Page - 193 - in Limina - Grazer theologische Perspektiven, Volume 3:1

193 | www.limina-graz.eu Roberta Maierhofer | „Clash of Generations“ oder gelebte Intergenerationalität: Visages Villages (FR 2017) | BIOGRAPHY Roberta Maierhofer, Professorin der Amerikanistik und Leiterin des Zent- rums für Inter-Amerikanische Studien (C.IAS) der Universität Graz, beschäf- tigt sich als Kulturwissenschaftlerin mit Fragen der kulturellen Repräsen- tation der materiellen Realität, insbesondere mit dem Thema Alter und Al- tern sowie der Interamerikanistik. E-Mail: roberta.maierhofer@uni-graz.at | KEY WORDS Anokritizismus; Dimensionalität; elementare Hermeneutik; Gegenwär- tigkeit des Lebens; Gestaltung der Existenz; kulturelle Repräsentation; Lebens alter Public presence of the topic of “aging” as a merely socio-political, medical, or economic issue as well as the dominant cultural discussions of “age” as an in- dividual and social burden have contributed to dominant ageist stereotypical notions by ignoring the influence of strong life-affirming expressions of tem- porality as an integral part of our existence. Cultural representations of inter- generational relationships as presented in the film Visages Villages (FR 2017) by Agnès Varda, for example, provide through its art form an expression of indi- vidual authenticity that allows an expression of what it means to construct one’s life in a constant process of continuity and change, thus understanding our lives as individually and socially constructed. A joint art project – Faces, Places – by Varda and the photo artist JR is presented as a process of visualization and tem- porary expressions of individual authenticity. The interaction of two art forms – photography and film – allows for a hermeneutic expression of the presence of our human existence, both in art and life. Categories such as “youth” and “age” are, therefore, meaningless both for the individual as well as society in general, but can be taken as challenges for the individual creation of a meaningful life. The willingness to engage in life through art allows for an understanding of our lives in the matrix of time and experience. Through an anocritical approach the visual translation of human experience into film and photography can let us ex- perience life through art as a life-appropriate expression of what it means to live in different stages of our existence.