The intellect of art : post- Auschwitz MA (fine or ugly arts) or we should talk less and draw more (Goethe), should we? Wozu dichter, what for indeed (Holderin). Nur lallen und lallen, immer-, immer- zuzu (Celan). Can we, after all the kaleidoscopic refractions of thousands of holocausts?

Abstract

This paper discusses a fundamental question concerning not only the relationship between artistic technique and academic research but what role this relationship plays, if at all, during a period of genocides and a radical evolution towards a complete dehumanisation of mankind’s existence. The essay’s corresponding sub-text deals with the iconic debate between Adorno and Benjamin around the character of the contemporary art scene during the fundamental and seemingly irreversible establishment of a consumerist-fetishistic society. The essay thus calls for a re-qualification of methods of artistic research and a re-definition of art academia taking into account a novel situation in which techne has become poiesis in a period of apocalyptic tragedy. One of the central theses of the essay concerns the inability of philosophy and its corresponding conceptual language to articulate and to dig into the very meaning of a work of art, let alone the meaning and analysis of art history through art praxis. This reflects a deep paradox if one understands that art itself has today transformed itself into philosophy. We are therefore encountering a philosophy of man which cannot articulate its own meaning.