08 May 2012

AESTHETIC TRANSACTIONS, Paris, May & June, 2012

Conference and Art Exhibition on Pragmatist Aesthetics / L'art à l'état vif

The Université Paris 1 ‒ Panthéon Sorbonne will be hosting an art exhibition (opening May 24th) and a conference on May 25th, 2012 to mark the twentieth anniversary of the publication of Richard Shusterman's Pragmatist Aesthetics: Living Beauty, Rethinking Art (Oxford: Blackwell, 1992), simultaneously published as L'art à l'état vif: la pensée pragmatiste et l'esthétique populaire by Minuit in Paris. The title of the conference is: 'Pragmatist Aesthetics: 20 years later' / 'L'art à l'état vif: 20 ans après.

To accompany the conference and trace the impact of Shusterman's work on contemporary art, the Sorbonne will also be organizing an art show. The exhibition, from May 24th through June 6th, 2012 at the Michel Journiac Gallery in Paris, is entitled 'AESTHETIC TRANSACTIONS: Art et philosophie à l'état vif' or in English 'AESTHETIC TRANSACTIONS: Pragmatist Philosophy through Art and Life.' It is curated by Richard Shusterman and includes seven artists with whom he has worked: Luca Del Baldo (Italy); Carsten Höller (Sweden); ORLAN (France); Pan, Gongkai (China); Thecla Schiphorst (Canada); Tatiana Trouvé (France); and Yann Toma (France).  David Zerbib and Barbara Formis are the curatorial assistants in Paris. Michel Journiac Gallery is located at 47, rue des Bergers, 75015 Paris; Métro : Lourmel or Charles Michelis ;www.galeriemicheljourniac.sup.fr. The conference will be held at the Amphitheatre of the Sorbonne's adjacent Centre Saint Charles.

Conference speakers will include these artists (in a panel discussion) and philosophers such as Jean-Pierre Cometti (France) Peng Feng (China), Matthias Girel (France), Roberto Frega, Giovanni Matteucci, and Salvatore Tedesco (Italy), Sandra Laugier (France), as well as scholars of aesthetics, literature, and the social sciences such as Wojciech Malecki (Poland), Spyros Franguiadakis (France), Chantal Pontbriand (Britain), and Jacinto Lageira (France). The conference and exhibition organizers from the Sorbonne – Barbara Formis (aesthetics) and Richard Conte (artist and professor of art) will give opening talks and Richard Shusterman will provide a concluding lecture.

This twofold project is organized by the Université Paris 1, Panthéon-Sorbonne, Faculty of Arts Plastiques et Sciences de l'Art, UMR ACTE (Arts – Créations – Théories – Esthétiques). French institutional partners in the project include the Université Paris 1, Panthéon-Sorbonne, Philosophies Contemporaines and the École Normale Supérieure d'Ulm: Centre International de Recherches en Philosophie, Lettres, Savoirs. The project is also supported by other international partners: Florida Atlantic University's Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters and its Center for Body, Mind, and Culture; Peking University's Center for Aesthetics and Aesthetic Education; and China's Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing.

For updated details on this conference and art exhibition, visit aesthetictransactions.webs.com