The corpse as aesthetic text (Semiotic avatars of necropsy)

Abstract

Taking the artistic performance “Corporal Worlds” made by German Doctor Van Haggens as main reference, an effort is made to interpret the textual fact within some conceptual paths of psychoanalysis. The “museum like” vision of a corpse works as a human body’s mirror through which the spectator satisfies an instinctual drive to death. Fruition, that exceeding feeling coming up from the visual encounter against this kind of aesthetic context, rises a tight relationship with a wish-to-know about being “human being” which to the end, is either accepted or rejected by the spectator’s will.