How does the conceptual distinction between “nature” and “culture,”
so typical of modernity, inform the perception of limits in artistic practice
and visual culture? Animism interrogates two key processes in aesthetics—
animation and conservation, movement and stasis—against
the backdrop of the anthropological term “animism” and its historical
implications. For what is mere fiction in modern aesthetics, for
so-called “animist practices” is actual relations. What is commonly
referred to as the most “fictional” of imaginary productions—the animated
universes of film, the effect of the “life-like” in artistic objects
and images, the creation of fantastic worlds in which objects are alive
and things can speak—then assumes a sudden “documentary” value,
by way of which the question of “relationality,” which also played a
significant role in recent art history, can assume a new qualitative dimension.
This project had begun to take shape in Antwerp in 2006. The
ongoing discussions were extended to Bern, Vienna, and Berlin, places
where subsequent versions of the exhibition will be hosted in the
course of the next few years—one building upon the other. It is the
result of a collaborative effort between artists, writers, curators, and
institutions. It was shaped through other projects, exhibitions, and collaborations,
and many have given us the opportunity to further discuss
the issues at stake in artistic and academic contexts during the process
of the development. We wish to thank all of those for the imprint they
left on the project.
The present publication accompanies the exhibition in Antwerp
and Bern. The publication does not document the exhibition, but rather
translates it into the medium of a book. It seeks to lay a foundation
from which further questions can be asked. It shifts between different
registers and vocabularies, mainly, aesthetics and anthropology. The
vast majority of the contributions have been conceived in response to
the project, complemented by first-time translations of relevant texts.
