Un/masking

            On a Mimetic Form

6th Conference of the IDP Mimesis
4th – 6th July 2019, Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte Munich and LMU Munich

Masks are an integral part of human culture. They have been a vital element of theatrical practices since antiquity and have always played a crucial role in ritual as well as artistic and literary activities throughout the world. Their innate tension springs from their capacity to both show and conceal as well as to imitate and create, thus displaying a structural analogy to the workings of mimesis. Masks have the ability to generate an oscillation between truth and illusion, an interplay between identity, difference and appropriation. In recent years, various artists, performers and political activists have been attracted to the object of the mask and have updated the powerful act of un/masking for our times.

This international and interdisciplinary conference brings together papers from various fields within the humanities. It seeks to connect diverging theories and methods in order to open new perspectives on numerous manifestations of the mask, ranging from Baroque theater and turn-of-the-century cabaret to modern facial recognition, from shamanistic practices to 18th-century aesthetics and digital art. In addition to addressing questions of identity in postcolonial societies and the usage of masks in political movements, the conference will also highlight figures of the mask in fashion, music, literature and 20th-century avantgardes. Reflecting acts of un/masking in a diverse range of artistic media and a broad spectrum of contexts, this conference encourages theoretical reflection on its ambiguity and mimetic practices.

Conference Program 

Thursday, 4th July 2019

LMU, Luisenstraße 37, Room C106

4:00 pm Registration (for Speakers only)

4:30 pm TOBIAS DÖRING (IDP Mimesis)
Welcoming Address

4:45 pm ANNA BACCANTI, JOHANNA SPANGENBERG (IDP Mimesis)
Un/Masking: On a Mimetic Form

PANEL 1 - REVEALING MASKS (Chair: Joana Mylek)
5:15 pm AGNES HOFFMANN (University of Basel)
Schminck und Schein: The Art and Power of Unmasking in German Baroque Drama

6:00 pm CHRISTIANE LEWE (Bauhaus-Universität Weimar)
Surface and Depth: The Revival of Physiognomy in Deep Learning

6:45 pm Break

7:00 pm Keynote Address
BERNHARD SIEGERT (Bauhaus-Universität Weimar)
Switching Perspectives: The Operative Ontology of the Transformation Masks of the American Northwest Coast
Chair: Sebastian Althoff

 

 

Friday, 5th July, 2019

Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte, Katharina-von-Bora-Straße 10, Room 242

9:00 am ULRICH PFISTERER (Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte Munich)
Welcoming Address

9:15 am Keynote Address
JOYCE CHENG (University of Oregon)
The Surrealists on Style: Toward a Theory of Expression as Masquerade
Chair: Antonia Stichnoth

10:30 am Coffee Break

PANEL 2 - UN/MASKING POLITICS (Chair: Simon Gröger)
11:00 am TIM BEASLEY-MURRAY (University College London)
Against Politics as Self-Disclosure and Inclusion: The Anti-Politics of Masking

11:45 am SARAH HEGENBART (TU Munich)
Redressing History in South Africa: Sethembile Msezane and Mary Sibande and their Masking of the Black Body

12:30 am VITA PEACOCK (University of Cambridge)
Masks and Initiatory Transformation in Anonymous

1:15 pm Lunch Break

PANEL 3 - UN/HUMAN (Chair: Babylonia Constantinides)
2:45 pm CAROLIN BOHN (TU Braunschweig)
Somewhere between Realities: Structures of Un/masking in German 18th-century Aesthetics

3:30 pm BETHAN HUGHES (University of Leeds)
Corpsing: CGI as Grotesque Realism in the Work of Ed Atkins

4:15 pm LAURETTE BURGHOLZER (University of Bern) [this paper was canceled]
Neutral Masks, Significant Bodies: Heritage, Exoticism and Depersonalization in Actors’ Training in France in the Early 20th Century

5:00 pm Coffee Break

5:30 pm Keynote Address
W. ANTHONY SHEPPARD (Williams College, MA)
Morality and Meaning in Vocal Masking
Chair: Johanna Spangenberg

 

Saturday, 6th July, 2019

Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte, Katharina-von-Bora-Straße 10, Room 242

PANEL 4 - MASKING THE (IM)MATERIAL: EMBODIMENT AND ABSTRACTION (Chair: Bettina Vitzthum)
9:00 am ELISA LEROY (IDP Mimesis)
‘Such a questionable shape’: Un/masking the Ghost as Actor and Author in Hamlet

9:45 am ELEONORE ZAPF (University of Innsbruck)
Thoughts Becoming Persons: Fernando Pessoa’s Poetic Carnival

10:30 am JUDITH KEMP (Deutsches Museum Munich)
‘Wüstes Farbengetändel’: Peter Altenberg’s ‘Masken’ in ‘Cabaret Fledermaus’

11:15 am Coffee and Snacks
ANJA WÄCHTER (IDP Mimesis): Guided Tour of the Photographs of Stefan Moses: Creative Incognito – Stefan Moses' Artists Behind Masks. Meeting Point: Library Entrance, 1^st Floor.

12:15 pm Keynote Address
BARBARA VINKEN (LMU Munich) [this paper was canceled]
Un ballo in maschera
Chair: Anna Baccanti

 

1:30 pm SEBASTIAN ALTHOFF, ANTONIA STICHNOTH (IDP Mimesis)

Concluding Remarks

 

Conference Organization:

Sebastian Althoff
Anna Baccanti
Johanna Spangenberg
Antonia Stichnoth

 

 

 

Report:

The sixth conference of the International Doctoral Program MIMESIS concentrated on the topic of Un/masking. On a Mimetic Form and took place in Munich from July 4 to July 6 2019. International scholars from the humanities and social sciences came together at LMU Munich and Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte to discuss the meaning and importance of masks in political, social, literary and artistic contexts from antiquity to our present days.

Masks are an integral part of human culture. They have been a vital element of theatrical practices since antiquity and have always played a crucial role in ritual as well as artistic and literary activities throughout the world.
In recent years, various artists, performers and political activists have updated the powerful act of un/masking for our times and so it was no wonder the topic attracted the interest of the IDP MIMESIS’ doctoral students. The result was the conference Un/masking. On a Mimetic Form, which included 13 papers all focusing on very different aspects of masks.

Examples of mask usage in political protest and debates over the implications of newest facial recognition software stood next to in-depth studies of classic dramatic texts. The lively discussion with the audience proved that a highly constructive dialogue could be reached despite the heterogeneous topics and methodological approaches.
As the core of the schedule, the three keynote lectures united subjects such as transformative masks of the First Nations of the North American Pacific coast, theories of style in Surrealism and masked voices in pop music.
Throughout the conference, the talks and discussions revolved not only around the object of the mask, but also around the more abstract processes of masking and unmasking, as well as the metaphorical usages of the terms. Examples of such “invisible” metaphorical masks are social roles as well as literary pseudonyms. The powerful act of masking not only conceals a person’s identity, it can also create a new one.

The lively exchange continued outside the conference room: Attendees resumed their discussion during a reception at the end of the first conference day as well as during the two guided tours of Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte.

 

Authors:

Sebastian Althoff
Anna Baccanti
Johanna Spangenberg
Antonia Stichnoth