Exposition

Contagiously Wandering Images. Reflecting on Hysteria in and as Artistic Research (last edited: 2020)

Braun Johanna
no media files associated
open exposition

About this exposition

We seem to be living in hysterical times. Countless reports attest the recent epidemic nature of hysteria, and a simple Google search reveals the sheer bottomless well of media coverage on the infectious virtue of “mass hysteria”, covering almost every aspect of public discussions. The arts—as it is often in such cases—seem conspicuously involved in and engaged with this “hysterical discourse”. Countless exhibitions were curated on the topic, (art) journals established, performances and conferences held, festivals organized, articles and essay written. These artistic efforts were also not bound to a specific area and instead spread globally from Australia, China, Canada, India, South Africa, Europe, or the United States, among many others. Hysteria in these current narratives references conspicuously established representations of the hysteric as (public) performer and “Kunstfigur” that extend well beyond the often-referenced European medical studies of the nineteenth century—both into the past and present—and seems to spread uncontrollably through a myriad of artistic practices and public discussions throughout the centuries.Surprisingly, while the strong academic interest in hysteria throughout the twentieth century and most prominently at the turn of the century is well known and much discussed, the study of how these discourses have continued well into twenty-first-century art practices, and of how those current practices very much continue a century spanning cross-fertilization between hysteria and the arts, is largely pressing on a blind spot.It is the main objective of this exposition to illustrate how the arts seem to bundle the diverse present interests in the contagious nature of hysteria in a multitude of ways, while at the same time bringing to the forefront the century-spanning infectious relationship between hysteria and the (performing) arts, within an artistic and a self-reflexive research practice.
typeresearch exposition
keywordshysteria, performance, contagion, artistic research
date23/11/2020
last modified23/11/2020
statusin progress
share statuspublic
affiliationStanford University / University of Vienna
copyrightJohanna Braun
licenseAll rights reserved
languageEnglish
urlhttps://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/1057535/1057536
external linkwww.johannabraun.com


Simple Media

id name copyright license
1057619 Braun-Johanna_Performing Hysteria_Leuven UP_fin Johanna Braun All rights reserved
1057637 Braun-Johanna_Performing Hysteria_Leuven UP_fin Johanna Braun All rights reserved

Comments are only available for registered users.