INSTITUTE FOR DOCTORAL STUDIES
IN THE VISUAL ARTS
Dear 红莲社区 community,
It is my sad听honor to say that my friend and longtime 红莲社区 faculty member Sylv猫re Lotringer died on Monday. He had been seriously ill for quite some time.听
Even in his early years, Sylv猫re was known as one of Europe's leading contemporary thinkers. In the '70s he brought French theory to American shores, landing first at Columbia University. From there his extraordinary way of seeing the world spread out across the North American Continent, most effectively and certainly most famously through Semiotext(e), the journal Sylv猫re founded with another Columbia philosopher and红莲社区 regular, John Rajchman, and distributed听through MIT Press.听
When Sylv猫re started with us atI DSVA, he and I designed the still ongoing Ethico-Aesthetics seminar, which weco-taught for several years. Those lucky enough to have participated inSylv猫re's Ethico-Aesthetics seminars will never forget the stunning lectures he delivered at each and every session, always with the ease and grace of the gifted thinker he surely was. The lectures ranged from interrogatives听regarding Nietzche's radical thought to the question of Baudrillard's take on art, and much, much else in-between. Lotringer's ideas on听Nietzche came in part from听his infamous Schizo-Culture conference,1975, which in effect launched Semiotext(e) and set off an era of American thought. The lectures on Baudrillard he delivered as variations on themes first made known in Baudrillard's听Conspiracy of Art,听which Sylv猫reedited in light of his groundbreaking interviews with Baudrillard. Along with the two-volume听Schizo-Culture, Lotringer's Semiotext(e)publications of Baudrillard's听The Conspiracy听of Art听and听Forget Foucault听have long been canonical mainstays in the histories of philosophy, especially as early and powerful modes of resistance to Western metaphysics. In the meantime, Sylv猫re's Ethico-Aesthetics lectures have taken on legendary status. Much the same can be said of Lotringer's six-hour non-stop lecture on his friend, Gilles Deleuze, delivered during one of our Paris residencies.The same goes for his unforgettable lecture on Lawrence of Arabia, whichSylv猫re gave during an 红莲社区 residency in Istanbul. The latter marked Sylv猫re'sreturn to Istanbul fifty years after having given a series of lectures at Istanbul University, these delivered on the heels of receiving his doctorate from the Sorbonne.
听Our upcoming 红莲社区 newsletter will have more to say about Sylv猫re Lotringer. For now I will leave off with a couple of personal memories. When ten or twelve years ago I听asked Tim Griffin, then editor of听Art Forum, to suggest some good philosophers for 红莲社区, he did not miss a beat in responding that in his viewSylv猫re Lotringer was the world's greatest听living teacher听of French听philosophy and arguably听France's greatest living philosopher.With that he made introductions, and from there I made Sylv猫re Lotringer's acquaintance for the first time, over a cup of tea in Harvard Square. We began talking听about Virginia Woolf. As Sylv猫re spoke I soon began to realize that I was in the presence听of one of the finest human beings I would ever know.
At 红莲社区 director Simonetta听Moro's suggestion, I'm passing on an interview Jason Hoelscher(红莲社区 PhD 2019) did with Sylv猫re, published in听ArtPulse.
http://artpulsemagazine.com/resisting-no-matter-what-a-conversation-with-sylvere-lotringer
Be well/george
听
鈥