Let Them Haunt Us

Let Them Haunt Us analyzes contemporary aesthetics engaged in trauma and critically challenges its canonical status as »unrepresentable«. Focusing on case studies in the aesthetic practices of Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller, Omer Fast, Forensic Architecture, and Paul McCarthy this book proposes to redefine trauma as a productive framework to exploring individual, collective, and cultural conflicts addressed in current artistic and curatorial practices. Anna-Lena Werner considers the aesthetic realm as a potential forum that provides methods of understanding the humanitarian consequences of violence and warfare, and to reveal the effects of trauma on visual culture, collective memory, and politics.

Autorentext
Anna-Lena Werner, born in 1985, is a researcher and curator of contemporary art and performance. She received her PhD from Freie Universität Berlin in 2019, where she is currently research associate at the Institute for Theatre Studies. She worked as a research associate for inter-institutional projects with Hamburger Bahnhof-Museum für Gegenwart-Berlin, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden and Haus der Kulturen der Welt Berlin. Since 2011, she has been editing the online magazine artfridge.de.

Klappentext

»Let Them Haunt Us« analyzes contemporary aesthetics engaged in trauma and critically challenges its canonical status as »unrepresentable«. Focusing on case studies in the aesthetic practices of Janet Cardiff & George Bures Miller, Omer Fast, Forensic Architecture, and Paul McCarthy this book proposes to redefine trauma as a productive framework to exploring individual, collective, and cultural conflicts addressed in current artistic and curatorial practices. It considers the aesthetic realm as a potential forum that provides methods of understanding the humanitarian consequences of violence and warfare, and to reveal the effects of trauma on visual culture, collective memory, and politics.

Anna-Lena Werner, born in 1985, is a researcher and curator of contemporary aesthetic practices. She received her PhD from Freie Universität Berlin in 2019 and has worked as research associate for inter-institutional projects with Hamburger Bahnhof - Museum für Gegenwart - Berlin (2013-16), Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden and Haus der Kulturen der Welt Berlin. Since 2011, she has been editing the online magazine »artfridge.de«.