Elektra

This book is a sculpture, a collage, a multiply staged re-reading. Using a copy of Nietzsche’s The Birth of Tragedy as the basis for her palimpsest, Elisabeth von Samsonow, philosopher and artist, writes her new story onto the pages of the text: that of her Elektra statue and her Elektra project. Her work and action photos on Elektra – Die Geburt des Mädchens aus dem Geiste der Plastik (Elektra – The birth of the girl out of the spirit of the statue), as well as the passages from her book Anti- Elektra, are entered into the book pages as if onto pages of an album; Nietzsche’s pages of text are painted over with white paint, and appear covered over by a white transparent veil. Samsonow pre-Oedipalizes Nietzsche, in a multifaceted, “exciting” artist book that drifts together in many directions (=ELEKTRA: excitement x electrical power x time, p. 67). Elisabeth von Samsonow ist artist and professor of philosophy and historical anthropology of art at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna.