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Portrait of Absence

The Aisthetic Mediality of Empty Chairs

Jirsa, Tomáš

Zeitschrift für Medien- und Kulturforschung, Bd. 7 (2016), Iss. 2: S. 14–29

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Bibliografische Daten

Jirsa, Tomáš

Abstract

This article deals with the mediality of empty chairs in the works by Vincent van Gogh, Richard Weiner, Egon Schiele, Joseph Kosuth and Eugène Ionesco. These empty chairs are explored as aisthetic-affective figures pervading historical periods and cultural boundaries that offer a specific portrait of absence, which is able to intensify the subject despite its physical non-presence. The argument is based on the dialectic process of dis/appearing, posthermeneutics and the theory of the supplement.