Art Metropole

#05083

Mengele's Skull: The Advent of a Forensic Aesthetics

Date

2012

Publisher

Portikus

Format

Artists' Books

Details

Softcover

Size

11.2 × 17.3 × 1 cm

Length

88 

This publication discusses the forensic identification of the remains of infamous Nazi-doctor Joseph Mengele after his exhumation in 1985. The forensic investigation and identification of Mengele’s remains marks a transition. From now on, the “era of the witness”, centered around human testimony and trauma, gradually gives way to an “era of forensics”, in which things – such as bones – act as the witnesses of past events. How do bones act as witnesses? What role do technologies such as 3D scans and biomedical data play in the making of forensic evidence? And what is the role and politics of images?

With texts by Thomas Keenan and Eyal Weizman. Portikus Catalogue #175.