Subversion of Reality and Rituals

author Željko Kipke
written by Katarina Luketić

 

Mimesis or imitation was the first and is still the best known poetic technique proposed to define the relationship between art and reality. No amendment or revision of this classical formula has been able to affect this unquestionable point of reference in understanding and distinguishing between the world of art and the real world, between the world of imagination and the world of facts, that is, not until modern times. It was only with avant-garde experiments, the rejection of representation and the adoption of fragmented perception that mimesis was banished from virtually all forms of art. This deconstructive process reached its peak with Postmodernism, relying on techniques such as multiplication of reality, whose aim was to lose track of what was the primary reality as a point of reference, or mimesis of mimesis, that is, art’s imitation of art – often using a complex metalanguage – with no reference to reality whatsoever.