The documentary tells the story of this innovative and influential art historian. Warburg was not satisfied with the conventional iconographical perspective of art history that confined meanings of images to the time of production; he spent his whole life in exploring the afterlife of image (nachlaben). Warburg sought to combine the fields of art history, anthropology, and religion; for him, each image possessed by a particular 'pathos formula' which gives it a specific allure and is resurrected centuries later in similar attitudes and expressions. Warburg’s story on the reincarnation of image told largely through Warburg’s own words and interviews with leading Warburg scholars, this documentary traces the development of his ideas in the context of his life and times.
There will be a sharing session after the screening by Vennes Cheng. Cheng will talk about her comparative assertion on Aby Warburg’s Der Bilderatlas Mnemosyne and Ha Bik Chuen Archive, the lifetime collection of the late Hong Kong artist. Without the intention of accomplishing a new methodology of iconographical study, Ha’s ways of assorting, storing, and assembling – according to phenomena or essence of things - his image collections interestingly channel dimension for his archival endeavour to keep the open door for constant revisions. In this sense, Warburg’s afterlife of image finds an echo in the eccentricity of Ha’s archive.
Vennes Cheng
Vennes Cheng, Sau Wai is an independent scholar, curator, and researcher based in Hong Kong. She is currently a PhD candidate of art history at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Cheng’s research areas are art archive, archival art practices, mnemonic contingency, and historical revision.
Location
Black Box Studio
14/F Hong Kong Arts Centre 2 Harbour Road Hongkong (SAR)
