Clouds: The Relation of Terror and Terrorism to Aesthetics

Abstract

The article discusses the relation of terror, terrorism and aesthetics in a historical context that seems far too wide: through an inclusion of a historical past that the experience of 9/11 seems to differentiate itself from. The paper starts of comparing the clouds around Hitler’s plane in Leni Riefenstahl’s film The Triumph of the Will (1934) and the clouds of dust in the place of the destroyed Twin Towers of NYC on September 11, 2001. The two images provide a basis for discussing the relations of terror, terrorism, and aesthetics.