EMANCIPATION, DUTY AND THE ARTISTIC SUBJECT
EMANCIPATION, DUTY AND THE ARTISTIC SUBJECT

Summary/Abstract: In the ’Third Sketch for a Manifesto of Affirmationist Art’ (’Troisiéme esquisse d’une manifeste de l’ affirmationnisme’), Badiou brings together the concepts of Universality, the Senses and Duty in Art. The author will try to reassess the concept of Duty in Badiou’s conception of Affirmationist Art, examining the problems of, 1. How is an Emancipatory Art possible in the context of the anti-humanist condition? and 2. What is the ontological and epistemological status of an in-humanity as a fundamental presupposition of human emancipation in Art? It will be argued that the artistic formalization of the Subject(s) – which is ‘impersonal and singular’, as Badiou asserts – would not be possible without any human participation in the process of subjectification towards human emancipation. The author will demonstrate how it is possible to think the concept of Duty in the aesthetic realm, on the basis of Badiou’s presupposition of the Subjective Universality of Art and Župančić’s reading of Lacanian theory.

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