Art, History, and Anachronic Interventions Since 1990 This book examines contemporary artistic practices since 1990 that engage with, depict, and conceptualise history. Examining artworks by Kader Attia, Yael Bartana, Zarina Bhimji, Michael Blum, Matthew Buckingham, Tacita Dean, Harun Farocki and Andrei Ujica, Omer Fast, Andrea Geyer, Liam Gillick and Philippe Parreno, Hiwa K, Amar Kanwar, Bouchra Khalili, Deimantas Narkevičius, Wendelien van Oldenborgh, Walid Raad, Dierk Schmidt, Erika Tan, and Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Art, History, and Anachronic Interventions since 1990 undertakes a thorough methodological reexamination of the contribution of art to history writing and to its theoretical foundations. The analytical instrument of anachrony comes to the fore as an experimental method, as will (para)fic- tion, counterfactual history, testimonies, ghosts and spectres of the past, utopia, and the “juridification” of history. Eva Kernbauer argues that contemporary art—developing its own conceptual approaches to temporality and to historical research—offers fruitful strategies for creating historical consciousness and perspectives for political agency. The book will be of interest to scholars working in art history, historiography, and contemporary art. Eva Kernbauer is Chair of Art History at the University of Applied Arts, Vienna. Cover: Raqs Media Collective, Escapement (detail), 2009. 27 clocks, high gloss alumin- ium with LED lights, four flat screen monitors, video and audio looped. Courtesy Raqs Media Collective and Frith Street Gallery, London. Photo Alex Delfanne Studies in Art Historiography Series Editor: Richard Woodfield, University of Birmingham The aim of this series is to support and promote the study of the history and practice of art historical writing focusing on its institutional and conceptual foundations, from the past to the present day in all areas and all periods. Besides addressing the major innova- tors of the past it also encourages re-thinking ways in which the subject may be written in the future. It ignores the disciplinary boundaries imposed by the Anglophone expres- sion 'art history' and allows and encourages the full range of enquiry that encompasses the visual arts in its broadest sense as well as topics falling within archaeology, anthro- pology, ethnography and other specialist disciplines and approaches. Sculptural Materiality in the Age of Conceptualism International Experiments in Italy Marin R. Sullivan Comparativism in Art History Edited by Jaś Elsner Constructing the Viennese Modern Body Art, Hysteria and the Puppet Nathan J. Timpano Messerschmidt’s Character Heads Maddening Sculpture and the Writing of Art History Michael Yonan Time in the History of Art Temporality, Chronology, and Anachrony Edited by Dan Karlholm and Keith Moxey New Narratives of Russian and East European Art Between Traditions and Revolutions Edited by Galina Mardilovich and Maria Taroutina Making Art History in Europe after 1945 Edited by Noemi de Haro-García, Patricia Mayayo and Jesús Carrillo Millard Meiss, American Art History, and Conservation From Connoisseurship to Iconology and Kulturgeschichte Jennifer Cooke New Histories of Art in the Global Postwar Era Multiple Modernisms Edited by Flavia Frigeri and Kristian Handberg Art, History, and Anachronic Interventions Since 1990 Eva Kernbauer For more information about this series, please visit: https://www.routledge.com/ Studies-in-Art-Historiography/book-series/ASHSER2250 Art, History, and Anachronic Interventions Since 1990 Eva Kernbauer First published 2022 by Routledge 605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158 and by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2022 Eva Kernbauer The right of Eva Kernbauer to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Open access: Except where otherwise noted, this work is licenced under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 4.0 Unported Licence (CC BY-NC 4.0). A PDF of this book can be obtained on https://www.oapen.org. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Kernbauer, Eva, author. Title: Art, history, and anachronic interventions since 1990 / Eva Kernbauer. Description: New York : Routledge, 2022. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2021021873 (print) | LCCN 2021021874 (ebook) | Subjects: LCSH: Art and history. | History in art. | Art, Modern--20th century-- Themes, motives. | Art, Modern--21st century--Themes, motives. Classification: LCC N72.H58 K47 2022 (print) | LCC N72.H58 (ebook) | DDC 709--dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021021873 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021021874 ISBN: 978-0-367-76325-1 (hbk) ISBN: 978-0-367-76326-8 (pbk) ISBN: 978-1-003-16641-2 (ebk) DOI: 10.4324/9781003166412 Typeset in Sabon by SPi Technologies India Pvt Ltd (Straive) Research results from: Austrian Science Fund (FWF): P 27877. Published with the support of Austrian Science Fund (FWF): PUB-787 and of University of Applied Arts, Vienna. Contents List of Figures vii Acknowledgements ix Introduction 1 Art and History in a Time out of Joint 4 The Historiographic Turn in Contemporary Art 13 Shared Contemporaneity in the Global Present 17 1 Art As Historiography 27 Depicting History 28 Understanding History 35 Performing History 39 Creating History 42 2 Ready for History: The Explosion of the Documentary 50 History, Now: Harun Farocki and Andrei Ujica, Videograms of a Revolution (1992) 52 3 The Crux of Authorship 71 The “I” in History: Tacita Dean 71 History by Proxy: Erika Tan and/or Halimah 76 Geography, History, Language: Dialogue and Diglossia in Bouchra Khalili’s Foreign Office (2015) 83 4 Archiving, Recording 90 Nothing to See Here: Walid Raad and the Negative Documents of The Atlas Group 90 The Archive in Excess: Matthew Buckingham 95 At the Bottom of History: Dierk Schmidt, SIEV-X—On a Case of Intensified Refugee Politics(2001–2005) 100 vi Contents 5 Showing, Telling, Picturing 111 Gathering Evidence: Amar Kanwar, The Lightning Testimonies (2007) 111 I Will Always Be Here: Zarina Bhimji’s Out of Blue (2002) and Yellow Patch (2011) 124 Trapped in Narration: Omer Fast, Nostalgia (2009) 130 6 Performing 140 History on Stage: Wendelien van Oldenborgh’s Maurits Script (2006), Instruction (2009), and Cinema Olanda (2017) 140 The Medium Film: Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Primitive (2009) 148 7 Counterfactual History, Parafiction, and the Critical Ends of Utopia 160 Sensing Possibility, Sensing Probability: Michael Blum’s A Tribute to Safiye Behar (2005) 160 History in Reverse: Yael Bartana’s … And Europe Will Be Stunned (2007–11) 163 8 Testing Truth: Tribunal, Script, Trial 173 History as Trial: Andrea Geyer, Criminal Case 40/61: Reverb (2009) 174 History as Script: Philippe Parreno and Liam Gillick, The Trial of Pol Pot (1998) 178 Truth Distorted in Perspective: Hiwa K, View from Above (2017) 181 9 Anachronism and Anachrony 186 Real and Existing Anachronism: Deimantas Narkevičius’s His-story (1998), Once in the XX Century (2004), The Head (2007), and Into the Unknown (2009) 186 Kader Attia, The Repair from Occident to Extra-Occidental Cultures (2012) 194 10 No End of History: Art and History in the Anthropocene 202 Bibliography 210 Index 240 Figures 0.1 Danh Võ (left to right), Lot 20. Two Kennedy Administration Cabinet Room Chairs, 2013; Lot 20. Two Kennedy Administration Cabinet Room Chairs, 2013 9 0.2 Hannes Böck, Five Sculptures from Egyptian Sanctuaries at Museo del Sannio, Benevento: n. 252 Crouched Baboon, Diorite; n. 253 Falcon, Amphibolite; n. 255 Falcon, Gabbro; n. 256 Crouched Baboon, Diorite; n. 280 Apis Bull, Diorite, 2013, still image 10 1.1 Tomas Schmit, Geschichte, 1979 32 1.2 Jeremy Deller, The Battle of Orgreave, 2001 41 2.1 Harun Farocki and Andrei Ujica, Videograms of a Revolution, 1992, still image 57 2.2 Harun Farocki, Interface, 1995, still image 60 2.3 Harun Farocki and Andrei Ujica, Videograms of a Revolution, 1992, still image 64 2.4 Harun Farocki and Andrei Ujica, Videograms of a Revolution, 1992, still image 66 3.1 Tacita Dean, Pie, 2003, still image 72 3.2 Tacita Dean, Beautiful Sheffield, from The Russian Ending, 2001 73 3.3 Erika Tan, APA JIKA, The Mis-Placed Comma, 2017, still image 80 3.4 Erika Tan, The Weavers Lament. Part I: Performing Pattern / Part II: Mathematical Wefting / Part III: Tensions in the Warp / Part IV: Supplementary Erasure, 2016, installation view 81 3.5 Unknown artist, Portion of a hand loom exhibited at the Malaya Pavilion, British Empire Exhibition, Wembley, 1924, installation view, Erika Tan, The Weavers Lament, 2016 82 3.6 Bouchra Khalili, The Archipelago, 2015 84 3.7 Bouchra Khalili, Foreign Office, 2015, still image 85 4.1 The Atlas Group/ Walid Raad, Missing Lebanese Wars (Notebook Volume 72), p. 132, 1996–2002 91 4.2 The Atlas Group/ Walid Raad, Missing Lebanese Wars (Notebook Volume 72), p. 145, 1996–2002 92 4.3 Matthew Buckingham, The Truth About Abraham Lincoln, 1992, still image 96 4.4 Matthew Buckingham, Situation Leading To A Story, 1999, installation view 97 4.5 Dierk Schmidt, Not A Seascape (I), 2002 100 viii Figures 4.6 Dierk Schmidt, Xenophobe—Shipwreck Scene, Dedicated to the 353 Drowned Asylum Seekers Died on the