This volume looks at masking and unmasking as indivisible aspects of the same process. It
gathers articles from a wide range of disciplines and addresses un masking both as a historical
and a contemporary phenomenon. By highlighting the performative dimensions of un masking it
challenges dichotomies like depth and surface authenticity and deception that play a central
role in masks being commonly associated with illusion and dissimulation. The contributions
explore topics such as the relationship between face mask and identity in artistic contexts
ranging from Surrealist photography to video installations and from Modernist poetry to
fin-de-siècle cabaret theater. They investigate un masking as a process of transition and
transformation - be it in the case of the wooden masks of the First Nations of the American
Northwest Coast or of the elaborate costumes and vocal masking of pop icon Lady Gaga. In all of
these instances the act of un masking has the power to simultaneously hide and reveal. It
destabilizes supposedly fixed identities and blurs the lines between the self and the other
the visible and the invisible. The volume offers new perspectives on current debates
surrounding issues such as protective masks in public spaces facial recognition technologies
and colonial legacies in monuments and museums offering insight into what the act of un
masking can mean today. With contributions by Laurette Burgholzer Joyce Cheng Sarah Hegenbart
Bethan Hughes Judith Kemp Christiane Lewe W. Anthony Sheppard Bernhard Siegert Anja
Wächter and Eleonore Zapf.
