Aims of the Workshop
Religion was a heavily contested issue in the socialist states of the 20th century.
Politics oscillated between cooperation and sanction of religious communities andbehaviour. To display religion publicly soon turned into a successful strategy for its
delegitimation in the private and public sphere. Atheistic propaganda mushroomedwith a new type of “scientific” atheism fostering classical anti-religious stances.
Visualizations of the New Soviet Man took various forms which painted the bright
future of socialism against religious darkness and backwardness. However, theatheist imagination relied to a great extent on orthodox Christianity as its negative
counter model. Therefore, the centre of our interest is the question if atheism wasparasitically dependent on religion or if it developed autonomous aesthetic
configurations. Gathering from different disciplinary contexts, the workshop wants
to discuss questions such as the following:
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Where and in which way developed the new aesthetics of atheism?
Which attributes, concepts and imagery outlined secular values against
the backdrop of an established religious culture?
How does this binary code work in particular? Are there overlappingissues, mutual dependencies, or semantic changes?
What role played museums in the educational work?
To which depth transformed secularism and atheism into the society?

Convenors: Prof. Dr. Horst Junginger & Dr. Katharina Neef
Organisational support: Alla Lysenko & Andreas Hölke

Participation is free of charge. The workshop will be held in English via Zoom.
Links will be distributed after registration on atheist.aesthetics@uni-leipzig.de.
For further information visit our homepage.
Joint conference of the Institute for the Study of Religion, Leipzig, funded by theGerman Research Foundation in connection with the Centre for Advanced Studies„Multiple Secularities – Beyond the West, beyond Modernities“.

4–5 March 2021
Online workshop

Aesthetics of Atheism

Thursday, 4 March

Friday, 5 March

Atheist conceptualizations: the interplay
between religious and antireligious premises

Atheist mindscapes: visualizations ofreligion and atheism in the museum
13:00

Introduction: Horst Junginger/Katharina Neef

09:30–11:00

13:30–15:00

Johannes Gleixner

Edith Franke
Construction and deconstruction of religion in museums

Central european perceptions of the soviet godless-movement and theorientalization of atheism

Susanne Rodemeier

Marianna Shakhnovich

Limits and potentials of musealization

Scientific atheism of the era of “developed socialism” in the visual arts

Pardis Eskandaripour

Anja Kirsch

The changing attitude towards Christianity in the GRASSI Museum für Völkerkunde
zu Leipzig“Socialism will triumph!” – Aesthetics of atheism in the GDR?

15:00–15:30 Coffee break
15:30–16:30

Ekaterina Teryukova

11:00–11:30 Coffee break
11:30–13:00

Alla Sokolova
Visual propaganda against Judaism

The issue of atheism in the exhibitions of the Museum of the History of Religion

Katharina Neef

Peter Bräunlein

Visualizing prejudice: stereotypes against religions

The devil in the museum. On critical communication about religion and its limits

Svetlana Barsukova / Boris Krumnow

16.30–17:00 Coffee break

Atheistic pictures: Soviet era and modern Russia

17:00–18:00

13:00–14:00 Lunch break

Stefan Arvidsson

14:00–15:00

A secular Yggdrasil

Horst Junginger
Visualizing inexistent gods: atheistic versus Christian aestheticism

Final discussion