Art Histories
2013/ 2014

Maria José de Abreu

Theotokos: Reassessing the Byzantine Icon in Times of Electronic Media

Maria José de Abreu is a cultural anthropologist and works at the University of Amsterdam as well as at the Amsterdam University College. She studied Anthropology of Media at SOAS, University of London, and received her PhD in Sociocultural Anthropology at the University of Amsterdam in 2008. She has worked on questions of embodiment, technology and movement in the context of an urban religious movement in contemporary Brazil. Her work is grounded in ethnographic research as well as engaging with a range of anthropological and philosophical debates about time, space, personhood and the human senses and their technological extensions, on which she has published in various journals and edited volumes. Her latest project deals with theories on media, temporality and crisis with particular focus on Southern Europe.

 

Theotokos: Reassessing the Byzantine Icon in Times of Electronic Media

During her fellowship term in Berlin, De Abreu will work on a book project that will expand upon her doctoral dissertation. The book investigates the multifaceted intersections of Byzantine iconography with electronic media through the performances of a contemporary religious movement in urban São Paulo. De Abreu’s analysis will be based on the aesthetic practices taking place in the recently inaugurated sanctuary Theotokos (Mother of God) located in the eastern part of the city. Designed by the world-renowned architect of Japanese descent, Ruy Othake, the Byzantine-modelled Theotokos Sanctuary is Brazil’s largest Catholic temple ever built on national territory.