Do images also die?

Abstract

With the increasing cases of attacks on monuments in recent years, the theme of iconoclasm has resurfaced in public debate. But is the iconoclasm we witness today truly analogous to that of distant historical periods, as studied by established authors like Freedberg and Belting? The hypothesis I seek to present is that we are experiencing an epochal transformation in our relationship with the image, and that the very concept of the image, implicitly tied to the notion of iconoclasm, needs to be rethought and historicized. To this end, I briefly revisit the iconoclasm of May '68—a moment marking the emergence of the society of the spectacle—and then propose some theoretical pointers that might help us differentiate contemporary iconoclasm.