Anesthetization

October 1, 2010:

FEATURES – Art + Medicine Dialogues 3raum Anatomietheater Vienna, October 2010 Walter Benjamin, inspired by Luigi Pirandello, compares in The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction (1936) the cameraman with the surgeon (31-32). This comparison has become an integrative part of my project work. The most of us are operators – surgeons and/or cameramen – in Benjamin’s sense, penetrating life conditions with the help of knives and/or cameras. One excellent example of how a visual artist creates social and political situations for the video camera is Artur Zmijewski’s oeuvre. Artur collaborates with me as an advisor… Photograph: Christina Lammer