The work of Carlo Michelstaedter (1887-1910) is the first analysis of modernist philosophy as analyzed in strict connection with social changes in mass society. Revealing how Michelstaedter was able to unveil the relations between pivotal early-modernist philosophies and social restructurings, The Wreckage of Philosophy examines the ongoing processes of "specialization," "rationalization," and "atomization." The Wreckage of Philosophy points out how Michelstaedter connected the main theoretical expressions of Modernism with the decisive social transformations of the early-twentieth century, taking into consideration the (...) key players of modernist philosophy, such as Friedrich Nietzsche, Henri Bergson, Ernst Mach, and William James. By following Michelstaedter's analysis and strategies, The Wreckage of Philosophy focuses on several intertwined issues: the distinct philosophical positions within the modernist area; the connections between philosophy and modernist literature; the relations between intellectual positions and social upheavals; and the early-twentieth century links among traditional philosophy, critique of language, and epistemology of technique. A complete analysis of Carlo Michelstaedter's philosophy, this book analyses his work as one of the sharpest investigation of the practical and ideological mechanisms that assure social consent. (shrink)

A conversation between the artist Mimmo Paladino, the philosopher and art critic Arthur C. Danto and the curator Demetrio Paparoni on topics such as beauty, icons, projectuality in art, history of art and its supposed end - the main thread being, obviously, Paladino’s entire corpus.

The article retraces Mimmo Paladino’s entire artistic path and tries to identify a characterising trait, although in the innumerable variations of a work that is pluristylistic by its very nature. This trait seems to be “a spirit of South”, the echo of the culture of the Italian South which can be found both in sculptures and paintings that Paladino creates starting from the Eighties.

While walking within the installation, even though moving among its elements, the image cannot really be grasped in its entirety. Hence, Paladino deals with three distincdy contrasting concepts: the part refers to the whole; the part has totality in itself; the part refers only to itself (being unable to take in the totality of the image, the part can only be related to as an autonomous fragment). And the different positions are incompatible because many believe they can experience the whole (...) through the part, ruling out that the world is made up of autonomous fragments. In turn, the idea that reality is made up of fragments independent of one another is inconsistent with the idea that we can grasp the totality. Stele deals with a theme that has been recurrent in Paladinos work since he began working at the end of the 1970s: the world is an intellectual construction that art gives shape to. (shrink)

In this paper I consider the relationship between concept— assuming that it’s embedded in artwork — and visual representation. To this end, I first examine some of Paladino’s artworks considering them as: very classical, expressivist, postmodernist and anti-conceptualist. Finally, I assume the exhibition in Torino is not only a tribute to Philosophy but also an exhortation to reflect on the complicated relationship between art and reality.

Mimmo Paladino: Intanto le faccio un regalo, questa pubblicatone appena uscita per festeggiare i cento anni di Lévi-Strauss. Sono stato molto onorato di essere stato invitato a illustrare “Tristi tropici”, che tra l’altro e un testo che ho sempre amato e leggo continuamente, e stranamente ci ritrovo elementi del mio lavoro. Sergio Givone: Grazie, grazie mille. Ma a dire il vero, questa attinenza non mi stupisce, mi fa subito venire in mente qualcosa che ha a che fare con Don (...) Chisciotte. E cio... (shrink)

No word as ‘silence’ occurs most frequently in tides of paintings by Mimmo Paladino. The silent memories that his paintings opens beyond the vision are less idiomatic than we imagine. On the traces of the origins, Paladino’s painting, would remember the ghosts that come back into the visible. The narrative fable, the phantasmagoria and the linguistics aspects of Paladino’s works, are captured by the EN DO RE cycle of artworks examined in this paper.

Mimmo Paladino’s artistic research is characterized by an interest in the language and the relationship between “individual” and “community”. The idea of “individual” Paladino focuses in his work on is placed in the Mediterranean culture, and carries with itself the request of social emancipation — that can be ascribable to some Marxist topics — and the faith in the magical power. Along this route Paladino meets Ernesto De Martino’s South and Magic, Marcel Mauss and Claude Lévi-Strauss’s works. With the (...) same naturalness he makes coincide his sign with those of Matisse and Beuys, overlaps conceptually Spinoza to Jarry, Giordano Bruno to Beuys by getting the common trait in the transgressive dimension. It would be misleading trying to get a unitary route at all costs because only in the idea of the “encounter” apparently causal, that recalls the impracticable and audacious routes of Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit, we can get the meaning of the Paladino’s contaminations with philosophy. (shrink)

This article aims to investigate the relationship between music and Mimmo Paladino s figurative work throughout his career. Starting as a painter of silence, an artist finding shelter in silence to paint, Paladino then engaged in an increasingly dense dialogue with the art of sounds. He is convinced that the creation of music stemming from tonal harmony is parallel to the creation of the work of art originated from formal harmony, and believes that the elements of his compositions can (...) be compared to counterpoints, notes, intervals, rhythms and musical harmonies. It is a long and complex path that led - and this is recent history - to the two collaborations with the non-musician Brian Eno, whose works this article will extensively dwell on. (shrink)

Ever since the last century art seems to be characterized by a powerful metareflective vocation. The works of Mimmo Paladino represent an effective barrier in this deconstructive movement and allow art to preserve the memory of its own narrative vocation.

A whiteboard has been used during a philosophy lesson and afterwards deserted in the classroom. On the whiteboard the teacher has sketched a sort of brief history of philosophy of art, trying to answer the classical questions “What is an artwork?” and “How to distinguish an artwork from an ordinary object?”. The artist Mimmo Paladino found the whiteboard and decided to transform it in an artwork. How? By fastening on it his Giotto’s head. The whiteboard has hence changed its (...) metaphysical status: now it is a different kind of object from what it was before. (shrink)

A whiteboard has been used during a philosophy lesson and afterwards deserted in the classroom. On the whiteboard the teacher has sketched a sort of brief history of philosophy of art, trying to answer the classical questions “What is an artwork?” and “How to distinguish an artwork from an ordinary object?”. The artist Mimmo Paladino found the whiteboard and decided to transform it in an artwork. How? By fastening on it his Giotto’s head. The whiteboard has hence changed its (...) metaphysical status: now it is a different kind of object from what it was before. (shrink)

A conversation between the artist Mimmo Paladino, the philosopher and art critic Arthur C. Danto and the curator Demetrio Paparoni on topics such as beauty, icons, projectuality in art, history of art and its supposed end - the main thread being, obviously, Paladino’s entire corpus.

From the 1990s until just before his death, the legendary art critic and philosopher Arthur C. Danto carried out extended conversations about contemporary art with the prominent Italian critic Demetrio Paparoni. Their discussions ranged widely over a vast range of topics, from American pop art and minimalism to abstraction and appropriationism. Yet they continually returned to the concepts at the core of Danto’s thinking—posthistory and the end of aesthetics—provocative notions that to this day shape questions about the meaning and future (...) of contemporary art. Art and Posthistory presents these rich dialogues and correspondence, testifying to the ongoing importance of Danto’s ideas. It offers readers the opportunity to experience the intellectual excitement of Danto in person, speculating in a freewheeling yet erudite style. Danto and Paparoni discuss figures such as Andy Warhol, Marcel Duchamp, Franz Kline, Sean Scully, Clement Greenberg, Cindy Sherman, and Wang Guangyi, offering both insightful comments on individual works and sweeping observations about wider issues. On occasion, the artist Mimmo Paladino and the philosopher Mario Perniola join the conversation, enlivening the discussion and adding their own perspectives. The book also features an introductory essay by Paparoni that provides lucid analysis of Danto’s thinking, emphasizing where the two disagree as well as what they learned from each other. (shrink)