The Face as Artifact

Sigrid Weigel, Mona Körte, Judith Elisabeth Weiss
Program Sponsorship Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) 2011–2013

The perception, interpretation and reading of faces is critically tied to the search of human expression and identity. The face therefore functions as the human ID. The imaging procedures of the face in the medical sciences, and in literature and art as well, also carry significant semantic weight in the topographical relation of surfaces and depths. A double figuration thereby underlies the mapping of the physiognomy (mimesis) and its symbolic transformation into the visage (poiesis), raising questions about presentation in general. Given the economy of the face in the »Facebook« era, the face and its medialization pose questions regarding its loss and effacement.
This research project understands the face not as a natural, given phenomenon, but rather as an image, drawing or concept, following the historical traces of one of the oldest topoi in art, literature and science.

(Ill.: Michael Druks: »Druksland Physical & Social, 15th January 1974, 11.30 am«, by courtesy of Beardsmore Gallery London, © Michael Druks)