ABSTRACT
In this chapter, we consider a variety of performative engagements with political dimensions of life and death in order to expand the discussion on Russian biopower. Our theoretical starting point is the performative nature of representations (Stengel and Nabers 2019, 259). We treat these representations as aesthetic phenomena which are critically important in studying biopolitics (Williams 2018, 888). Considering the changing nature of sovereignty, one may argue that nowadays “representation mutates into performance (understood in the theatrical, or, better yet, the television sense), the concept of the public, as opposed to the private, is transformed, in turn, into a public represented by the media” (Esposito 2019, 321).
