ALÉM DO MODERNO, OU A OPACIDADE DO CONTEMPORÂNEO

Abstract

Among the essential theoretical issues addressed by Celso Favaretto in his philosophy, his peculiar and fertile reflection on the ‘modern’ and the ‘contemporary’ in artistic thinking and practices deserves special mention. The author has been developing this theme with special dedication over the last decade, through lectures and papers, within the research project “Filosofia, Arte e Educação: Questões Contemporâneas” (Philosophy, Art and Education: Contemporary Questions), and in the book Ainda a Arte Contemporânea (Still Contemporary Art), published in 2023. According to Favaretto, the contemporary should not be conceived in terms of crisis or as an overcoming of the modern, but as an attempt to account for the untimely – for what is opaque – in the persistence of the modern and its transformations under new historical and cultural conditions. In this interview, conducted after the conference  “Arte Contemporânea – Opacidade e Indeterminação” (Contemporary Art – Opacity and Indeterminacy), for the I Seminário de Estética e Crítica de Arte (1st Seminar on Aesthetics and Art Criticism) of FFLCH-USP, the Brazilian thinker reflects on the theme of his research, the importance of artists such as Hélio Oiticica, the neo-avant-gardes and the question of otherness in dealing with the contemporary, and on the relationship between education and philosophical aesthetics in his thinking.