Structure, Figure, Contour

In light of a conception of life as it developed in the 19th and 20th centuries, representations that follow a traditional mode of mimesis lose their self-evidence. At the same time, a crisis of representation can be observed in painting and graphics, as images break with the perspective and anatomical rules of spatial and bodily representation. New abstracting image concepts emerge in both the life sciences and the arts, operating in generative, constructive, and concrete ways to visualize the systemic functioning of the organism. How do sciences, arts, and theories engage with life, which is characterized by virtualities, singularities, and events? This anthology addresses these philosophical, art-historical, and scientific constellations, with the work of Gilles Deleuze and his concept of inorganic vitality serving as an important guide. It concerns structures that testify to the living, the release of a line that is no longer a contour, and the creation of a figure beyond figuration.