Today existentialist values have become popular values. We all must live an authentic life. In that respect existentialism has penetrated deeply into our culture. At the heart is a simple plea to take responsibility for our lives and it is up to us to create meaning. ‘You are free, therefore choose, that is to say, invent!’ Sartre says. We are what we make of ourselves and we cannot abdicate this responsibility and leave it to an authority. That’s a heavy load, which people are eager to escape.
Existentialism says all human interaction is conflict, and we are lonely, competitive individuals. But it is also a freedom philosophy, a narrative of agency, emancipation and responsibility. It influenced every single one of us through cinema, literature, and art. How free are we really as artists and what is our project in life? You are not born an artist, you have to become one, you have to invent. But if our purpose in life is to have our unique individual project, how can we engage with others and transform what is so personal and subjective into something magical that lifts everyone?
Today existentialist values have become popular values. We all must live an authentic life. In that respect existentialism has penetrated deeply into our culture. At the heart is a simple plea to take responsibility for our lives and it is up to us to create meaning. ‘You are free, therefore choose, that is to say, invent!’ Sartre says. We are what we make of ourselves and we cannot abdicate this responsibility and leave it to an authority. That’s a heavy load, which people are eager to escape.
Existentialism says all human interaction is conflict, and we are lonely, competitive individuals. But it is also a freedom philosophy, a narrative of agency, emancipation and responsibility. It influenced every single one of us through cinema, literature, and art. How free are we really as artists and what is our project in life? You are not born an artist, you have to become one, you have to invent. But if our purpose in life is to have our unique individual project, how can we engage with others and transform what is so personal and subjective into something magical that lifts everyone?
Conversations with: Ger Groot, Dutch philosopher and writer. He wrote and performed two ambitious eight-hour-long lecture series: The Human Tone, an overview of philosophical ideas that have shaped the modern individual, and Modern French Philosophers. Both lectures formed the basis for our conversation. Alana Jelinek, Australian artist and writer of the book This is Not Art: Activism and Other "Not-Art". Alexandra Blättler, Swiss art historian and curator of the exhibition series New Existentialism. Essay by: Jan Verwoert, German musician, critic, writer and lecturer on cultural theory. He explores how "a masculinist deat cult" could travel so smoothly into the present, and proposes an existentialism of life and new beginnings.
