L’articolo è l’estratto di un più ampio lavoro ancora in corso. Come Michel Foucault e Pierre Hadot, ognuno dalla propria postazione storico-teorica, ci hanno ricordato, la filosofia antica, ed in particolare quella ellenistica con i cinici e gli stoici, non era solo un discorso ma una concreta pratica di vita, un comportamento esistenziale proposto come modello per tutti coloro che intendevano raggiungere l’arete. Il testimone di questa “arte della vita” −è la tesi di fondo di questo contributo− non è stato (...) però storicamente raccolto dalla filosofia moderna −impersonale, tecnicistica, professionalizzata− ma dall’ètimo stesso delle correnti più significative delle arti moderno-contemporanee, impegnate non a produrre l’“opera d’arte” nel senso classico-tradizonale del termine, ma a proporre pratiche e modelli di vita creativi. L’esempio che qui abbiamo trascelto riguarda la pedagogia teatrale del famoso regista polacco Jerzy Grotowski. (shrink)

A proper reflection about the music in the masses era can develop itself only if it’s interwoven with the media totalitarianism which seems to be the fate of our times. Beyond the ideology and the fashion of “contamination” that leeds towards a levelling of values, it’s much better to sharpen instead the real difference between the distinct practices of listening, without academic prejudices but also without misleading homologations. Neither puritanisms nor false transgressions: classical music and pop music must be received (...) iuxta propria principia , each of them along its own specific language. (shrink)

The essay tries to individuate three grounds on which a certain historical persistence of the aura − after its Walter Benjamin’s declaration of death − can be noticed and synthetically analyzed. On a first level, one can recall the intertwining of the sphere of the Sacred with the modern-contemporary figure of the Artist who, as a charismatic magician, gives artistic status to whatever object or event. On a second plane, we can find the auratic fetishism and enchantment whom nowadays the (...) Technique is surrounded by, so that a sort of ultratechnological hypnosis is approaching our times. The third issue is concerning a careful re-reading of the notion of Verweilen (lingering, hesitation) taken from Hans-Georg Gadamer’s aesthetics and made use of for an examination of the relationship between Art and Life. (shrink)

The essay tries to individuate three grounds on which a certain historical persistence of the aura − after its Walter Benjamin’s declaration of death − can be noticed and synthetically analyzed. On a first level, one can recall the intertwining of the sphere of the Sacred with the modern-contemporary figure of the Artist who, as a charismatic magician, gives artistic status to whatever object or event. On a second plane, we can find the auratic fetishism and enchantment whom nowadays the (...) Technique is surrounded by, so that a sort of ultratechnological hypnosis is approaching our times. The third issue is concerning a careful re-reading of the notion of Verweilen (lingering, hesitation) taken from Hans-Georg Gadamer’s aesthetics and made use of for an examination of the relationship between Art and Life. (shrink)