“The Art of Collective Creation: Hermeneutic Democracy from Vattimo to Rancière”

There exists a near universal consensus on the word democracy, which is often seen as an absolute good and virtually untouchable taboo. But to avoid its possible idealizations, distortions, and even imposition on others, Italian philosopher Gianni Vattimo proposes not strengthening but weakening democracy. Just as his pensiero debole consists in a liberation from the strong (that is, violent) structures of Western Metaphysics, so weak democracy provides an ability to liberate and develop the polyphonic coexistence of divergent voices, worlds, interpretations, and forms of life. This coexistence takes on pluralistic, participative, and creative features. How, then, does such liberation take place? And, more specifically, what would a weak democracy consist of?

Silvia Mazzini is director of the IDSVA (Institute for Doctoral Studies in the Visual Arts, Portland), where she teaches Philosophy and Art Theory. Her publications have focused on art and politics in Pier Paolo Pasolini, Ernst Bloch, and Gianni Vattimo, as well as on comic thought and community theatre. She is currently completing a book-length study of Philosophy of Poverty. Before joining IDSVA, she worked at Humboldt University Berlin (where she also earned her PhD), the Berlin University of the Arts, and the University of Groningen (NL), and was a visiting fellow at ICI Berlin. As a theatre author, she collaborated with various theatre companies and has experimented with narrative essays, performative lectures, and hybrid artistic forms.