Art, Theatricality, Postmodernity: About Agnieszka Sosnowska’s Book

Mateusz Salwa

Abstract

This article presents Agnieszka Sosnowska’s book Sztuka znikania: Teatralność w czasach ponowoczesnych [The Art of Disappearance: Theatricality in Postmodern Times] (Krakow 2019) devoted to the theatrical character of postmodern cultural and social reality. According to Sosnowska, the categories of theater, theatricality and theatricalization can serve as useful tools for analyzing and interpreting the postmodern human condition.  At the same time, she argues that it is the non-theatrical reality that constitutes the most appropriate area of reflection on theatricality. She analyzes selected works and artistic phenomena in which she sees an indication of theatricalized postmodern reality, namely the disappearance of various convictions determining the modern attitude towards the ideas of the subject, the world and art: American minimalism, the work of the Brazilian artist Hélio Oiticica, Andy Warhol’s Factory and Krystian Lupa’s theater production Factory 2, Tadeusz Kantor’s emballages and Christian Boltanski’s project The Life of C. B. The review raises questions provoked by Sosnowska’s book, concerning, among other things, the author’s approach to her topic, which, according to the reviewer, is based on an under-defined concept of theatricality, a very specific understanding of postmodernity, and a not-quite-thought-out combination of the historical and philosophical perspectives.