A putative (private) life of Hannah Arendt. Bio-portraiture as performance in the work of Miriam Shenitzer
Files
Published version
Date
2019-12-02
Authors
Zank, Michael
Version
Accepted manuscript
Embargo Date
2020-12-02
OA Version
Citation
Michael Zank. 2019. "A putative (private) life of Hannah Arendt. Bio-Portraiture as Performance in the Work of Miriam Shenitzer." Performance Philosophy, Volume 5, Issue 1, pp. 128 - 148. https://doi.org/10.21476/PP.2019.51272
Abstract
The paper uses tropes culled from several of Hannah Arendt's works, as well as Rebecca Schneider's performance-theoretical considerations on "reenactment", to analyze the work of artist Miriam Shenitzer, specifically a show of drawings, captions, and objects called "A Putative Life of Hannah Arendt." The essay probes this "putative life" as construed from the artist's own memory fragments (including the memories of others that have become the artist's own), as well as from faux-artifacts that constitute a "collection" (à la Benjamin) without claim to representing an actual past. With access to history denied and a heritage claimed "without testament," the artist opens a space "between past and future," a moment of contemplation on the borders between private and public lives.
Description
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.