Paulin, Anders ; Gross, Austin ; Pristaš, Sergey ; Cvejić, Bojana ; Noys, Benjamin ; Phelan, Peggy

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Twin figure of mimesis I & II

What does theater really do when you remove representation and images? Can we understand this as a political problem and economic transaction? How can we think about the production and reproduction of images and ideas in a time of overflowing impressions? And how can we, going beyond these problems, come up with a mission and new tools for contemporary performing arts and its institutions?

The publication Twin Figure of Mimesis is a scripted journey through the landscape of performative mimetics. Written as a double bill, where a collection of essays meets a scripted version of a performative work, the book aims to discuss and problematize a platonic paradigm in performing arts, organising the world in truth and false, original and copy. Opposed to this, the texts address various alternative concepts of mimesis. Not the double as a more or less authentic copy of an original - only validated in its relation to a master signifier - but the double/figure/image as alterity; an autonomous “thing” existing in the world on its own premises. Suggesting this as the foundation for a new set of objectives, devoted to the production of alterity rather than of identity and identification, the essays reflect what would be a relevant tropology, apparatus and set of tools. The essays are written in dialogue with, and responded by, Goran Sergej Pristas, Bojana Cvejic, Benamin Noys and Peggy Phelan. Preface by Austin Gross. // Anders Paulin's book "The Twin Figure of Mimesis" expands the performances from the Three White Soldiers triology (2014-2018) into a broad theoretical discussion. The book is written by Anders in dialogue with Benjamin Noys, Bojana Cvejic, Peggy Phelan, Sergej Pristas och Austin Gross. What does theater really do when you remove representation and images? Can we understand this as a political problem and economic transaction? How can we think about the production and reproduction of images and ideas in a time of an accelerationist overflow of impressions? And how can we, going beyond these problems, come up with a mission and new tools for contemporary performing arts and its institutions? // svenska: Anders Paulins bok ”The Twin Figure of Mimesis” bygger ut föreställningarna i trilogin Three White Soldiers (2014-2018) till en bred konst-teoretisk diskussion. Boken är skriven av Anders i en dialog med Benjamin Noys, Bojana Cvejic, Peggy Phelan, Sergej Pristas och Austin Gross. Vad är det teatern gör när det avbildar/föreställer - egentligen? Kan vi förstå avbildningen som ett politiskt problem och ekonomisk transaktion? Hur kan vi tänka kring produktion och reproduktion av bilder och idéer i vår tids accelererande överflöd av intryck? Och hur kan vi utifrån dessa problem formulera uppdrag och verktyg för en samtida scenkonst och dess institutioner. // Introduction: This could be said to be the story about the Twin Figure of Mimesis. The mimetic figure Alterity is something as odd as a twin considerably older than its sibling. Alterity is a liberating figure born in the instant we model a copy of the world; a fetish, an image or a story. It is the intervention of fiction needed to dislodge reality from itself, in order to render it open for reflection, interpretation and imagery. The figure Identity is the younger twin, operating in the very end of the mimetic road. If Alterity works in the gap between reality and copy, the mission of Identity is the reappropriation of the figure. Where the older twin opens the gate for our gaze to probe into the potential of the un-knowable, the younger one closes it again in the name of Identification and Knowledge.