Artpress Editorial Links Shroud of Turin and Veil Ban

In an editorial titled 'Toutes voiles dehors,' Catherine Millet of artpress connects two unrelated current events: the spring 2010 exhibition of the Shroud of Turin in Turin's cathedral and the July 2010 French law banning the full-face veil, which was to be examined by the Senate in September. Millet explores the ambivalent function of covering the body, dead or alive, with fabric. The Shroud reveals the invisible made visible (God incarnate), while the integral veil renders women's bodies invisible, reducing them to ghosts. The editorial references Roland Barthes' idea that clothing both hides and reveals. It highlights articles by Houria Abdelouahed on the terms libās, hijāb, and burqa in the Quran and mystical texts, and by Fabrice Hadjadj on the Shroud as a paradigm of the artwork in modern and contemporary conceptions. The piece ties these themes to the magazine's focus on painting (canvas, image, imprint, representation) and writing (weaving language, polysemy, metaphor, translation).