Materiality and The Afterlife of Artworks

For Ana Lupas, the artwork does not occur just once; it repeats itself. The Romanian artist, born in 1940, has been working for several decades to resurrect her actions from the 1970s, for which her production appears to be intellectually interwoven to the concept of Nachleben. This chapter examines Lupas's use of various materials to bring these ephemeral works into existence beyond their initial occurrence. It will inquire into the materiality of these actions, given that they have survived through photography, and study the incessant transformation of their meaning resulting from the change of materials.