Art and politics are related through repetition. Both realms are structured by practices of
repetition and share a common room of sens(e)uality - aesthetics in the emphatic sense of the
word. It is the aesthetics and practices of repetition that reveal the relation between both
realms. This volume proposes to explore aesthetic and cultural phenomena that effect change in
the non-aesthetical realm not so much in spite but precisely because of their being 'mere'
repetitions. Repetition shapes art works through procedures and processes of reproduction
copying depiction or reenactment. As representation of the world mimetic art's relationship
to the political and social world can be conceived as repetition. When can mimetic works of art
nonetheless become a trigger participant in or vehicle for political and social
transformation? How do mimetic practices as diverse as those of the Research Institute Forensic
Architecture the theater of Milo Rau video installations with found footage from social media
and the fictional NSK State address and change regimes of visibility? How can practices such as
performative gender constitution and propaganda which (ostensibly) affirm regimes of
visibility be understood as processes of change through repetition? How do commemorative
cultures and practices of documentation interrelate? How is historical reality produced through
mimesis with a view to an imaginary political future? By exploring works of art from a wide
range of historical periods places media and contexts - from the political thought hidden in
Hegel's Aesthetics through Hélène Cixous's practice of writing difference(s) from contemporary
applied theater through the Gezi Park Uprising in 2013 and from installations of fictional
national museums through to the artistic commemoration of assassinated political activists in
Iran - all contributions in this volume attempt to show how a concept of change through
repetition can help redefine the relationship between art and politics and to enlighten us on
the transformative potential of repetition in 'political art'.
