It is incredible that, after about 700 years of discussing on art’s essence and pushing its boundaries further and further – sometimes in extremely interesting ways, other times in less compelling fashion – we have ended up in turning art into either allegory or imitation.(*) For both are merely forms of re-presentation, and re-presentation has…
Category: Performative Arts
After Nietzsche
I Nietzsche claims that the way in which we picture the world affirms or denies what we are ready to put in it, in short, that our representations rely on a pre-representational basis, inasmuch as we see what we see depending on how we are inclined to value it. In other words, he underscores the…
Butō & Philosophy
To “represent” (vorstellen) something and to “position” (stellen) it in its “place” (Stelle) is said in German after the same verbal root, which is also inherent in the word Gestell: “positioning,” “enframing.” With the latter term, Heidegger points at the generalized availability in which things stand before us – a trait which is peculiar to…
Of Dreamscapes and Dancescapes
(A sequel to “Phantasmagoria“) There are two different theories of dreaming. One interprets dreams according to well-established a priori categories (such as complexes) and views dreams as symptoms of the dreamer’s personal expectations and frustrations, family and social roles, etc. Conversely, the other one approaches dreams in pragmatic and heuristic manner (as in a trial-and-error…
Phantasmagoria // Sofya
An aquatic space, A ghostly water… I (i?) dance butoh drowning. An aquatic space A porous body— Dissolving Into dark waters, Dreamy waters, An a-temporal space. An aquatic space. i dance butoh In ghostly waters.