저항적 초국가주의와 반-인종차별주의: 블랙 오디오 필름 컬렉티브의 <핸즈워드 노래들>을 통해서 나타난《도큐멘타 11》의 정치적-미학적인 변형에 관하여

Abstract

Art traverses borders and nowhere is this more apparent than on the mega exhibition from Germany known as Documenta. By repurposing the Black Audio Film Collective’s essay film Handsworth Songs (dir. John Akomfrah, 1986) to installation art in the 2002 Documenta 11 series, I argue that notions of transnationalism uproots meaning and discourse about racial discrimination for future retrospection in our racialized global society, sparking a cross-continental dialogue in the process. A second concern in this essay is the “trans-media” modulations of BAFC’s essay film format ― an elastic mode of filmmaking and storytelling ― particularly in its “rethinking” of politico-aesthetic content. My ultimate contention is that the transformation of the essay film to that of installation art in Documenta 11 is still irrevocably indexical, precisely because it occupies a new but stable role: “transmitter” of mixed culture and mixed history in gallery rather than theatrical (or television) exhibition.