Change Through Repetition

Overview

Repetition shapes art works through procedures and processes of reproduction, copying, depiction, or reenactment. As representation of the world, mimetic art's relationship to the political and social world can be conceived as repetition. When can mimetic works of art nonetheless become a trigger, participant in, or vehicle for political and social transformation? By exploring works of art from a wide range of historical periods, places, media, and contexts – from the political thought hidden in Hegel's Aesthetics through Hélène Cixous's practice of writing difference(s), from contemporary applied theater through the Gezi Park Uprising in 2013, and from installations of fictional national museums through to the artistic commemoration of assassinated political activists in Iran – all contributions in this volume attempt to show how a concept of change through repetition can help redefine the relationship between art and politics and to enlighten us on the transformative potential of repetition in "political art."

Author Biography

Babylonia Constantinides studied Fine Arts and Media Theory at the Academy of Fine Arts Munich and German Literature and Art History at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich. Within the framework of a cotutelle de these between the MIMESIS International Doctoral Program at LMU Munich and the Department of Film Studies at the University of Zurich she is currently working on her dissertation on biographical film. Elisa Leroy is a freelance dramaturg and scholar working in Munich, Berlin and Paris. She is currently completing her PhD on "Text and performance in Shakespeare's Hamlet" at the MIMESIS International Doctoral Program at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich. Doris Rebhan studied Arts of Africa, Philosophy and Religion & Culture at Freie Universität Berlin and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. As a PhD candidate at the MIMESIS International Doctoral Program at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich she is currently working on a dissertation. Simon Gröger studied Theater Studies and Philosophy at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich. He graduated in 2017 with a study about the theatrical aesthetics of Michel Foucault's conceptualization of parrhesia. Since 2017 he is a PhD candidate at the MIMESIS International Doctoral Program at LMU Munich.