General Practice

Art, according to Elisabeth von Samsonow, is an activity that penetrates all current political and social areas and discusses, changes, and makes adjustments, similar to the general practice of medicine, above all when it proceeds with physical support, when it is studied on the body. Since 2007 Samsonow has developed performances that start with her plastic works, in which sculpture becomes a semaphor and a body double is implemented. At the core of the work is the “mouth opening” – an Egyptian ritual for the creation of a “speaking” statue, which deconstructs the stereotypes within the core language. The body, with its autonomously produced symptoms, speaks its symptom, this being the guiding thesis of the actions and arrangements. The present volume is a collection of Samsonow’s “Saaltexte” [salon texts] and her reworked action photos, as well as texts by Friederike Mayröcker, Suzana Milevska, Felicitas Thun-Hohenstein and Ebadur Rahman.

Elisabeth von Samsonow, professor at the Fine Arts Academy Vienna, is a theologist, philosopher, and artist.