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Chapter 5 - The Making of an Aura

from Part I - Our Auschwitz: Grotowski's Akropolis

Magda Romanska
Foreword by
Kathleen Cioffi
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Summary

In his famous 1935 essay “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction,” Walter Benjamin defines the concept of what he calls an “aura of the work of art” as “that which withers in the age of mechanical reproduction.” Mechanical reproduction strips the work of art of its aura because it “substitutes a plurality of copies for a unique existence.” The aura, Benjamin argues, is inevitably connected to the ritualistic, religious aspect of the work of art:

Originally the contextual integration of art in tradition found its expression in the cult. We know that the earliest art works originated in the service of a ritual – first the magical, then the religious kind. It is significant that the existence of the work of art with reference to its aura is never entirely separated from its ritual function. In other words, the unique value of the “authentic” work of art has its basis in ritual, the location of its original use value.

Benjamin separates film from theatre, arguing that the theatrical event preserves the aura, while the cinematic one destroys it. Film is easily available and reproducible, while the theatrical experience, by necessity, is singular and of limited availability. Benjamin writes:

The aura which, on the stage, emanates from Macbeth, cannot be separated for the spectators from that of the actor. However, the singularity of the shot in the studio is that the camera is substituted for the public. Consequently, the aura that envelops the actor vanishes, and with it the aura of the figure he portrays.

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The Post-traumatic Theatre of Grotowski and Kantor
History and Holocaust in 'Akropolis' and 'Dead Class'
 , pp. 82 - 85
Publisher: Anthem Press
Print publication year: 2012

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