French Philosophy and Contemporary Art

International, Bilingual Conference: December 3-4, 2007

French Philosophy and Contemporary Art

     Modern art criticism is sometimes said to have been launched 
through the French philosopher Diderot?s critical essays of the 
mid-eighteenth century. Since that time French philosophy has often 
taken inspiration from the arts, while conversely providing the arts 
with the creative stimulation of philosophical ideas. In recent 
history, this productive philosophy-art connection has been 
exemplified in Merleau-Ponty?s philosophical interpretations of 
Cezanne, in Deleuze on the cinema, Lyotard on the postmodern and the 
sublime, or even Bourdieu?s social theories of aesthetic taste and 
artistic production. The second-half of the twentieth century not only 
witnessed an extraordinary influential flourishing of French 
philosophy but also the emergence of the exciting but controversial 
and elusively hard to define artistic field that seemed to move beyond 
the familiar paradigms of modern art and so is instead labeled 
?contemporary art.? Can we better understand these two fields of 
culture by exploring their relationships or interpreting them in terms 
of each other? In what ways does French philosophical tradition remain 
useful as a tool for artistic understanding and creative inspiration 
today? What are the major issues and orientations that preoccupy 
twenty-first-century philosophers of art (in France but also 
elsewhere) as we continue to feel the surge of increased globalization 
and the media revolutions that have transformed not only art and 
culture but our entire life-world?

     The bilingual conference ?French Philosophy and Contemporary 
Art,? organized by FAU?s Center for Body, Mind, and Culture, with the 
support of the cultural service of the French Consulate of 
Miami/French Embassy of the United States, will explore these and 
related questions by collecting a group of leading French philosophers 
and artists, along with other internationally distinguished scholars 
and artists from Europe and North America. The conference will be held 
December 3-4, 2007 at FAU?s Boca Raton campus and provides a timely 
theoretical background to the annual Miami-Basil international 
festival of contemporary art, which opens this year on December 6th,   
and a particularly appropriate introduction to the French art show 
"French Kissing in the USA" / Scène émergente française présentant 17 
artistes d?art contemporain  (4 décembre ? 31 mars 2008)  which will 
be exhibited at the Moore Space in Miami : 
(http://www.themoorespace.org/frameupcoming.html)

     The conference presentations will be in English or French, with 
English translations or resumés provided for the French lectures. 
Arthur Danto, Johnsonian Professor Emeritus of Columbia University and 
art critic for The Nation magazine will be the keynote speaker (in 
English).

     For more information, consult the Center?s website at 
www.fau.edu/bodymindculture, write to us at bodymindculture@fau.edu, 
or phone 561-297-0851. The Center for Body, Mind, and Culture is 
housed in the Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters at FAU 
and directed by Richard Shusterman, the Dorothy F. Schmidt Eminent 
Scholar in the Humanities.

    For practical information and directions to FAU and hotel, click here.

Speakers at FPCA 2007

Keynote Speaker: Arthur Danto -

"From Photography to Philosophy"

Dominique Berthet ? ?Sartre et les arts plastiques de son temps?

Else Marie Bukdahl ? ?Art and Philosophy in Lyotard, Deleuze, and 
Michel Serres?

Curtis Carter ? ?Philosopher and Artist: Unsettled Boundaries?

Dominique Château ? ?De quelques relations atmosphériques entre la 
philosophie (française) et l?art (contemporain)?

Jean-Pierre Cometti ? ?Je n?en veux rien savoir! Ce que l?art dit à la 
philosophie et qu?elle n?entend pas?

Richard Conte ? ?Quel usage les artistes font?ils de la philosophie??

Dorte Dahlin ? "From Media Tusche to Media Moss: Lost Distance and 
Rubber-Geometry"

Souleymane Bachir Diagne ? ?Bergson, Senghor et l?art contemporain?

Marc Jimenez ? ?La philosophie de l?art face au défi technocientifique?

Bernard Lafargue ? ?La philosophie trouble par les mille et une 
figures de la beauté?

Chantal Pontbriand ? "The Impact of French Philosophy on Art Criticism 
of the 1970s and 1980s"

Marie-Dominique Popelard and Anthony Wall ? ?Frank Stella lecteur de 
Denis Diderot?
  ? My FAU
   Search FAU Website

  Privacy Policy | University Regulations | Emergency Information | 
Get Help at FAU | Contact Us

  An Equal Opportunity/Equal Access Institution
  © Copyright 2007. Florida Atlantic University