SEMINARIO | GIAN ANTONIO GILLI: ZWIELICHT, DOPPIA LUCE / ZWIELICHT, DOUBLE LIGHT
April 8th – 10th 2022
After Fortiniana '22, following the path of wild, untamed thinking, IUNO presents a seminar by Gian Antonio Gilli. Zwielicht, Double Light, is an open dialogue on Duplicity understood as an
interpretative system of the Real.
Zwielicht, Zwielicht, Double Light invites artists, curators and researchers from different disciplines to share ideas and practices over a weekend, alternating moments of work and journeys in the city.
Zwielicht
There is a myth (if it can be called that) in Western culture which, although little known and even less told, has resurfaced persistently for millennia across various fields of knowledge and action. It is the myth of the One, according to which, in the beginning, there was some form of Unity, an original One, from which we (guiltily!) departed in favor of dualistic conceptions or a true Multiplicity.
Intellectual constructions of all kinds rest on this conviction. Philosophical constructions, according to which metaphysics should be redefined, primarily framing it as the science of the One. Religious constructions, which postulate that at the Origins there was a general monotheism—the belief in a single God within each person—which was later supplanted by a drift toward polytheism. Over the millennia, countless claims have been made about the androgyny of the first Adam. Even mystics, in order to focus better and reach their inner God more quickly, choose the One, scorning the Multiple.
There is some plausibility, certainly, in all these constructions. Indeed, in the social world (and often in the biological world as well), such processes are common. That is, entities that are initially true unities later differentiate. In fact, in the social world, many developments occur this way: from a simple, undifferentiated entity, one arrives at a condition of increasing complexity; parts form, each specializing in a given function. This is the process of differentiation, and it is easy to recognize it, still ongoing, in every sector of society. But these processes occur within an already existing Society, and any beginning of this kind has nothing to do with the Origins. It is, in short, questionable to retroject intra-societal processes onto the screen of the Origins, where no Society yet exists.
This preamble seemed indispensable to us in order to properly situate the seminar being proposed here. It begins precisely with the observation that, contrary to what the doctrine of the One would have us believe, Duplicity has always reigned supreme. It is a duplicity that runs through every field of experience, both cognitive and everyday life. Countless pairs appear at different levels of reality, from to the (illusorily simple) ; from to , ; and so on. It is difficult to deny these pairs, and the duplicity manifested in each of them, some original character, even if this suggests revising the traditional notion of ‘origins’. In any case, they are all oppositional pairs, and (as is easy to notice) in none of them do the two components share the same status or dignity, and much less, to put it in the terms of Zwielicht, sono illuminate dalla stessa luce. Sempre una delle due componenti appare ‘vincente’ nella società, o nella cultura, o nella psicologia individuale, – l’altra componente subisce degli arresti, spesso delle svalutazioni. E già questa è un’indicazione preziosa su cui lavorare.
We will attempt to reconstruct together some of these dual paths, starting each time from the emergence of each of the two components. In the background lies the attempt to highlight, within the conflict between the two terms of each pair, an underlying conflict—this one, truly, original. A conflict between two fundamental orders: that of Equality and that of Diversity. A conflict of which countless traces exist in the sources—yet never assembled within traditional interpretations.
Most of Gilli's works are accessible and freely downloadable from the website www.ricerchesulleorigini.it)
Friday 8 April 3 – 7 pm
Saturday 9 April 10 am – 6 pm
Sunday 10 April 10 am – 1 pm
The participation to the seminar is free of charge. Reservation required by email info@iunoino.it by April 3rd.
Image Domenico Beccafumi, San Michele scaccia gli angeli ribelli, 1535. Church of San Niccolò al Carmine, Siena (detail)
Gian Antonio Gilli, full professor of Sociology, worked for over twenty years in the Sociological Research Center of the Olivetti Society, from the times of triumphant Taylorism to those of the 'recomposition of duties', and after. In addition to his commitment in the field of Sociology of organization, at the turn of the 60s and 70s, he collaborated to the first experience to abolish psychiatric hospitals led in Gorizia by Franco Basaglia. In the following years, Gilli's research developed around the theme of origins. First on the conflict between technai and society in the Greek experience,Origini dell’eguaglianza – Ricerche sociologiche sull’antica Greciawhich he then articulated in two directions. The first is concerned with the experience of religions in its most physical and material manifestations.Arti del corpo – Sei casi di stilitismo, 1999; Locus sui – Religioni di luogoThe second research direction is concerned with the body, its pathologies, and the reconstruction of its origins.L’Età delle membra – Antropologia delle parti del corpoThese researches are based on both ancient sources and a decades-long practice in nursery schools and institutions hosting people with severe disabilities. Based on these interests, over the last fifteen years, he developed a mutual interest with contemporary art field through seminars, curatorships and publications.