What do religiously laden images, religious artworks, places or objects do on campus? How are they displayed or hidden from view? What is their capacity to define spaces? How are they perceived and seen? Which kind of knowledge or reaction do they produce? What do they tell the viewer about the Hebrew University, its history, its academic mission, its employees, stuff and students?

In the seminar “Visual Culture and Religion” students under the direction of Hannelies Koloska explored the important role of vision and the visual in religious practices. Images or objects in everyday life and of everyday use play an important role in the practices of religion. They participate fundamentally in the definition of spaces and times, rituals of memory, devotion and worship and the formation of identity and as part of religious instruction; they are part of debates, rivalry and reasons of fierce confrontations.

During the seminar the students explored religious images, objects and spaces on Mount Scopus Campus. The objects they interpret are not so much perceived as pieces of artwork, but as part of an act of seeing and interpreting them in their context and their function.

The following exhibitions present the outcome of the students’ explorations and research. They take you on short exciting visual journeys with surprising encounters!

Museum of Abrahamic Religions

The Inside and Outside Museum

Places of Worship - through the perspective of a non-scholar atheist

A little far East

Beyond the Elite

The Power of Similarity

Beyond the Elite: The Stern Little Gallery. Hidden Sacred Art on Campus?

Exploring the “Three Abrahamic Religions”

The Yitzhak Rabin Building: Interreligious Aspirations and Visuality