Since the school of New Historicism of the 1980s, the insight has become accepted that history has not only something to do with “the past”, but is primarily a particular form of narration. Unlike the past, narratives are reversible. Thus, especially in more recent times, artists intervene in these narratives and supplement them with other media forms, such as photography and film. History appears less as a given than as artistic material. On the basis of some works the lecture will show how this approach manifests itself in the arts.
Susanne Leeb is an art historian and currently works as a research assistant in the Collaborative Research Center “Aesthetic Experience in the Light of the Dissolution of Artistic Limits” at Freie Universität Berlin. Most recent publication: Co-conception of the thematic issue Geschichte/History (December 2009) of the magazine Texte zur Kunst.
A lecture to the exhibition “Sarah Ortmeyer. Navy Royal”.