ART (Aesthetics Research Torino) Philosophical Seminar 

Prof. Adrián Kvokačka

(University of Prešov, Slovakia)

 

November, 16. h 6pm

Online

 LINK

https://unito.webex.com/unito/j.php?MTID=m50003a168f5fbf5bf2ddbf19858b5be6

 

To be engaged or not to be (an art)?

 

Over the last 100 years or so, philosophers have repeatedly wondered what art is, what it represents, what relationships it is capable to evoke (if any), and how it relates to the world and to the human being.

Largely viewed as an explanatory tool for understanding art, aesthetics seems to have failed in the role society has granted it: to serve as a communicative bridge between art and people.

Why is this so? In this seminar, we will review some of the reasons that have made the meaning of contemporary art so unattainable to us through the lenses of the dispute between aesthetic engagement and aesthetics disinterestedness. By discussing the notions of ‘engaged recipient’ and ‘engaged art’, we will take a critical stance on the state of mass art to finally consider the question: do we need an engaged art or do we rather need an art that is able to engage us?

 

Adrián Kvokačka (1974) is an associate professor at the Institute of Aesthetics and Art Culture, Faculty of Arts, University of Prešov, Slovakia. His main areas of interest include the history of aesthetics, the theory of aesthetics and applied aesthetics. He is the President of the Society for Aesthetics in Slovakia, Vice President of the International Association for Aesthetics, and a member of other professional organizations. He is the editor-in-chief of the journal ESPES. The Slovak Journal of Aesthetics and is a member of the editorial boards of Evental Aesthetics, Terra Aestheticae, Yearbook of Moving Image Studies and Studies in the History of Philosophy. He is the author of Introduction to Aesthetics. Conceptual Apparatus (2021), Kant’s Notion of the Sublime (2021), and co-editor of The Theory and Practice of Contemporary Aesthetics (2011), European Aesthetic Thought and Artistic Production: sources, metamorphoses and their relevance (2018), Studying Aesthetics: Concepts, Strategies and Contexts for the Study of Aesthetics in Slovakia and Abroad (2019), and Everydayness: Contemporary Aesthetic Approaches (2021). Since 2015, he has been co-organizing a series of conferences entitled Coordinates of Aesthetics, Art and Culture.

 

 

 

ART (Aesthetics Research Torino) is a periodic philosophical seminar organized by the Department of Philosophy and Educational Sciences of the University of Turin and the PhD Program FINO.

Coordinators:

Prof. Alessandro Bertinetto (University of Turin). 

Prof. Federico Vercellone (University of Turin). 

 

Members:

Prof. Carlo Serra (University of Turin/University of Calabria)

Dr. Alberto Martinengo (University of Turin)

Dr. Paolo Furia (University of Turin)

Dr. Lisa Giombini (University Rome 3)

Dr. Gregorio Tenti (University of Turin)

Dr. Amalia Salvestrini (Laboratoire d'études sur les monothéismes, Paris)

Dr. Francesca Monateri (Pisa, Scuola Normale)

Dr. Francesca Perotto (FINO)

Dr. Ivan Quartesan (FINO)

Dr. Sofia Boz (University of Padova)

Dr. Leonardo Pietropaolo (Università di Torino)

 

 

ART addresses different topics of the contemporary debate in Aesthetics: philosophy of beauty, philosophy of the arts, theory of sensory experience, philosophy of image and imagination, and history of aesthetics.

ART is supported by:
Centro Interuniversitario di Ricerca sulla Morfologia Francesco Moiso (CIM)
Centro Studi Arti della Modernità

Centro Studi Filosofico-religiosi "Luigi Pareyson"

 

ART is sponsored by: 
Italian Society for Aesthetics (SIE) 
European Society for Aesthetics (ESA)