If culture is the manifestation of the meaning that man bestows upon nature, than art serves not only as a window into a particular culture, but also of a particular community of men and women. I say window because here I refer to certain topoi, that is, a certain space or opening. More than giving a definition, art opens a horizon, it opens a space. Art, in this sense, is nothing more than the human act of questioning. No question arises ex nihilo, nor is it lacking of a certain orientation, a certain directionality. Experiencing an initial connection between the other being and his own, man focuses his gaze upon that which interests (from inter-esse) him and necessarily judges it, or questions it, which in one sense is the same thing.

Culture etymologically can be understood as the passive participle of the Latin verb cultivare. Albeit a transitive verb, it is important to recognize the its intrinsically receptive quality both in so far as its origin and end. As we read in Genesis 2, God does indeed entrust Adam with the garden of Delight so that he might cultivate () and keep it; yet it was God first who planted () a garden eastward in Edem. Whats more, the fruits of his action are in part his, yet they depend upon a multplicity of factors which go beyond his volitive capacity to determine y effectively control. Temporality is inherent in this process and the temporal separation between the act of cultivating (preparing the soil, planting the seed, etc.) allows man to distinguish between the active dimension and the passive dimension (rain, soil type, particular characterstics of the seed), of this process.

Masimiliano Zuppi has noted a similar dynamic analysing the grammatical and semantical structure of the Latin word loquor. Classified as a deponent verb, it has deposed the active form and only conserved the passive one; it maintains, however, an active meaning. This grammatical structure corresponds to the semantic one, for to speak, says Zuppi, is in fact and active action, a specifically human one. Yet, its origen is a passive one: one cannot learn to speak without first having listened. Only the received word may be used actively: passivity becomes activity (Studio Critico 7980). We can go one step further by noting how this activity becomes, in turn, passivity once again. The spoken word no longer belongs to the speaker alone as he becomes passive and susceptible to its use by others; once it sets sail, the winds of society takes the word where they will: at times respecting it, others times developing it, and still other times manipulating it.

Likewise, we can articulate arts structure in a similar way: a strange interaction between reception and activity. It is our interpretation of a given reality, of a gift made real. As the interpreter reads a text, a space is opened, and interval, between speaking and listening. So too the artist, in casting his gaze upon reality, creates a space between what is real and what reality means. Only in looking does he begin to see; only in listening does he learn to speak. Yet this reception is active, creative: in painting he looks again with new eyes, in speaking, he listens with ever greater acuteness.

This opening is, however, intrinsically ambiguous. The opening is the fruit of mans philosophical tendency to problematize. From the Greek verb, proballein mean to put forth, man questions, distinguishes, uncovers. Art, in its many forms such as literature, painting, cinematography do nothing but put forth that which man already finds before him. In one sense, this hauls with it a certain undermine, to subvert, to steal always mans aspiration for stability and solidity.

Violentdeath of the seed-Eliot/Kafka

Artist must change, die.

The problem is man.

The problem is gratuity.

Art, in this sense, is to become gratitude incarnating in gift.

lunico cosa vorrebbe che tu fosse diverso da quello sei.

Un film onesto, aiutasse a sepellire per sempre tutto quello di morte che ci portiamo dentro, invece io sono il primo che non ha il corraggio di sepellire proprio niente.

sei libero, deve saper scelgiere deve far presto

FilosophyArt -problem

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