Eva Bendová – Václav Hájek
Locks of hair, shoes and inkpots. Collecting modern relics and the cult of celebrities
Together with the new conceptualization of individuality and the role of the subject, which emerged at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries, there was also a growing interest in memorial objects, which might be described as a modern-day relic fetish. These are specific types of "images" in which no fundamental role is generally played by imitativeness of any kind, but they do have the character of an index sign or a trace. Locks of hair, casts of hands and faces, and other personal and intimate objects relate to "marked" individuals as material relics directly associated with their corporeality. They are either objects that have been "touched" or actual parts or fragments of the body. Unlike religious relics, they are naturally not considered to involve the sacred, but their intimate nature reinforces their supposed authenticity, which invokes the "idol" that is being commemorated or perhaps even venerated. A well-known collector of modern relics was Klement Václav Metternich, whose collection of "memorial aggregates" is exhibited at Kynžvart Chateau. This paper summarizes the "fetishistic", material, indexical and intimate nature of traces and mementos relating to modern "idols", i.e. to celebrated figures involved in culture, politics, science and social life.
Keywords: Klemens Václav Metternich – fetishes – casts – moderní relics – modern curiosities
design by Bedřich Vémola
