Unreliable witnesses and coming outs
- Essay
- 2016
Coming out is an act of sharing and communication, through which the political-ideological location of bodies and spaces within a collective consciousness, called the public sphere, is potentially changed. By appearing and speaking before others. It is a testimony.
But to the same extent that the act of this testimony is an act that affects the public sphere, the testimony also affects the witness himself. Coming-out is a form of the performative documentary. It does not simply represent reality, but changes it.
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Published in the volume
"Witnesses in the arts".
Edited by
Sybille Krämer, Sibylle Schmidt
Wilhelm Fink, 2016
Further contributions by
Sylvia Sasse, Ludger Schwarte, Sybille Krämer, Heike Schlie, Markus Rautzenberg, Sigrid Weigel, Thomas Weitin, Gianna Frölicher, Sibylle Schmidt, Aurélia Kalisky, Luisa Banki and Michael Bachmann
The book "Witnesses in the arts" is avalable through ZfL Berlin.