It all starts with a thing, something between an object and an image. An image which  sets in motion an infinite series of operations of replication; the making of a copy of a copy. An object that triggers the most extraordinary and rigorous scientific procedures to find out a truth, to see clearly. it poses a question of resemblance, and moreover, of a lost one. it is the question of a lost origin, one that will always be lost. the fantasy that it has been there, will trigger the desire to search for it again, and again. this is a desire for a retrospective invention, a desire to create the myth that there is an image not made by a human hand. The myth however, signifies a collective fiction that erases the procedures of making, the object-origin and its author so that the thing can shine in all its glory – an imprint of the body of god.

download the full text as a PDF