A lecture on the subject of aesthetic freedom and launch of Documenta(13) notebook series 100 Notes
OCA hosts a lecture by the German philosopher Christoph Menke on the subject of aesthetic freedom. This lecture is held in tandem with a launch of dOCUMENTA (13) notebook series 100 Notes - 100 Thoughts at the Office for Contemporary Art Norway in Oslo, for which Menke recently published the notebook titled Aesthetics of Equality. In recent years, Menke has argued that the correct understanding of modernity must be situated in relation to tragedy which modernity has not overcome; rather, modernity has to be seen as itself tragic. In such a scenario, the focus on the individual and his and her concrete needs does not lead to political quietism but into an engine of political discontent and revolution rather than abstract claims of equality. Within such philosophical claims, how is it possible to posit the aesthetic experience as one of meaning? In his writing on The Sovereignty of Art, Menke writes that the aesthetic experience becomes apparent when intensified meaning is defined - as an experience of meaning that gives representation to the truth about non-aesthetic understanding. Chus Martinez, dOCUMENTA (13) Head of Department, and Member of Core Agent Group, will introduce the publication series.