Bild and Abbild:

some remarks on technique and image in Walter Benjamin

Abstract

The present article aims to revisit the relations that Walter Benjamin establishes between image and technique from the re-reading of the text "The work of art at the time of its technical reproducibility". From the analysis of the second German version of the essay, it is intended to suggest that, despite the massive reception of it, some fundamental elements of his materialist theory of the work of art remain little explored. As regards the materialistic reinterpretation of the History of Aesthetics, the concept of technique has a central role. However, it is in the notion or “second technique” that Benjamin supports his arguments, to the extent that it differentiates two forms of technical image production: Bildand Abbild.