to say, "This doesn't affect me personally" – and to see it for what it is: namely, a meaningless, in some ways really stupid misuse, a complete lack of understanding of what's supposed to be shown there. It was obviously meant to break a taboo, that worked in a way. But the fact that none of this makes any sense in terms of content is something else. If we as Christians discuss this for ourselves in an appropriate, intellectual way, that is surely the best way to deal with it.
The interview was conducted by Hilde Regeniter.