Issue 1, 2008

“You Do What You Have to Do”
A Response to Josef Früchtl

Mieke Bal

Biografie

Mieke Bal

Mieke Bal is a cultural theorist, critic, and video artist. Her interests range from classical and biblical antiquity, 17th century to contemporary art and modern literature, feminism, migratory culture, mental illness, and the critique of capitalism. Her many books include a trilogy on political art: Endless Andness (on abstraction) and Thinking in Film (on video installation), both 2013, Of What One Cannot Speak (2010, on sculpture) and A Mieke Bal Reader (2006). Her most recent video project, Madame B, with Michelle Williams Gamaker, is widely exhibited. She is currently working on a film and installation project, Reasonable Doubt, on the miss-encounter of two 17th century geniuses, René Descartes and Queen Kristina of Sweden. She is also writing a book-length study on Nalini Malani's shadow plays.