Paul Chan: Odysseus as artist and other propositions

Odysseus, the hero in Homer’s The Odyssey, is typically described as “infinitely cunning.” The stratagems he devises to cheat his enemies, the gods, and perhaps fate herself, is one of the central elements of the story. In fact, it is arguable that the very idea of cunning—in principle and in act—is the actual hero of The Odyssey. But what is cunning? Is it not thought itself, as manifested in what is conventionally understood as creativity? And what is creativity if not reason unfettered? And what is art if not the form reason takes when it is unfettered? Using Odysseus as a departure point, Paul Chan will analyze the dialectic of cunning and reason, addressing its relation to art and the ways in which the relationship renews itself in and through different fields of endeavor. Specifically, Chan will use his informal research into the intellectual and artistic history of Switzerland, and Basel in particular, to give a highly idiosyncratic account of the relationship between art and the notion of cunning.

 

Veranstaltungsorte
4. März: eikones Forum
1. April: Kunsthistorisches Seminar

Bild: Paul Chan, Untitled drawing (ink on paper, 2013)

Konzept: Susanne Leeb, Markus Klammer

Referierende: Paul Chan

eikones NFS Bildkritik, Rheinsprung 11, CH - 4051 Basel