『순교자』는 전쟁이라는 역사의 폭력 앞에 내동댕이쳐진 인간의 실존적 고뇌를 다루면서, 신의 존재를 부인하는 신 목사를 통해 자기를 희생하면서까지 교인들에게 희망을 전하고자 하는 새로운 신앙의 진실을 그려낸 작품이다. 작가는 신 목사를 통해 침묵하는 신을 대신해서 불가사의한 현실을 이해하고 받아들일 수 있는, 사랑에 기초한 윤리적 휴머니즘이야말로 곧 희망의 복음이라는 메시지를 역설하고 있다. 󰡔순교자󰡕가 현실을 살아내야 하는 견인주의적 관점을 고수하는 실존신학의 입장을 드러냈다면 󰡔침묵󰡕의 경우는 비록 실존신학적인 주제이긴 하지만 신의 침묵 뒤에서 신의 응답을 듣게 되는 율법에서 자유로운 신앙을 구현해 냈다고 볼 수 있다. 신부는 성화판을 밟는 이율배반적인 사랑의 행위를 치르면서 그리스도의 종말론적 고난을 대리 경험하고 신의 현존을 새롭게 인식하게 된다. 베드로가 예수를 부인한 고통 속에서 참 그리스도를 만나게 되었듯이 로드리고 신부 역시 성육신한 구속주 예수를 성화판 사건을 통해 만나고 애벌레가 나비가 되는 탈바꿈에 이른 역동적 신앙을 얻을 수 있게 되었다.

This paper investigates the biblical and political implications of Ai Weiwei's work entitled <S.A.C.R.E.D.>, which was shown at the 55th Venice Biennale in Venice, Italy, 2013. With the biblical Passion images and metaphor of Christ, Ai is finely depicted as Christ and martyr while having suffered during his detention by Chinese authorities for 81 days. Tracing back to such biblical theme as suffering, death, and resurrection of Christ, Ai has played in six large boxes called Supper, Accusers, Cleansing, Ritual, Entropy, Doubt, into which the viewer can peek to see him eating meal, asleep in bed, taking a shower, on toilet with two uniformed guards. The title is reminiscent of religious artifacts by the Italian Old Masters in the church of Sant'Antonin, which represent the invisible holiness. The installation in individual boxes in the church should be interpreted in the context of Christ's Passion such as Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane, Last Supper, Arrest, Mocking, Crucifixion, Deposition, and Lamentation implied in the Stations of the Cross and the Temptations of St Anthony, to whom the church is dedicated. Through the religious images, the viewer can assume Ai's propaganda to the concrete figures of Christ and the Saint to create his own self-portrait. Conceived with the wooden-stool sculpture <Bang> in the German pavilion and with <Straight>, his massive accumulation of crushed rebars from the children's schools collapsed in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake at the Zuecca Project Space, Ai in <S.A.C.R.E.D.> can be interpreted as having made a dialogue between the martyr and the dissent artist. <S.A.C.R.E.D.>, Ai's first work made in response to his own trauma and memories during his detention, has surprisingly positioned him as Christ, a saint, and a martyr, although he denied it. This study aims to explore Ai's use of the biblical iconography as metaphor, which reinforces his own torture, claustrophobia, enclosure, surveillance, and humiliation, especially in relation to his detention.