Silvano Petrosino

Abstract

Starting from Heidegger’s thought on «dwelling», the essay aims at pointing out the essential traits of the artistic gesture. At the heart of the article we find the concept of «experience» interpreted as the exposure of the subject to an otherness that human being can neither avoid nor dominate. Human dwelling would be such because it belongs to a subject that both dwells and is dwelt, that dwells because he is himself dwelt by an irreducible otherness. Within such perspective the «artistic dwelling» is analysed as the circumstance in which the subject (the artist), living his own experience of dweller-dwelt intensely, «comes to grips» with the otherness that dwells him trying, without destroying, to «cultivate and preserve» what he cannot dominate completely. Along with Heidegger, the text also deals with the Bible and Lacan, ending with an interpretation of M. Rothko’s painting.

Silvano Petrosino (Milano 1955), internationally known for his studies on E. Lévinas and J. Derrida, teaches communication theory and moral philosophy at the Catholic University of Milano and Piacenza. Among his works we find: Lo stupore (Novara 1997, Madrid 2001); Jacques Derrida e la legge del possibile. Un’introduzione (2^nd italian edition Milano 1997, Paris 1994); Il sacrificio sospeso (Milano 2000, Paris 2008); Il dono (in collaboration with P. Gilbert, Genova 2002, Bruxelles 2007, Belo Horizonte 2008); Babele. Architettura, filosofia e linguaggio di un delirio (Genova 2003, Paris 2010); Piccola metafisica della luce, (Milano 2004); La scena umana. Grazie a Derrida e Lévinas (Milano 2010); L’eros della distruzione. Seminario sul male (in collaboration with S. Ubbiali, Genova 2010); Visione e desiderio. Sull'essenza dell'invidia (2^nd ed., Milano 2010); Capovolgimenti. La casa non è una tana, l’economia non è il business (2^nd ed., Milano 2011).