Books by Alice Iacobone
Quodlibet, 2023
An excerpt translated in English is available in the e-journal of “Unruly Natures”: https://unrul... more An excerpt translated in English is available in the e-journal of “Unruly Natures”: https://unrulynatures.ch/Per-crescita-di-buio
Tra i più importanti protagonisti del movimento novecentesco dell’Arte Povera, Giuseppe Penone è oggi artista di fama mondiale. Le sue opere scultoree, spesso realizzate con procedimenti legati al calco e all’impronta, sollecitano un profondo ripensamento della scultura stessa e delle sue condizioni di possibilità. Questo libro è un’introduzione alla poetica di Penone e all’estetica che si configura a partire dal suo pluridecennale lavoro.
I dati della storia dell’arte vengono analizzati e scompaginati per tracciare un percorso non lineare all’interno della produzione del maestro piemontese, individuando complicità inattese tra le diverse opere e relazioni feconde con la tradizione filosofica. In un momento storico in cui la scultura sembra suscitare meno attenzione rispetto ad altri generi artistici, come l’installazione o la performance, questo volume torna ad affrontare teoreticamente il dominio dello scultoreo, mostrandone la rilevanza per il presente. Attraverso soluzioni di rara originalità e raffinatezza, Penone evidenzia il divenire comune di forma e materia, e nel farlo mette in gioco temi urgenti per la contemporaneità, fra tutti il rapporto tra l’essere umano e il suo ambiente.
Il lavoro di Penone, tuttavia, non parla solo al presente. Il forte impatto della sua poetica è dovuto innanzitutto alla semplicità formale e all’evidenza materica che le sue opere esibiscono: la contemporaneità dell’arte di Penone si rovescia così in un’arcaicità assoluta, facendoci sospettare che la sua scultura - spesso fatta di gesti minimi, impronte, tracce - preceda da sempre la statuaria e ogni altra forma di scultura “maggiore” a cui la storia dell’arte ci ha per lungo tempo educati.
https://www.quodlibet.it/libro/9788822920911
Book chapters by Alice Iacobone
AbiTO. Abitudini estetiche e arte pubblica. Il caso Torino, ed. by A. Bertinetto, L. Davico, P. Furia, 2024
The chapter reconstructs and analyzes the events of protest that occurred in Turin between 1967 a... more The chapter reconstructs and analyzes the events of protest that occurred in Turin between 1967 and 1968, focusing on some episodes that brought together factory workers, university students, and finally, the artists, gallerists and critics tied to the then emerging Arte Povera movement. All three categories adopted an antagonistic stance towards the socio-political system of neocapitalism, developing rejection strategies (including strikes and occupations) that were framed as practices of a "guerrilla warfare" - an expression used not only by students and operaisti but also by art critic Germano Celant in the manifesto of Arte Povera. Firstly, the chapter provides a reconstruction of the origins of operaismo in the Turin of the early 1960s, showing how at the roots of this experience, which later took on a variety of forms, there was a strong distrust towards institutional organizations (from the party to the union). The following section highlights how some of the theoretical and practical claims of operaismo also intervened in the student protests and particularly in the occupation of Palazzo Campana, one of the premises of the University of Turin, during the months between 1967 and 1968. Not only students and workers participate in the occupation, but also some artists, such as Piero Gilardi and Gilberto Zorio, who in those same months were involved in the birth of Arte Povera - a movement that, as will be shown in the third section, took shape in dialogue and continuity with the political radicalism of the extrainstitutional left. Critically drawing on the concept of habitus elaborated by Pierre Bourdieu, the last section formulates an explanatory hypothesis for the peculiar alliance between factory workers, university students, and Arte Povera exponents.
The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy and Improvisation in the Arts, ed. by A. Bertinetto, M. Ruta , 2021
According to a hegemonic tradition, sculpture is an art related to space rather than time. In 176... more According to a hegemonic tradition, sculpture is an art related to space rather than time. In 1766, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1836) notoriously clamored for a distinction between spatial and temporal arts, placing sculpture in the former category, and defining it as an art related to the deployment of static objects in space. In Lessing's account, the reception of visual artworks such as paintings and statues has to be intended as an act of simultaneous perception, preventing any possible understanding of sculpture in terms of processuality. The same specificity of the plastic art has been defended in 1940 by Clement Greenberg (1986) and in 1967 by Michael Fried (1995); but stress on the role of spatiality in sculpture can equally be found before then (Babbitt 1910; Giedion-Welcker 1937) and after, right up to recent writings (e.g., Hopkins 2003; Pérez Carreño 2016). As for improvisation, the concept is usually associated with the idea of temporal processes and with artistic genres such as dance, music or theatre. When regarded as merely spatial, sculpture hence appears to have little in common with improvisational practices. Therefore, is the idea of improvisation in sculpture nothing but a contradiction in terms? This is not necessarily the case. In order to prove so, it is indispensable (a) to reconcile sculpture and temporality, and (b) to provide a definition of improvisation that can apply to "non-performative arts." These preliminary remarks will be the object of the first section of this chapter (§ 1). In what follows, two arguments will be developed: the first one, outlined in the second section (§ 2), will draw on perceptual elements in order to assess the idea that not only the activity of the artist, but also the activity of the recipient, displays improvisational features. The second argument, sketched in the third section (§ 3), will be devoted to the ontology of sculptural artworks: here, I will claim that sculptures themselves can be regarded as improvisational entities. Resorting to some case studies, I will finally point out that, after the performative turn that took place in the 1960s, improvisation has become a key concept in understanding many phenomena in the field of contemporary sculpture. 1 Preliminary Remarks Against a long-standing tradition that describes sculpture as being merely spatial and static, there is a minor line of thought that acknowledges its temporal and performative character. In his Creative Credo, for instance, Paul Klee brought up the topic and called for a dynamic approach to visual artworks, among which sculptures must be included. "In Lessing's Laocoon […]," he wrote, "a good deal of fuss is made about the difference between temporal and spatial art. But on closer scrutiny the fuss turns out to be mere learned foolishness. For space itself is a temporal concept"
Papers by Alice Iacobone
Aisthesis. Pratiche, linguaggi e saperi dell'estetico, 2023
The paper addresses the work of Ukrainian artist Maria Kulikovska, who resorts to military equipm... more The paper addresses the work of Ukrainian artist Maria Kulikovska, who resorts to military equipment as artistic materials and to destruction as an artistic method. In the first section, I contextualize Kulikovska's performative sculpture within art history, claiming that it can be regarded as Destruction Art. In the second section, I turn to Catherine Malabou's concept of "destructive plasticity" as a philosophical tool of an aesthetics of war, which offers a sound theoretical framework to further understand the implications of Kulikovska's artistic activity. In the third section, I focus on the main material adopted by Kulikovska, ballistic soap, showing how the artist materially deconstructs inherited dichotomies that keep informing our understanding of wars. By considering the artistic practice of a feminist artist (M. Kulikovska) through the lens of feminist scholarship (K. Stiles, C. Malabou, J. Butler), the paper investigates the relations between war and the arts from a situated perspective.
Trópos. Rivista di ermeneutica e critica filosofica, 2023
The paper considers the field of glitch art and aims to analyze it historically and theoretically... more The paper considers the field of glitch art and aims to analyze it historically and theoretically. In the first section, the glitch is addressed in its general features, i.e., as a minor malfunction that calls into question the ordinary functioning of both technical and socio-political machines. Then (section 2), I sketch a history of the ways in which the glitch has circulated across different artistic media and genres. The third section draws attention to an often-overlooked aspect of glitching dynamics, i.e., the fact that the glitch differs logically and practically from the bug that generates it. While these three sections are also intended as a critical survey on the existing literature, the fourth section aims to outline an original proposal for an aesthetics of glitch art. Such account unfolds as an aesthetics of parasitism, where the bug plays the role of the parasite (the material and yet invisible element that perturbs the artwork's digital code) and the glitch plays the role of the symptom (the artwork's hyper-visible, disturbing phenomenal appearance).
Annuario Filosofico, 2022
Formativity and performativity are notions arisen and developed within very different philosophic... more Formativity and performativity are notions arisen and developed within very different philosophical contexts; however, when it comes to investigate artistic phenomena the two concepts can profitably be related to one another. In this paper, I aim to bring together Luigi Pareyson’s aesthetics of formativity and the aesthetics of performativity outlined by Erika Fischer-Lichte. Not only do I intend to stress the relevance of formativity in relation to the most recent philosophical debates; I also claim that Pareyson’s aesthetic theses, when regarded in the light of their sources and legacy, can lead us to very important and radical conceptual solutions. In particular, formativity allows us to conceive of poietic artistic productions in a performative fashion, thus broadening the aesthetics of performativity as a whole.
After an introductory section on the notions of formativity and performativity (§2), the paper considers some classic themes in modern aesthetics and discusses them from this twofold point of view. Tackled topics range from artistic production (§3) to the artwork’s activity (§4) and to artistic reception (§5). The combination of formativity and performativity ultimately leads to a non-representative, non-fictional account of art (§6). The artwork is no longer regarded as an object but rather as an event, whose materiality, far from being disavowed, is intended as a never-ending performance of morphogenesis.
Itinera. Rivista di filosofia e teoria delle arti, 2021
The paper considers the creative restoration of an early Christian basilica in Siponto, Apulia, r... more The paper considers the creative restoration of an early Christian basilica in Siponto, Apulia, realized by Italian artist Edoardo Tresoldi. Tresoldi resorts to the wire mesh as an artistic material: the restored basilica thus results in a monumental but evanescent building. After an introduction describing the public artwork, the paper will unfold in two main sections. In the first one, the focus will be on the concept of genius loci as a distinctive character of Tresoldi’s poetics. Through an Heideggerian lens, the stress will be put on the existential value of dwelling, which is highlighted by the restored church. The second section will focus on the ghostly and uncanny (unheimlich) appearance of the basilica. Thanks to authors such as Derrida and Didi-Huberman, it will be shown that a genius deloci is at work in the site as well, calling into question the different temporalities that animate the basilica. Genius loci and genius deloci will prove as a conceptual couple capable of providing us with an access to the artwork; nevertheless, they will not be understood as a dichotomy, i.e. as mutually exclusive concepts, but as opposite notions that “haunt” each other and that cannot but be used together, in the postmodernist fashion of double-coding.
Altre Modernità, 2021
Palaeontologist Jack Horner, along with molecular biologists and other experts, has been working ... more Palaeontologist Jack Horner, along with molecular biologists and other experts, has been working on building an animal that he calls “the Chickenosaurus”. Horner’s purpose is to reverse-evolve a bird into a non-avian theropod by intervening on the genome expression of a chick’s embryo in ways that stimulate the formation of ancestral characteristics (activation of atavism). After a discussion of the project in its scientific detail, I offer a theoretical perspective on the topic that relies on concepts developed by Gilles Deleuze. In particular, I argue that the Chickenosaurus can be regarded as an eligible example of deleuzian “becoming” and that it deserves philosophical attention in that it displays the “creative involution” through which novelty is produced.
Philosophy Kitchen, 2021
The paper aims at developing a theoretical outlook on Eduardo Kac’s Genesis, a bio-artistic opera... more The paper aims at developing a theoretical outlook on Eduardo Kac’s Genesis, a bio-artistic operation of “perversion” of the biblical passage that establishes men’s dominion upon other living beings. The case study will be addressed through the analysis of the idea of productive iteration. Following Derrida’s reflections on the general iterability of marks and Butler’s investigation of the subversive potential of repetition, it will be shown how iteration can bring novelty into being – where such novelty occurs in a constantly renegotiated balance between chance and constraint. Finally, it will be claimed that this iterative dynamic can be regarded as a strategy of subjectivity production. These subjects, however, will be conceived in terms of sympoietic entities that are constitutively entangled with one another in relationships of mutual responsibility.
Lexia. Rivista internazionale di semiotica, 2020
The peculiar importance of the concept and imagery of the island in both Gilles Deleuze’s philoso... more The peculiar importance of the concept and imagery of the island in both Gilles Deleuze’s philosophy and Derek Walcott’s poetry leads to consider the profound issues that such figure can entail, like the nature of a non–foundational activity of creation and the role of a literature that challenges the linguistic tradition. The aim of this article is to deal with these intersection points, in order to cast light upon the two authors’ respective perspectives and single out new meanings of the “island”. It will turn out from the analysis that the task of a “minor literature” encompasses a conceptual background which is relevantly represented by the dimension of islandness.
Edited volumes | Edited journal issues by Alice Iacobone
Trópos. Rivista di ermeneutica e critica filosofica, 15/1, 2023
https://ojs.unito.it/index.php/tropos/issue/view/716
Talks | Lectures by Alice Iacobone
Conference "Forme plastiche, plasticità del senso", 2024
Conference "The Human Condition in the Anthropocene", 2024
The Shapeshifters Symposium. Plasticity Here, There, and Everywhere, 2024
Symposium "Brain Roads. Exploring Neuroplasticity Through Art and Science", 2023
since 1994. His research aims to correlate the structure and dynamics of molecular systems at int... more since 1994. His research aims to correlate the structure and dynamics of molecular systems at interfaces with mechanical, electronic, optical and (bio)chemical properties. He is also the Founding Director of the Integrative Research Institute for the Sciences-IRIS Adlershof at HU Berlin.
Conference “Metamorphoses of Mimesis. Plasticity, Subjectivity and Transformation with Catherine Malabou”, 2023
Interdisciplinary Conference "Works in Process. Dimensions of Becoming in the Arts", 2022
Chance and Choices-Materials and Painting Process of Foliage in the 17th Century (Conservation, C... more Chance and Choices-Materials and Painting Process of Foliage in the 17th Century (Conservation, Constance/Stuttgart) Goethe's Open-Ended Manuscripts Dennis Schäfer (German Studies, Princeton)
Lecture series "On Gestaltung", 2022
Organized conferences by Alice Iacobone
Journée d'étude, 2022
Journée d'étude organisée par Gaetano Chiurazzi Avec le soutien du Collège international de philo... more Journée d'étude organisée par Gaetano Chiurazzi Avec le soutien du Collège international de philosophie (Paris) en collaboration avec Dipartimento di Filosofia e Scienze dell'Educazione
Anche le statue muoiono. Alcuni casi di distruzione rituale di immagini di culto in Grecia antica... more Anche le statue muoiono. Alcuni casi di distruzione rituale di immagini di culto in Grecia antica Vittorio Secco (Facoltà Valdese di Teologia) Riscritture iconoclastiche: le parodie iconiche dell'Antico Testamento come azione politica nel
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Books by Alice Iacobone
Tra i più importanti protagonisti del movimento novecentesco dell’Arte Povera, Giuseppe Penone è oggi artista di fama mondiale. Le sue opere scultoree, spesso realizzate con procedimenti legati al calco e all’impronta, sollecitano un profondo ripensamento della scultura stessa e delle sue condizioni di possibilità. Questo libro è un’introduzione alla poetica di Penone e all’estetica che si configura a partire dal suo pluridecennale lavoro.
I dati della storia dell’arte vengono analizzati e scompaginati per tracciare un percorso non lineare all’interno della produzione del maestro piemontese, individuando complicità inattese tra le diverse opere e relazioni feconde con la tradizione filosofica. In un momento storico in cui la scultura sembra suscitare meno attenzione rispetto ad altri generi artistici, come l’installazione o la performance, questo volume torna ad affrontare teoreticamente il dominio dello scultoreo, mostrandone la rilevanza per il presente. Attraverso soluzioni di rara originalità e raffinatezza, Penone evidenzia il divenire comune di forma e materia, e nel farlo mette in gioco temi urgenti per la contemporaneità, fra tutti il rapporto tra l’essere umano e il suo ambiente.
Il lavoro di Penone, tuttavia, non parla solo al presente. Il forte impatto della sua poetica è dovuto innanzitutto alla semplicità formale e all’evidenza materica che le sue opere esibiscono: la contemporaneità dell’arte di Penone si rovescia così in un’arcaicità assoluta, facendoci sospettare che la sua scultura - spesso fatta di gesti minimi, impronte, tracce - preceda da sempre la statuaria e ogni altra forma di scultura “maggiore” a cui la storia dell’arte ci ha per lungo tempo educati.
https://www.quodlibet.it/libro/9788822920911
Book chapters by Alice Iacobone
Papers by Alice Iacobone
After an introductory section on the notions of formativity and performativity (§2), the paper considers some classic themes in modern aesthetics and discusses them from this twofold point of view. Tackled topics range from artistic production (§3) to the artwork’s activity (§4) and to artistic reception (§5). The combination of formativity and performativity ultimately leads to a non-representative, non-fictional account of art (§6). The artwork is no longer regarded as an object but rather as an event, whose materiality, far from being disavowed, is intended as a never-ending performance of morphogenesis.
Edited volumes | Edited journal issues by Alice Iacobone
Talks | Lectures by Alice Iacobone
Organized conferences by Alice Iacobone
Tra i più importanti protagonisti del movimento novecentesco dell’Arte Povera, Giuseppe Penone è oggi artista di fama mondiale. Le sue opere scultoree, spesso realizzate con procedimenti legati al calco e all’impronta, sollecitano un profondo ripensamento della scultura stessa e delle sue condizioni di possibilità. Questo libro è un’introduzione alla poetica di Penone e all’estetica che si configura a partire dal suo pluridecennale lavoro.
I dati della storia dell’arte vengono analizzati e scompaginati per tracciare un percorso non lineare all’interno della produzione del maestro piemontese, individuando complicità inattese tra le diverse opere e relazioni feconde con la tradizione filosofica. In un momento storico in cui la scultura sembra suscitare meno attenzione rispetto ad altri generi artistici, come l’installazione o la performance, questo volume torna ad affrontare teoreticamente il dominio dello scultoreo, mostrandone la rilevanza per il presente. Attraverso soluzioni di rara originalità e raffinatezza, Penone evidenzia il divenire comune di forma e materia, e nel farlo mette in gioco temi urgenti per la contemporaneità, fra tutti il rapporto tra l’essere umano e il suo ambiente.
Il lavoro di Penone, tuttavia, non parla solo al presente. Il forte impatto della sua poetica è dovuto innanzitutto alla semplicità formale e all’evidenza materica che le sue opere esibiscono: la contemporaneità dell’arte di Penone si rovescia così in un’arcaicità assoluta, facendoci sospettare che la sua scultura - spesso fatta di gesti minimi, impronte, tracce - preceda da sempre la statuaria e ogni altra forma di scultura “maggiore” a cui la storia dell’arte ci ha per lungo tempo educati.
https://www.quodlibet.it/libro/9788822920911
After an introductory section on the notions of formativity and performativity (§2), the paper considers some classic themes in modern aesthetics and discusses them from this twofold point of view. Tackled topics range from artistic production (§3) to the artwork’s activity (§4) and to artistic reception (§5). The combination of formativity and performativity ultimately leads to a non-representative, non-fictional account of art (§6). The artwork is no longer regarded as an object but rather as an event, whose materiality, far from being disavowed, is intended as a never-ending performance of morphogenesis.
Questo volume di semiotica delle culture vuole invece cogliere la soggettività delle isole e di chi le popola. Per farlo tesse connessioni fra mito e storia, utopia e distopia, metafora e modelli, immaginario e teoria; fra semiotica, nissologia, antropologia, filosofia, mediologia, studi culturali.
Parlare d’isolanità significa dunque contribuire ad emancipare lo studio delle isole da una concezione riduttivistica, facendo vedere tutta l’arcipelagica ricchezza di relazioni e identificazioni che queste custodiscono nella loro storia, nel loro presente, nelle loro aspirazioni.
***
Saying "island" seems to imply a sense of closure, objectification, naturalness, synthesized by the concept of insularity.
This volume of semiotics of cultures, on the other hand, seeks to capture the subjectivity of islands and of those who populate them. To do this, the volume weaves connections between myth and history, utopia and dystopia, metaphor and models, imagination and theory; between semiotics, nissology, anthropology, philosophy, mediology, cultural studies.
Speaking of islandness therefore means contributing to emancipating the study of islands from a reductivistic conception, showing all the archipelagic richness of relationships and identifications that they preserve in their history, in their present, in their aspirations.