Abstract

Can we take material objects - a recording, a sculpture, and a written text-as multiplicity of perceptual moments, still in the process of becoming, instead of solidifying them into frozen, static objects, intended solely for scientific scrutiny and/or isolated academic study? Can we re-experience our shared cultural past through consciously re-entering the sites of personal horror, trauma, and memories of death? I assert that the art works analyzed: dance film of Valeska Gert, sculpture by Alberto Giacometti, and a short story by Danilo Kiš, can serve as poetic evidences not only of the experiences and aesthetic choices of their authors, but also, of multiple readings, responses, and reactions that the works have provoked in the past, and that are inscribed on the surfaces we now encounter. The theoretical foci of the paper are abjection, aesthetic metamorphosis of the rejected otherness, performed failure, and repositioning of the marginal. The artistic and poetic excesses articulated through the unique acts of perception and related transformative acts, are envisioned as the tools for critical analysis of the society.