If This is a Man: a practice lead enquiry into questions of Authenticity, Jewishness and Masculinity

如果这是一个男人：一项以实践为导向的对真实性、犹太性和男子气概问题的调查将为一个新兴的艺术写作领域做出贡献，该领域将把自己定位在文学、表演和当代艺术实践的交叉点上。这项研究是由我作为一名艺术家的工作推动的，我将写作理解为一种实践形式，包括表演性的诗歌文本、展览、活动和雕塑物品。研究的中心问题是探索和发展一种哀悼诗学。这个项目的重要性是在政治冲突加剧的时候出现的。虽然最后一批大屠杀幸存者正在死亡，但极右翼运动和反犹太主义和法西斯主义的事件一直在增加。这个项目背后的紧迫性是进一步了解作为一种生产方式的艺术研究如何有助于对抗这种影响。同样，全球男性自杀人数也在增加，因此，至关重要的是要问，是什么叙事、空间和机会导致了这一统计数字，可以做些什么来改变这一点？在完成这个项目时，我将利用我作为散居海外的犹太第三代成员的特殊个人历史身份，将这些移民的历史作为我的研究交叉的支点。李维的文本为这个项目的追求提供了一个基本的出发点，将一种特殊的情感情感与了解历史事件的紧迫感结合在一起，为思考我们当代的政治和社会环境提供了一个平台。哀歌诗学一词提出了一种激进的开放的方法论，包括小说化、自传、诗歌、理论分析和精神分析的使用，以及在表演和展览制作中使用亲密和在场。其目的是创造出既脆弱又诚实的作品，同时保持高度的智力严谨性。核心问题围绕着真实性、遗产、表观遗传、创伤、哀悼和男子气概的构建等概念。特别是，我打算调查证词的政治和诗学，探索集体记忆的想法，将它们与见证、哀悼和悲伤的行为联系在一起。这项研究从保罗·塞兰和雅克·德里达对他在有问题的主权国家中的作品的分析开始，进入路易斯·祖科夫斯基、耐利·萨克斯、弗雷德·莫滕和玛吉·纳尔逊的作品。这一追求与对沃尔特·本杰明、贝尔·胡克斯和汉娜·阿伦特作品的持续研究相结合。我还将探索表观遗传的科学领域，该领域研究创伤和历史事件对DNA构成的影响。最近这项研究是在大屠杀幸存者身上进行的，这表明他们的创伤的影响在基因构成中代代相传。这项研究与W·G·塞巴尔德的《奥斯特利茨和移民》以及克里斯蒂安·博尔坦斯基的工作相交。这些探索都与自传的问题有关，争论是否有可能在不了解导致一个人的地位、安全和位置的迁徙和事件的情况下，真实地理解一个人的经历？

If This Is A Man: A practice led enquiry into questions of Authenticity, Jewishness and Masculinity will offer a contribution to an emerging field of art-writing that positions itself at the intersections of literature, performance, and contemporary art practice. The research is driven by my work as an artist that understands writing as a form of practice and includes performative poetic texts, exhibitions, events, and sculptural objects. The central research questions seek to investigate and develop a poetics of lamentation. The significance of this project comes at a time of heightened conflicting politics. Whilst the last Holocaust survivors are dying, far-right movements and episodes of anti-Semitism and fascism have been increasing. The urgency behind this project is to further the understanding of how artistic research as a mode of production can contribute to combatting such affects. Similarly, there has also been an increase in global male suicide, as such it is vital to ask, what are the narratives, spaces and opportunities that is causing this statistic and what can be done to change it? In achieving this project, I will draw upon my particular personal historical identity as a third-generation member of Jewish diaspora, using the histories of these migrations as the fulcrum around which my research intersects.Levi's text acts a foundational departure point for the pursuit of this project, combining a particular emotional sentiment with the urgency to understand historical events, producing a platform for contemplating our contemporary political and social climate. The term poetics of lamentation proposes radical openness as a methodology, which encompasses the use of fictionalisation, autobiography, poetry, theoretical analysis and psychoanalysis, in conjunction with the uses of intimacy and presence in performance and exhibition making. The aim is to create work that is vulnerable and honest in combination whilst maintaining a high degree of intellectual rigour. The core questions revolve around notions of authenticity, heritage, epigenetic inheritance, trauma, mourning and constructs of masculinity. In particular I intend to investigate the politics and poetics of testimony, exploring ideas of collective memory, tying them to the act of witnessing, mourning and grief. This research starts with Paul Celan and Jacques Derrida's analysis of his works in Sovereignties in Question, moving into the works of Louis Zukofsky, Nelly Sachs, Fred Moten and Maggie Nelson. This pursuit is combined with an on-going study of the writings of Walter Benjamin, bell hooks, and Hannah Arendt. I will also explore the scientific field of epigenetic inheritance, which studies the effects of trauma and historical events upon the make-up of DNA. Most recently this research was conducted on survivors of the Holocaust, suggesting that the effects of their trauma had been passed down through generations in the genetic make-up. This research intersects with W.G Sebald's Austerlitz and The Emigrants as well the work of Christian Boltanski. These explorations are attached to questions of auto-biography, debating whether it is possible to authentically understand one's experiences without understanding the migrations and events that lead to one's position, security and place?