TOTEM & TABOO: SATURDAY SALON 2
December 10, 2016 - 2:00 pm
THE PHILOSOPHY AND PSYCHOANALYSIS OF THE IMAGE
Philosopher, Chiara Bottici, and author and psychoanalyst, Jamieson Webster
will engage in a conversation about the history of images
THE LADY WITH A THOUSAND FACES
A performance by artist Clarina Bezzola, curated by Vida Mulec
Is the image more real than reality, or the epitome of fiction? Is the image politically conservative or subversive? What is the difference between what is imaginary in an image and what is creative imagination? From Rousseau to Freud and Jung, from Guy Debord to Castoriadis and Jacques Lacan, this conversation will engage with the question of the image as it relates to art and other forms of culture.
Totem & Taboo, an exhibition of new works by artist, Daniel Horowitz, is accompanied by a series of salon-style interdisciplinary conversations and performances during monthly Saturday Salons, a platform for cross-disciplinary conversations and collaborations including lectures, performances, concerts, and panels organized by Ella Marder.
Drawing from Sigmund Freud’s 1913 seminal book, Totem & Taboo: Resemblances Between the Mental Lives of Savages and Neurotics, the exhibition explores the parallels between the material legacy of animist cultures and psychoanalysis as a means of understanding the subconscious. Totem & Taboo explores the ambiguity of the post-colonial identity in the Western world, while also paying homage to the influence of tribal art on modernism, and contemplating the existential crisis ushered by the onset of The Anthropocene.
CHIARA BOTTICI is a philosopher and a writer, working in the field of history of philosophy, psychoanalysis, aesthetics and political theory. She is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the New School for Social Research and the author of many short stories alongside Imaginal Politics: Images beyond Imagination and The Imaginary (Columbia University Press 2014) A Philosophy of Political Myth (Cambridge University Press 2007) and Men and States (Palgrave 2009). Bottici also co-authored Imagining Europe: Myth, Memory, Identity (Cambridge University Press, 2013) and The Myth of the Clash of Civilizations (Routledge, 2010).
JAMIESON WEBSTER is a psychoanalyst in New York. She is a founding member of the psychoanalytic collective - Das Unbehagen - and author of The Life and Death of Psychoanalysis (Karnac, 2011) and - with Simon Critchley - Stay, Illusion! (Patheon, 2013). Webster has published in Apology, Cabinet, The Guardian, The New York Times, Playboy, and many psychoanalytic publications. She is currently working on a new book, Conversion Disorder to be released by Columbia Press in 2017.
CLARINA BEZZOLA was born in Switzerland and lives and works in New York. Clarina is a performance artist, sculptor, painter and trained opera singer whose work explores the delicate psychological boundaries between the self and the society.
VIDA MULEC is the co-founder V&H Social Impact, an international creative consultancy that focuses on innovation and social impact. V&H works with institutions such as MIT, companies, artist and philanthropists, helping them launch and design programs that will have an impact on the society. Vida has collaborated on major creative projects such as Carlito Carvalhoa’s Meu Doce Rio at MoMA, CreativeTime Duke Riley’s Fly By Night, JR’s Inside Out in Slovenia, Lio Malca Gallery, IRC's Terra Nova.