New Perspectives Talk | “Performing Gestures, Enacting Sites”

"Performing Gestures, Enacting Sites—Gesture and Its Affective, Musical, Performative, and Emotional Iterations Throughout Visual and Performing Arts"

This presentation by Monika Weiss, professor of art in the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts and affiliate professor of performing arts in Arts & Sciences, will explore the notion of gesture by focusing on works she selected from the Kemper Art Museum’s collection. Moving within and beyond the traditional boundaries of the visual arts toward an understanding of pictorial, sonic, filmic, and embodied sites and events, Weiss will refer to ancient Greek tragedy and the concept of energeia—the powerful, vivid presentation of action that creates an immediate reality and intense feeling for the audience. This program is part of the Kemper Art Museum's New Perspectives series and Weiss’s spring 2026 seminar, "Beyond Words, Beyond Images: Representation After History," which focuses on art and public space.