AESTHETICS AND ITS DISCONTENTS
"Aesthetics has a bad reputation", wrote Jacques Rancière in 2004. "Hardly a year goes by without a new book either proclaiming that its time is over or that its harmful effects are being perpetuated". More than a decade later, this critique still holds. Both established and emerging philosophical frameworks continue to undermine the interpretative authority of aesthetics, labelling it either obsolete or irrelevant. Conversely, some proponents elevate aesthetics to the status of "prime philosophy", attributing to it a metaphysical significance. Yet, despite these polarised positions, one can observe the proliferation of aesthetics in diverse forms: inaesthetics, the aesthetic regime, neuroaesthetics, mathematical beauty, new aesthetics, speculative aesthetics, decolonial aesthesis, and environmental aesthetics.
In the latter half of the 20th century, aesthetics faced discreditation from multiple fronts: critical theory and cultural studies on the one hand, and the very practices of contemporary art on the other. However, over the past fifteen years, a renewed interest in the discipline has emerged, generating fresh readings and interpretations both within and beyond the realm of contemporary art. The lecture series at Winzavod aims to explore aesthetics in an "expanded field", moving beyond narrow philosophical or art-centric questions to engage with a broader array of disciplines. Alongside the continental aesthetic tradition (Kant, Hegel, Heidegger, Adorno), the project incorporates insights from analytical philosophy, Soviet Marxist thought, new media theory, and recent speculative approaches. It also invites contributions from neurologists, mathematicians, and ecologists, fostering a truly interdisciplinary dialogue on aesthetics.
Lecture by Stepan Vaneyan and Stas Shuripa The Formal and the Sacred: the Problem of Reconciliation
Lecture by Artemy Magun and Victor Misiano Negativity as an Aesthetic Category
Lecture by Madina Tlostanova and Tatyana Volkova Postcolonial Condition and Decolonial Option
Lecture by Graham Harman A New Approach to Formalism in Ethics, Aesthetics and Metaphysics[eng + subs]
Lecture by Robert Pfaller Obscene Holiness and Pure Reason [eng + subs]
Lecture by Christoph Menke The Paradox of Opportunity and the Value of the Beautiful[eng + subs]
