With contributions from
Max Böhner, Sascha Förster, Stefan Heinz, Michael Kleine, Antje Krause-Wahl, Roman Lemberg, Kathi Loch, Joanna Olchawa, Thomas Pöpper, Julia Saviello, Astrid Schenka, Andrew Sofer, Miriam Volmert and Birgit Wiens
The gun on the wall in Chekhov's plays, the hammer in medieval passion plays, the shield in the early modern tournament: objects accompany and enable actions, especially within a production by actors on a 'stage' and in front of an audience. This connection has so far been recognized and questioned primarily by prop research in theater and film studies. While the focus was initially on the semiotic character of props, in recent years their materiality and their meaning as independent actors have increasingly been discussed. The volume begins here and attempts to demonstrate the potential of art history and art historical instruments as well as to broaden perspectives in dialogue with other academic disciplines.
The volume's contributions revolve around the materiality and mediality of the props, their production aesthetics, their spatial staging and the stages on which this takes place, but also - based on the reception aesthetics - their relationship to the viewer. Both objects that were used in theatrical contexts and representations of their performative use are examined; In addition to real places, imaginary stages, such as those in paintings and texts, come into view; and in addition, storage locations such as the fundus and the museum are taken into account, in which props are staged in their own unique way and appear as protagonists of their own story.
