Twelfth International Conference on Food Studies

Abstract

Jonasz Stern was a Holocaust survivor and one of the most prominent Polish artists of the XX-century. After the 60’ cannibalism became one of the crucial motifs in his art, which was interpreted as a reflection of his own traumatic past. Cannibalism is defined as a practice in which the flesh of one’s own species is consumed and this intraspecies aspect is seemingly unquestionable. However, the way Stern spoke about cannibalism was somewhat paradoxical. Stern moved cannibalism from “intraspecies” to the “interspecies” position. Artist inscribed all living species into one category; therefore, the very act of eating another being, also non-human animals (NAH) fell into cannibalism. In his moving and disturbing assamblages, Stern used animal bones and skins, fish bones and scales to speak about the tragedy of the life-death cycle in which sustaining life requires killing and eating the others. In his artworks, Stern portrayed a world which was perpetuated with unremovable guilt. The paper focuses on the roots and meaning of cannibalism in Stern’s oeuvre and connects it with contemporary posthumanist thought as well as the concept of a more-than-human community.