Watching oneself live

: contemporary art negotiating the temporality of déja vu

Abstract

This research combines a theoretical conceptualization of the current global temporal paradigm with the analysis of works of contemporary visual art. The overarching temporality of the postmodern is addressed through the concept of déjà vu (Virno) and is defined as a temporal regime within which the present occludes the future and is experienced as a repetition of the past. The state of déjà vu translates into an apathetic perception of reality, the feeling of being acted upon and watching oneself live. The thesis is prompted by two lines of inquiry: on the one hand, it aims to analyze how the current predominant temporality is understood by means of contemporary visual artistic practices. Drawing on the theory of tertiary retentions (Stiegler), it foregrounds a techno-logical understanding of the déjà vu perspective that highlights its time- and memory-related components. Consequently, it endeavors to juxtapose a blind use of digital technology and its negative consequences with a conscious and creative engagement with the works of art that allows one to access the critical potential of a conscious relation to what Stiegler merged under the term technics. On the other hand, by way of a detailed close reading of selected artworks, this thesis seeks to trace how the temporality of déjà vu is critically interfered with and debated via visual art in favor of a less rigid, more individuated paradigm. The study therefore argues that an equally active engagement with the modes of the past, present, and future is required to intensify the feeling of belonging to an epoch numbed by the déjà vu condition. Artist’s disobedience to its restrictive contingencies is approached in three instances. First, through the installations and mix-media exhibitions Heritage Studies (2015)/ Material (2011) by Iman Issa and Por Ser A Terra Muito Calmosa (2021) by Rouzbeh Akhbari, it is tackled in regard to how to navigate one’s relation to the past. Then, via artistic projects of Feminist Utopian Spaces Lexicon (2018) by Asli Serbest&Mona Mahall and Tuesday or September or the End / The Meaning of Life (2022) by Hannah Black, the study investigates how to form new projections for the future. Finally, together with the performative exhibition Free Gestures (2018) by Ula Sickle and Egor Tsvetkov’s film Something is Falling Down (2018), it argues for a teleopoietic affinity with the present that holds against temporal acceleration offering a proactive account of temporality.

Date of Award	13 Dec 2024
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Sponsors	Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia
Supervisor	Luísa Santos (Supervisor)