Art and Its Shadow

According to Perniola, art in our time loses its autonomy and boils down to the market and mass communication. It is isolated from its mysterious atmosphere, its aura, and criticism. So what remains? The shadow of art remains. It is in this shadow that Perniola explores contemporary aesthetics and the art of the future. He discusses modernity and contemporaneity. He examines many philosophers from Walter Benjamin to Gilles Deleuze and Giorgio Agamben; artists from Andy Warhol to Joseph Kosuth and Guy Debord; filmmakers from Derek Jarman to Wim Wenders, searching for the possibilities of a contemporary philosophy of art or a philosophical art and cinema. Mario Perniola has paved an important way as one of the most influential theorists of aesthetics in our time. His thesis that the shadow of a work is more prominent than the work itself is groundbreaking. Hugh J. Silverman Today, when we speak of "the audience," we are not referring to the narrow elite community of experts and traditional museum-goers that Bourdieu included in his category of social distinction. The respectful happy few who follow the religion of art have been replaced by a mass of infidels. This is a mass that is indifferent or openly rejective in the face of the provocations of contemporary art. A striking cultural disconnect has emerged between contemporary art and a very large segment of society. Therefore, the relationship between contemporary art and the audience is no longer based on appreciation and admiration, but on provocation and scandal. Thus, artistic value tends to rely on the information and communication market.
-Mario Perniola Cover: Man Ray, Torso, 1923.-
(From the Promotional Bulletin)