Repetitions repeatedly repeated : mimetic desire-ressentiment- and mimetic crisis in Julian Rosefeld's Manifesto (2015)

Abstract

This paper offers an exploration of Julian Rosefeld’s film Manifesto (2015), which is a fascinating amalgamation and interpretation of modernist, avant gardist manifestos. The paper employs the film itself as a hermeneutical framework, especially is use of the rhetorical-hermeneutical device of repetition, and also makes use of René Girard’s mimetic theory. Through this double-hermeneutic, two aims are set out: the first being to offer a way to rethink the meaning of the art manifesto as that modernist genre par excellence and the second being a way to rethink trends in artistic and creative production in general.