A Rose in the Forgotten Paradise - The Heteronymical Anonymity of João Delgado: towards political solidarity among the different selves.

Abstract

The following thesis is about the work of the Sala-Manca group, a group of two Argentinean born artists based in Jerusalem, Israel, one of whom is the author of this thesis. Over the past twenty years the group has developed projects that are characterized by cross cultural and intertextual references, use of fiction, translation of “absent originals” and the use of heteronyms (fictitious persona) and heteronymic platforms. This thesis considers the place of the individual in relation to the collective; the place of the collective in the construction and deconstruction of the I; and the political implications both in the artistic text and at the authorship level. I approach their/our work through the concepts of multiplicity, plurality, collectivity and collaboration combining contemporary theories dealing with the implications of the split self (Deleuze and Guattari's schizoanalysis), Nancy’s singular-plural and Glissant’s multiplicity. I argue that the search for diffused authorship and multiplicity is a diasporic point of departure for the artists to deal with Israeli politics and reality. Moreover, the thesis seeks to examine the boundaries of the search for de-centered authorship. The thesis is interdisciplinary and combines methodologies from art history, cultural studies, philosophy, literary studies, ethnography and performance studies.