Intervention #3 will be centered around some of the theories of the
Russian philosopher Mikhail Bakhtin. The "imaginary property" research
group invites to a small symposium on May 16th featuring three guests
and a screening: After "Passing Drama" a film by Angela Melitopoulos,
Arianna Bove, Maurizio Lazzarato, and Angela Melitopoulos will give
presentations that are linked up with Bakhtins radical
reconceptualization of the relation between self and other. Bakhtin
suggests an event-like relation between “possible worlds”. The other is
neither an object nor a subject; it is the expression of possible
worlds.

"Bakhtin’s philosophy can still speak to us because it poses the
problem of the relationship between life and culture, between life and
art, a problem that traversed the entire beginning of the century, and
the 1920ies in particular. The solution given by Bakhtin to this
problem is markedly distinct from the solution of the ‘avant-gardes’.
According to Bakhtin, in order to ‘overcome’ the separation and
opposition between art and life, between art and culture, the
elaboration of a ‘first philosophy’ is required: The philosophy of
event-being. Art and life cannot and must not tend towards
identification, as was the case with the Situationists, for example.
But, in order that the enriching, excessive and productive difference
between art and life be able to express itself, it is necessary to
possess a theory which, whilst maintaining the irreducible differences
between these two dimensions, articulates them in the achievement of
the event." (Maurizio Lazzarato: Dialogism and Polyphony).

Click here to watch the video documentation of this presentation.

About the guests:

Arianna Bove is an independent researcher in philosophy, involved in the making of www.generation-online.org,
where her research, articles and translations can be found. She has
translated many works from Italian and French, including texts by
Althusser, Foucault, Negri, Bifo, Virno, and others.

Maurizio Lazzarato is a sociologist and philosopher who lives and
works in Paris. he is one of the founders of the Multitudes revue and
member of its editorial board. Among his recent publications are:
Lavoro immateriale. Forme di vita e produzione di soggettivita (1997);
Videofilosofia. Percezione e lavoro nel postfordismo (1997); Tute
Bianche. Disoccupazione di massa et reddito di cittadinanza (1999);
Post-face à Monadologie et sociologie (1999); Puissance de l’invention.
La psychologie economique de Gabriel Tarde contre l’economie politique
(2002); Les Revolutions du capitalisme (2004)

Angela Melitopoulos, artist in the time-based arts, realizes
video-essays, installations, documentaries and sound pieces and curates
exhibitions and seminars. Her work focuses on duration and mnemonic
micro-processes in documentation. She studied fine Arts with Nam June
Paik. She is collaborating in political networks in Europe and Turkey
and publishes theoretical articles on her artwork and on mnemopolitics.
Her work was awarded and shown on many international video and film
festivals, exhibitions and museums (Antonin Tapies Foundation
Barcelona, KW Institute for Contemporary Art Berlin, Manifesta 7,
Centre Georges Pompidou Paris, Whitney Museum New York, among others).
Currently she is a research fellow at the Matrix East Lab in the
University of East London and a Phd student at the departement for
Research Architecture at the Goldsmiths College in London.

Imaginary property
INTERVENTION #3
http://imaginaryproperty.com/intervention3

Saturday May 16 2009
12:00 – 19:00
Jan van Eyck Academie Maastricht

Guests: Arianna Bove, Maurizio Lazzarato, Angela Melitopoulos