Aesthetic Historicity

The relationship between artefacts and archival sources from the past and actors and audiences of the present is theorised in terms of aesthetic historicity. Illustrated by a workshop at the Drottningholm theatre, the practical experiences are transformed into a theory, which includes arguments by Arendt, Postlewait, Derrida, Wiles, Jameson, and Brecht. The theoretical model takes into consideration the artistic, intellectual, and societal impulses of periods that separate the past from the present. It is also shown how aesthetic historicity can be used as analytical and/or practical tools. Aesthetic Historicity thus represents a theory, a model as well as a method.