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Abstract
This chapter examines the framing conditions of aesthetic practice. Through the help of the term “parergonality” we take a closer look at the complete set of conditions that are necessary for the appearance and performance of artworks, such as the room of a museum, the stage, the framing of a film scene, or the lighting. This term refers to more than accompanying aspects of a presentation. What parergonality also points to is the constitutively relevant ‘how’ of artistic practice and experience, which might be even more significant than what it is dealing with. It is therefore necessary to differentiate between various forms of parergonality in the sense of framework factors. Moreover, artworks often consist of particular framing perspectives, in that they create or problematize certain points of view. Artworks thereby manifest a culture’s or era’s style of thinking, as one might say with Wittgenstein. Thus, in a way that is analogous to “seeing-as,” artworks can be regarded as various forms of “showing-as” through de-framing and re-shaping. I shall exemplify my thoughts through an artwork by Cristo and Jeanne-Claude that sheds light on the performative forms of discursive framing.