Zeitgenössische Kunst zwischen Medium der Menschenrechte und ihrer normativen (Neu)Erschaffung. Ariella Azoulay und die Performanz der Menschenrechte durch das Bild

This essay sketches an overview (for audiences also beyond art history) a range of relations between art and human rights. From appeal, keeping a cause in public discourse, educating, sensitisation and giving example, the range of possibilities - which I propose as a continuum - extends to research, restitution, reparation, art and artists as shields and new "instituting". Examples come from Documenta 14, canonical cases, as well as (Northern) Irish practices. In terms of performative practices, the essay takes its cue from Ariella Azoulay to consider art as capable of re-conceptualising legal categories, such as human rights. It thus concludes with a claim for the relevance of art, its histories and institutions in the debates surrounding human rights.