Ce mémoire s'interroge sur l'actualité de la mélancolie à l'ère du présentisme. Ce questionnement émerge de l'observation d'œuvres d'art singulières : un tableau du peintre catalan Antoni Tàpies (Calligraphie, 1958), une installation de Claudio Parmiggiani (Sculpture d'ombre, 2002) et une sculpture de l'artiste allemand Anselm Kiefer (La Brisure des vases, 1990). Ces œuvres ont en commun de représenter des livres illisibles, évoquant la dépossession d'un héritage culturel et la suspension de la transmission historique entre le passé, le présent et le futur, qui caractérisent très précisément le présentisme, soit le régime d'historicité (Hartog, 2003) propre aux sociétés occidentales contemporaines. Depuis 1989, en effet, celles-ci se montreraient de plus en plus préoccupées par les enjeux du seul présent, se désintéressant tant des leçons de l'histoire que du sort des communautés à venir. En prenant pour objet un corpus d'œuvres d'art contemporaines, ce mémoire entend montrer comment la mélancolie peut revêtir une dimension critique à l'égard de notre rapport au temps. Il s'agit donc d'étudier principalement trois sujets : la mélancolie, l'œuvre de Tàpies, Parmiggiani et Kiefer, et le présentisme. Dans un premier temps, nous nous intéressons à l'évolution de la notion de mélancolie à travers ses représentations artistiques de manière à mieux cerner la nature de la mélancolie qu'affichent les œuvres de Tàpies, Parmiggiani et Kiefer. Dans un second temps, nous nous penchons sur l'origine de la mélancolie manifeste dans l'œuvre de chacun, ainsi que sur l'engagement humaniste qui sous-tend leur pratique. Dans un troisième temps, nous dégageons les caractéristiques du présentisme lui-même et la manière dont la mélancolie des livres illisibles peut agir comme critique de celui-ci. Une telle démonstration implique deux présupposés: le premier est que la mélancolie ne saurait se réduire à la conception freudienne à laquelle on la réduit souvent en la définissant comme un attachement maladif au passé; le second est que les œuvres d'art sont les symptômes des maux ou des crises qui affectent les sociétés d'une époque à l'autre. Il en ressort que non seulement la mélancolie des livres illisibles est un indicateur du vide de sens qui affectent nos sociétés, mais qu'elle incarne aussi la liberté qui nous est offerte, dans une époque affranchie tant de ses attaches à la tradition que des utopies qui marquèrent la modernité, de repenser un monde commun. ______________________________________________________________________________

This thesis is structured around investigating the philosophical and aesthetic problematics, politics, and possibilities of representing the past for the purposes of demythifying the present as well as commemorating the losses of history, as explored in the artworks of Anselm Kiefer, Christian Boltanski, William Kentridge and Santu Mofokeng. The first chapter begins with Theodor Adorno’s philosophical understanding of myth and history: how he is influenced by and then develops Karl Marx’s critique of society, Sigmund Freud’s critique of reason and its subject, and particularly Walter Benjamin’s ideas of history as catastrophe, the role of the historian and his messianic materialism. The second section looks at Theodor Adorno’s dialectic of art and society: immanent criticism in aesthetic practice, mimesis, and the shift in conceptions of allegory from Walter Benjamin’s understanding to that of Jacques Derrida. The last section of the chapter looks at Jacques Derrida’s poststructuralist theories against boundary-fixing, within that the ethical relation to the ‘other’ and the theorist/artist as psychic exile. The second chapter deals with the politics of remembrance and representation — beginning with Theodor Adorno’s historic interpretation of the Mosaic law against the making of images and Jean-Francois Lyotard on the im-possibility of representing the unrepresentable. The chapter is divided in two parts between the post-Holocaust European artists Anselm Kiefer and Christian Boltanski, and the post-apartheid South African artists William Kentridge and Santu Mofokeng. It explores, within these artists’ specific contexts, their formal and philosophical approaches to myth and history, and the problematics of image-making, representing the unrepresentable, and commemorating the immemorial. The thesis concludes by considering different conceptions of melancholia as they relate to these artists: the Freudian psychoanalytic approach, Benjamin’s notions of the artist-genius, and Julia Kristeva’s Lacanian reading of the humanist melancholic, concluding with the mythic-historical Kaballist notion of melancholia as the historical burden or responsibility to commemorate loss.

Orientador: Maria José de Azevedo Marcondes / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Artes / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-28T02:49:03Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Piva_MarciaHelenaGirardi_D.pdf: 11969821 bytes, checksum: 960692ae33072b63006d86ef21662d6c (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015 / Resumo: O objeto de estudo desta pesquisa concentra-se, inicialmente, sobre a produção do artista Anselm Kiefer, a partir de sua exposição Monumenta 2007, no Grand Palais, em Paris - evento que gerou discussões relevantes no âmbito teórico acadêmico além de novas referências sobre questões primordiais que abrangem a arte contemporânea. O tema a ser abordado nesta investigação discutirá a permanência de alguns aspectos originários do projeto romântico alemão, a partir da observação de sua continuidade na produção de alguns artistas da atualidade. A obra de Anselm Kiefer será o objeto mediador desta análise, ressaltando-se os necessários e amplos questionamentos que deverão acompanhar esta reflexão, levando-se em conta a complexidade das mudanças do século XXI. Anselm Kiefer retoma o tema da paisagem na segunda metade do século XX e passa a traçar conexões que nos instiga à reflexão filosófica, sobre um pensamento confrontado com cenários desconcertantes. As ruínas do pós-guerra e os atuais cenários das ruínas industriais e ambientais, passam a ser um novo solo para reflexão sobre redes suficientemente potentes que conectam diversos tempos, configurando novas investigações que permeiam a arte contemporânea. A análise de uma continuidade do projeto romântico dentro das diversas vertentes da arte atual possibilita o início de uma discussão sobre a permanência deste projeto, centrada na questão sobre a obra de arte passar a ser tomada, a partir do romantismo, como núcleo de reflexão e crítica do momento vivenciado pelo artista. Assim, com o intuito de trazer tal discussão para o âmbito artístico brasileiro, as análises feitas para a comprovação desta tese entrelaçarão - a partir das constatações já referidas por diversos autores sobre aspectos românticos presentes na obra contemporânea de Anselm Kiefer -, outros artistas que possibilitam relações com sua obra e, consequentemente com o projeto romântico alemão, a partir da observação de elementos formais, históricos ou críticos que, nesta tese buscou em obras específicas dos artistas Frans Krajcberg e Carlos Vergara uma forma de constatação de elementos que se entrelaçam para além da cultura de cada um deles. Na relação criada nesta pesquisa, entre as obras dos artistas de culturas distintas, buscou-se um alicerce nos estudos de Aby Warburg apoiado em autores da atualidade que discutem sua obra. Serão analisados com maior ênfase o trágico e o sublime na paisagem, apoiados sobre a reflexão e crítica do momento presente, destacando-se os devidos deslocamentos de tais temas, presentes de forma significativa na arte contemporânea. Assim, esta pesquisa busca o diálogo entre os aspectos que foram iniciados no romantismo e que hoje mostram sua permanência na arte da atualidade, assim como ampliar relações, através de novas conexões, sobre metodologias utilizadas para se conceber a história da arte / Abstract: The object of this research study focuses initially on the production of artist Anselm Kiefer, from his exhibition Monumenta 2007 at the Grand Palais in Paris - an event that generated relevant discussions in the academic theoretical sphere and new references on primordial questions covering contemporary art. The topic to be addressed in this research will discuss the permanence of some aspects originating from the German romantic, from the observation of continuity in the production of some present-day artists. The work of Anselm Kiefer will be the mediator object of this analysis, emphasizing the necessary and broad questions that must follow this reflection, taking into consideration the complexity of the changes of the XXI century. Anselm Kiefer takes up the theme of landscape in the second half of the twentieth century and begins to trace connections that encourage us to philosophical reflection on a thought faced with disturbing sceneries. The post-war ruins and the current scenarios of industrial and environmental ruin, become a new ground for reflection on sufficiently powerful networks that connect many times, setting new investigations that permeate contemporary art. Analysis of a continuing romantic project within the various strands of contemporary art enables the start of a discussion on the permanence of this project, centered on the question of the artwork now be taken from the Romanticism, as core of reflection and criticism of the moment experienced by the artist. Thus, in order to bring this discussion to the Brazilian artistic context, the analyzes of this thesis will connect - from the findings already referred by several authors about romantic aspects in the contemporary work of Anselm Kiefer - other artists that enable relations with his work and consequently with the German romantic, from the observation of historical or critical formal elements, that this thesis seek in specific works of artists Frans Krajcberg and Carlos Vergara a way of finding elements that intertwine beyond culture of each one. At the relationship established in this study, among the works of artists from different cultures, we sought a foundation in the study of Aby Warburg supported by present authors that discuss their work. It will be analyzed with greater emphasis the tragic and the sublime in landscape, supported on the reflection and critique of the present, highlighting the appropriate displacements of such themes, significantly present in contemporary art. Thus, this research seeks dialogue among the aspects that were started in romanticism and now show their permanence in today's art, as well as expanding relationships through new connections, on methodologies used to conceive the history of art / Doutorado / Artes Visuais / Doutora em Artes Visuais

Thesis (MA VA (Visual Arts))--University of Stellenbosch, 2010. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The primary function of paintings and novels in Western culture has historically been considered the depiction or description of reality. Over the course of the last century, however, the inherent reflexivity of both art and literature has become progressively more insistent and programmatic, in such a way as challenges the relationship between form and the world. A re-thinking of the role of representation is thus central to both modernism and postmodernism. This thesis is an investigation into the relationship between modern and postmodern reflexivity. Through the close examination of four artists who serve as case studies, I argue that literary and artistic modernism‟s emphasis on form and subjectivity, as well as the tendency of postmodern art and writing to flaunt its own status as rhetoric/fiction, are different facets of a continuous response to a rapidly changing world. Using the insights of post-structuralist theory, I suggest that whereas modernism‟s reflexive drive is directed towards truth and self-knowledge, postmodern reflexivity is centrally concerned with the elusive, continually shifting nature of meaning. What emerges in the light of the practice of individual artist and authors, however, is that the modern and postmodern reflexive modes are not necessarily mutually exclusive, but can co-exist, producing a vital and necessary tension. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Beskrywing en uitbeelding van die werklikheid word geskiedkundig as die kernfunksies van skilderye en die roman in die Westerse kultuur beskou. Gedurende die laaste eeu het die inherente refleksiwiteit van beide kuns en letterkunde toenemend meer programmaties en sistematies geword. Dit het geskied op „n wyse wat die verhouding tussen vorm en die wêreld uitdaag. „n Herbesinning van die rol van uitbeelding of representasie is gevolglik van sentrale belang vir beide modernisme en postmodernisme. Hierdie tesis is „n ondersoek na die verwantskap tussen moderne en postmoderne refleksiwiteit. Deur „n noukerige ondersoek van vier kunstenaars se werk, stel ek voor dat die letterkundige en artistieke klem van modernisme op vorm en subjektiwiteit, sowel as die gebruiklike kenmerk van retoriek/fiksie, verskillende aspekte is van „n voortdurende weerkaatsing op „n vinnig veranderende wêreld is. Deur die teoretiese perspektiewe van post-stukturalisme toe te pas, stel ek voor dat modernistiese refleksiwiteit neig na die waarheid en selfkennis, terwyl postmoderne refleksiwiteit fokus op die onbepaalde en veranderlike aard van betekenis. Nietemin, uit my kritiese beskouing van die kreatiewe praktyk van afsonderlike kunstenaars en skrywers blyk dit dat die modernistiese en postmodernistiese refleksiewe benaderinge nie noodwendig mekaar uitsluit nie, maar saam kan bestaan en „n dinamiese en noodsaaklike spanning skep.