Re: [-empyre-] What is Bare Life?

[Susana Mendes Silva <arslonga@netcabo.pt>]

On Jul 13, 2006, at 8:11 AM, Aliette wrote:

> I agree mostly with Dirk's intervention.
> Conceptually it appears that Bare life surely is a resistant  
> formula to Art
> and theory (or to say what as philosophical concept of what living  
> it cannot
> be discussed) because it is precisely the concept to say what each  
> live
> being owns self inside as enigma to outside being: as well of the
> unconscious as well of the opacity of a human limit, as well  
> between humans
> and another mode of being living.
>
> Extract "bare life" from its dialectical philosophical  
> signification (even
> at Lacan's), it is negate that there are some places of being that  
> can be
> Illegible enigma; it is negate opacity — so negate all other selves or
> otherness, can be human, can be no human, can be of things.

And on Jul 2, 2006, at 6:07 PM, Tina Gonsalves wrote:
> My work has always explored aspects of the intimacies and  
> vulnerabilities of being human. Most of us go through life hiding  
> our wounds and vulnerabilities, or trying as best we can to conceal  
> them. Through the use of video, sound and technology, my work often  
> tries to expose the fragilities, looking at the emotions and  
> feelings often felt when we become exposed.

Hi Aliette, Dirk and all,

I think artists can adress issues related to the concept of bare  
life, but I don't think that art is bare life.
But there are very interesting artistic approaches to the concept and  
its implications.
Tina in her first statement makes that quite clear, and refers Beuys:

> I enjoy Joseph Beuys comment about what it was to be an artist.   
> “You weren’t showing your magnificence and your wealth of ideas and  
> your huge creativity, you were showing your vulnerability. And it  
> was your vulnerability that people picked up on, the perception of  
> your vulnerability as a person and as an artist that sparked the  
> creativity in other people”.

None of the guest artists (and Christina) stated (in their posts)  
that their work is specifically about "bare life", or specifically  
influenced by Agamben conceptual frame, but they adress questions  
that remit to the subject of this debate.

Tina, I would like to hear your opinion about this!










susana mendes silva
www.susanamendessilva.com
arslonga@netcabo.pt

(+351) 917218012