Visualizing autoimmunity : Gerhard Richter’s War Cut 1

The paper explores how contemporary arts can foster a critical approach to media strategies in times of war. By focusing on a corpus of works by German artist Gerhard Richter, the paper advocates to acknowledge a genuine visual thought about the relationship between war and media, articulated by the works of art themselves; among the issues at stake: The second Gulf war; the terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center on September 11; visual montage; text-image relationship. The crucial methodological reference is Greimassian semiotics and image theory.