The aim is not to establish a method for ferreting out forgeries, unmasking forgers or shedding light on the invented traditions that populate our social world. Rather, it is to examine what the ‘hunt for the authentic’ does to the analytical frameworks of the fields in which evidence is used, including those of disciplines as varied as history, art history, anthropology and archaeology. We will then attempt to understand how the quest for authenticity guides the practices and discourses of social actors: what issues of legitimacy, power relations and practices of sociability does it mobilise? Finally, as a counterpoint, we will ask whether there are spaces where authenticity is not an operative category.

The two study days will take place on :

Image: Detail of an art dealer's stall at the Kermel market in Dakar, July 2022. Copyright: Anaïs Auger-Mathurin