2013 Program
EVENT #17
Bernard-Henri Lévy
Between art, philosophy and science: the adventures of truth
What relation do art, philosophy and science stand in? Are they rivals or allies in the quest for the truth, or are they truths themselves? What is the artist’s and the philosopher’s ultimate horizon? How philosophy and science influence (or interfere with) art and conversely is still hard to tell, but the discussion has been going on for centuries. In connection with the exhibition on this issue that he has curated for the Fondation Maeght in Saint-Paul de Vence, Bernard-Henri Lévy examines the rivalries and the alliances between painting and philosophy referring to Plato’s indictment of art—an imitation of reality that can in turn be imitated in the world of ideas. “A philosopher”, Lévy wrote, “should draw on the example of art and painting. Art is no longer a mere cultural phenomenon, much less an ornamental one, it is no longer an ornament of truth: art lies at the foundation and at the end of everything”. The Platonic approach is thus reversed and art regains its central role.
the philosopher, writer and journalist, has studied at Paris’ École Normale Supérieure under Jacques Derrida and Louis Althusser. He started his academic career in 1971, first in Strasbourg, then at the École Normale Supérieure. From 1971 to 1973 he was an advisor to the French President François Mitterrand. He has contributed to Le Nouvel Observateur and Les Temps Modernes, and in 1990 he founded the journal La règle du jeu. Between the late Seventies and the Eighties, in his writings he defended the intellectual’s role in analyzing contremporary history and politics. His books include among others: Elogio degli intellettuali (1987), Questioni di principio (1987) published in Italian by Spirali; Il diavolo in testa (Mondadori, 1990); Il secolo di Sartre (il Saggiatore, 2004); Chi ha ucciso Daniel Pearl? (2003) and American Vertigo (2007) published by Rizzoli; Nemici Pubblici (with M. Houellebecq, Bompiani, 2009); Les aventures de la vérité. Peinture et philosophie: un récit (Maeght/Grasset, 2013).
EVENT #18
Stefano Bartezzaghi, Massimo Recalcati
To inherit or to be creative? Art in the time of disoriented generations
