Art: a Cancer Witness Like Any Other?

This research would like to contribute to our understanding of the subjective experience of living with cancer, taking into account the nuances of personal and family history. Having previously witnessed the death from cancer of a relative or a loved one, in the event of falling victim to the same pathology, the subjects of our study now become actors, thus changing their status. They already possess some “knowledge” (savoir) of cancer and their current illness implies a kind of “knowledgeable” rediscovery of this condition. In what way is their experience marked by this “extra piece of knowledge,” that is irreversibly held in their grasp? The change of status raises the question of the subjective path of becoming “one's own witness.” As one of the forms this passage may take, art can be thought of as a possible site of the inscription of this extreme situation and understood as a paradigmatic speech, a privileged path of translating the experience of falling into an abyss, of being drawn out of oneself, and of being deported from one’s own history by a returning ancestor. The encounter with critical illness can therefore lead to the production of an artistic oeuvre, where we distinguish three possible outcomes: “fragmented”, “intoxicated” or “immunizing” art.