The Community of the Forsaken: A Response to Agamben and Nancy

India has for long been full of exceptional peoples, making meaningless the notion of “state of exception” or of “extending” it. Brahmins are exceptional for they alone can command the rituals that run the social order and they cannot be touched by the lower caste peoples (let alone desired) for fear of ritualistic pollution. In […]

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The philosophical debate about biopolitics in times of CoVid-19

At the end of February, the philosopher Giorgio Agamben reacted to the measures taken by the Italian government to face the CoVid-19 pandemic. “[T]he invention of an epidemic”, he wrote, “could offer the ideal pretext for broadening such measures beyond any limitation”[1] and thus reinforced his well-known thesis on the normalisation of the use of […]

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What Carries Us On

Implicit within the debate on Coronavirus curated by Antinomie and archived by Sergio Benvenuto is the question—for what must we carry on?  That is, do we—humanity, which has been reckoned by many thinkers as the error in nature—carry on for the sake of carrying on?  Or, should we, following Thomas Taylor, M. K. Gandhi, Pierre Clastres, and several others, proceed with a project of returning towards a moment in history that, for Agamben, is “the normal conditions of life”. The text is part of a conversation between Jean-Luc Nancy and Shaj Mohan.

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Our Mysterious Being

Considering CoVid-19 a “communovirus”, the French philosopher Jean-Luc Nancy ponders the official Chinese communism as well as Marx’s notion of individual property and self-realisation. By isolating us, the “communovirus” makes us experience the “shared sense of our uniqueness”, which, according to Nancy, reveals our “most intimate community”. Starting from the question of whether there is a norm for man, Shaj Mohan introduces in his answer to Jean-Luc Nancy the concept of the obscure experience. For the Indian philosopher, this experiences shared by the commonplace allow us to reflect on future forms of our being together.

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BEHAVE, O BODY: scripting my corporeality in face of Covid-19

In recent weeks, one practice in particular became (in)famous in slowing down the Covid-19 pandemic: social distancing. But the strategy of „distancing“ first and foremost means physical separation and disciplining along scripts for the performance of bodies. Thus, the interaction with others and ourselves gains an edge on body awareness. A glimpse at a corporeality in Zurich, Switzerland.

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Wirus kapitalizmu

Prawda o nieludzkim i antydemokratycznym charakterze kapitalizmu rzadko bywa tak dobrze widoczna jak podczas pandemii, której jesteśmy świadkami. Zarazem jest ona okazją do postępowej zmiany społecznej na wielką skalę. Czy to prawda, że jak mawiał Mao Zedong, skoro na świecie zapanował chaos, sytuacja jest znakomita?

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“The Scattered Community of the Eclipsed”. Paradigms of Belonging in the Wake of the 2020 Pandemic

To face. To question one’s own presence towards what is present. Not giving up the potentiality for suspension that the event offers, but rather inhabit it fully. To form a community of the event, the scattered community of the eclipsed. The Film “The darkness of the eclipse” is a first fragment of a series presented by the Community of unfaithful echoes.

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Lockdown hinter einem Fenster

Abstandhalten, Maskenpflicht, Ausgangssperre… Das ist kein Horrorfilm, das ist unsere Realität. Im Jahr 2020 leidet die ganze Welt unter einem gefährlichen Virus und alle Menschen sind davon betroffen – wir sind alle wegen des Virus in unserem Alltagsleben eingeschränkt. In meiner Fotoserie will ich mithilfe des Motivs von Fenstern versuchen, unsere heutige Zwangssperre wiederzugeben.

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“I can’t breathe”: Riots against racism as new grounds for international solidarity

“I can’t breathe”: the last sentence of the African-American George Floyd, who was stifled by the Minneapolis police, resonates powerfully in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic. Indeed, the global health crisis has highlighted the inequalities in health care systems, especially in the US, where the African-American population is particularly affected. Beyond police violence, it […]

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«The silence on the streets should never be mistaken for a quiet submission in politics» – An interview with Shaj Mohan

In the interview with Krithika Varagur philosopher Shaj Mohan talks about the protests in India and its similarities to the situation in the United States. He points out that what we perceive as extreme events, such as pogroms and lynching, are prepared by everyday discriminations.

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Der gemeinschaftliche Theatertraum in Covid-19-Zeiten

Die Pandemie des Covid-19 trifft im Theaterbetrieb einen besonders sensiblen Nerv. Von der physischen Bühne zum bodenlosen Cyberspace, vom Publikum zur unsichtbaren Internet-Crowd ist der „gemeinschaftliche Traum“ neu zu erfinden, und dies unter technisch-ästhetischen Bedingungen, die das Theater eher wie ein alter Alptraum anmuten lässt. Doch über die jetzige Krisensituation hinaus mag dies dazu ermuntern, das „Gemeinsame“ des Theaters bzw. der Kunst in einer digitalisierten Kultur zu reflektieren.

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