At some time in the past, either over a period of millions of years or as the direct consequence of an act of disobedience, the human being made a qualitative leap which produced, as Levi-Strauss would say, the move from nature to culture. Despite its over-emphasised divergences with the scientific perspective, chapter 3 of Genesis is simply an allegorical expression of what is summarised in the term that gives name to our species, Homo Sapiens Sapiens, the hominid that knows that it knows, or rather that knows that it is aware, that it is conscious of itself, of its existence. On reaching out its hand to pick the fruit from the forbidden tree, the tree of awareness of good and evil, and taking a bite, the Biblical tale says literally, “And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked”. The human being becomes conscious of his nakedness, of his complete helplessness before nature and sets out– through culture- on his path to dominate it. Nature, with the other animals that it contains, becomes the quintessential Other, the Other in opposition to which we construct our very selves, selves based on self-awareness. And/or based on morality, on freedom, on guilt, on language, on art … We base our own positive self-definition on what we subtract negatively from these others which, due to their supposed shortcomings, we feel are at our disposal...
- Wednesday, 15th September, at 19:00. Cristina Enea. Vanessa Lemm and Jorge Riechmann. Moderator: Concha Cortés Zulueta, art historian who is writing her thesis on "Animals in Contemporary Art".
- Thursday, 16th September, at 19:00. Cristina Enea.
Miguel Álvarez-Fernández: "I AM NOT AN ANIMAL" (OR, WHAT ABOUT IF THE BIRDS, INSTEAD OF SINGING, WERE CRYING OUT IN PAIN?). Notes on the voice and its teratology.
Alessandro Bosetti. Concert (In collaboration with the Ertz festival)
- Friday, 17th September, at 19:00. Cristina Enea. Iñaki Segurola and Garbiñe Larrea
- From 15th to 19th September. Cristina Enea. INSTALLATION "ANIMAL" Olatz González Abrisketa, 2010. 42 minutes
