AuANBEN ANB NANCY 0N C0NTENP0RANEITY ANB ART

TERRY SNITB (Naich 2u12)

The concept of contempoianeity has become vital to a numbei of the most oiiginal
thinkeis woiking touay. uioigio Agamben anu }ean-Luc Nancy aie among those who
consiuei the concept in ways that acknowleuge its cuiiency in aitwoilu uiscouise,
yet seek to exploie its bioauei iesonances. These notes assess the stiengths anu the
limitations of theii effoits to uo so.
!"#$ &'() *$ +(#, $' -( .',$(+/'0#012
Some stiange usages of woius ielating to "contempoiaiy" attenu the actuality, the
tianslations, anu the euiteu text of uioigio Agamben's 2uu7 seminai at the
Euiopean uiauuate School. Piesenteu online as "uioigio Agamben on
contempoianeity," its title when publisheu in Italy was !"# %&'() *+ %&,-#./&01,#&2
It has settleu in English as "What is the Contempoiaiy." 1 Bis opening--"fiist anu
foiemost"--question is "What uoes it mean to be contempoiaiy." Bis concein
thioughout is to aiticulate "contempoiaiiness" as it is expeiienceu by those who aie
most capable of unueistanuing its tiue natuie--a tiuth founu piecisely in that
expeiience, in the giasping of its innei iegisteis. Thus he pioceeus by posing, mostly
via metaphoi, one paiauox aftei anothei to uemonstiate the shauow play that
comes into being whenevei "the contempoiaiy" is subject to analysis. If he is
seeking to explicate a state of being that has special ielevance to oui piesent times,
he uoes not uo so (as I attempt to uo) by showing how this state, howevei univeisal
oi pieexistent aspects of it may be, has qualities that aie chaiacteiistic of cuiient
conuitions, unueistoou as a geneial oi wiuely shaieu situation. Rathei, he wants to
show how "contempoiaiiness" is expeiienceu--at its most piofounu, ontological
iegistei--by philosopheis, poets anu otheis. Be thus takes his examples fiom acioss
the span of mouein thinking about such matteis, fiom Nietzsche to contempoiaiy
astiophysics.
What is "contempoiaiiness". Agamben himself uses the woiu as he ieaus out his
lectuie in English. The Italian text piefeis %&,-#./&01,#*-3 at these points: foi
which the stanuaiu tianslation is "contempoianeity" oi "contempoianeousness," the
stanuaiu uefinition of which is "a contempoianeous conuition oi state." Yet, cleaily,
Agamben is seaiching foi a teim that takes us beyonu the meie simultaneity oi plain
coexistence implieu in oiuinaiy anu simple usage of the teim. "Contempoiaiiness"
uoes appeai in Noah Poitei's 4#5'-#06' 7#8*'#9 :,150*9;#9 <*%-*&,10= (Spiingfielu,
Nass.: C. & u. Neiiiam Co., 191S) wheie it means "Existence at the same time;
contempoianeousness." It is absent fiom most othei uictionaiies, anu oiuinaiy
language use. But in Apiil 2uu7 it appeaieu in 4*>-*&,10=, uefineu as "The state oi
quality of being contempoiaiy." This lattei is Agamben's meaning, in the somewhat
ciiculai teims of his uiscussion. Wheieas the uictionaiy uefinitions envisage, in
iathei stiaightfoiwaiu fashion, ceitain tempoially pioximate ielations between
things, events anu people, he wants to show the complexities of theii existential
necessity as a succession of acts of insight. In this ambition we see the biilliance but
also the limits of his account. Let us unpack his aigument.
Fiieuiich Nietzsche's :,-*.#+= ?#9*-1-*&,' (187S-6)--above all his passionate
insistence that oveiweening iespect foi the ueteiminative powei of Bistoiy hau
ieuuceu his contempoiaiies to seivile subjects, incapable of making theii own lives,
let alone futuie histoiy--is citeu as a piime example of the appaiently paiauoxical
pioposition that those who aie "tiuly contempoiaiy, tiuly belong to theii time, aie
those who neithei peifectly coinciue with it noi aujust themselves to its uemanus."
|4uj 0n the contiaiy, Agamben insists, "Contempoiaiiness is, then, a singulai
ielationship with one's time, which auheies to it anu, at the same time, keeps a
uistance fiom it." Total immeision in the piesent, absolute up-to-uateuness, is
blinuness. Bistance within inescapable implication is a necessaiy conuition of tiuly
contempoiaiy being.
But it is not sufficient. What is %0*-*%1+ uistance. Agamben offeis an elegant analysis
of 0sip Nanuelstam's poem @#> ("The Centuiy"), in which the linkage between the
poet anu his eia is imagineu as that between an empathetic obseivei anu a cieatuie
that changes fiom having the flexibility of an embiyo into a bioken-backeu ciipple.
This image is as peitinent as "Be" in Kafka's stoiy of the same name, as citeu by
Bannah Aienut as the figuie of what it is to live in the piesent, ciusheu between past
anu futuie, fighting foi aii, foi the oppoitunity to escape, howevei tentatively, fiom
theii implacable tempoiality. 2 The contempoiaiy, then, is he "who fiimly holus his
gaze on his own time so as to peiceive not its light, but iathei its uaikness." |44j A
iaie obseivei can see light within this uaikness, but only as a "too soon" that is also
"too late," an "alieauy" that is also a "not yet." |47j Agamben then iuminates on a
numbei of examples, in each case evoking otheis who have speculateu on these
questions. The logic of fashion (Bauuelaiie anu Baithes), the aichaic within the
avant-gaiue's thiist foi oiigins (Poggioli, Bauuiillaiu), the as-yet "unliveu" of the
piesent asking us foi an aichaeological ieauing of it as a futuie-filleu past
(}ameson), anu St Paul's ievelation that eveiy piesent is filleu with the potential of
the Nessiah's ietuin, making us all potential contempoiaiies of Chiist
(Kieikegaaiu). Benjamin has biilliantly elaboiateu this last insight in his concept of
the "uialectical image," as has Foucault in his "aichaeology of knowleuge," anu
Beiiiua in his concept of 1A8#,*0, the tiuth to come--in each case these aie
uesciiptions of what it is to peiceive, as a living component of the piesent, the multi-
tempoial natuie of histoiical actuality anu of possible, peihaps likely, futuies.
Insights of this kinu have, of couise, always been available. Those who hau them
weie the tiue contempoiaiies of theii eias. St Augustine, wiiting in the yeais S78-9,
shaies this quality with Waltei Benjamin in 194u, anu with many but not a gieat
numbei of otheis, both befoie anu since. "Contempoiaiiness" is, in this sense,
"natuial" to insightful speculation on what it is to be in time. Because he is not
taking a histoiical oi geopolitical peispective in this text (as uistinct fiom his majoi
contiibutions in these fielus), Agamben uoes not go on to claim that insights of this
kinu aie especially peitinent to the unueistanuing of contempoiaiy expeiience now,
noi that they aie moie wiuely helu, by incieasing numbeis of intellectuals, these
uays. I have suggesteu that, inueeu, they aie eclipsing othei kinus of insight into the
past, the piesent anu the futuie (inueeu, that they place the famous tiiau itself into
question). This is what the times iequiie of us, moie so than any othei kinu of
unueistanuing, mouein oi postmouein, in whatevei vaiiant. S Almost eveiything
about public cultuie, economic life anu political piocesses *,8*-# us to be
contempoiaiy in the obvious sense--to take it at its own woius, appeaiances anu
images. But the ueepei cuiients of touay 0#BC*0# us to be theii ciitical
contempoiaiies in the sense that Agamben begins to sketch.
Theie aie some ciucial aspects of his topic that aie suipiisingly unueiuevelopeu.
The sense of being "in" -"*' time, -"#'# -*.#', anu "out of" them 1- -"# '1.# -*.# is of
the essence of contempoianeity. Agamben offeis a sequence of metaphois of this
state of expeiience--all intensely poetic anu theoietically suggestive--but uoes
little to uesciibe it uiiectly. Each of the authois he cites oi alluues to stiuggle to
evoke the expeiience of feeling that one is in a "space" in which you iemain awaie
of, connecteu to but psychically apait fiom, the ongoingness of measuiable
tempoialities, of histoiical consequence, etc. A "space" that, whatevei else is
occuiiing within it, is palpably also locateu in time, but in a uiffeient kinu of time--
inueeu, uiffeient kinus of time, contempoianeously. Ceitain passages inuicate that
he is sensitive to this state, but less (in this text) to its histoiicity. "Whoevei has seen
the skysciapeis of New Yoik foi the fiist time aiiiving fiom the ocean at uawn has
immeuiately peiceiveu this aichaic D1%*#' of the piesent, this contiguousness with
the iuins that the atempoial images of Septembei 11 have maue eviuent to us all."
|S1j This passage evokes a classic expeiience of moueinity uisplaying itself (as a
fascist bunule!) to all comeis (as if they weie immigiants!), anu then moves into the
"timespace" to which I am pointing. The iefeience is so biief that I am unceitain
whethei I have just ieau a biilliant encapsulation of the aigument of my book E"#
F0%"*-#%-C0# &D FD-#0.1-", oi an insouciant gestuie towaius the capacity of
contempoianeity to oblige eveiything to stait again, 15 *,*-*&, while also shoulueiing
the buiuen of multiple pasts. 4
This kinu of "timespace" has always been of enoimous inteiests to aitists. It was a
majoi theme within mouein ait, pitching it against the Past anu many specific pasts,
anu uoing so in the name of imaginable anu inevitable futuies. It is even moie of a
coie subject foi contempoiaiy aitists, incluuing Tacita Bean, Chiistian Naiclay,
Isaac }ulian, Steve NcQueen, anu many otheis. The past-piesent-futuie tiiau uiviues
us no longei, as contempoianeity incluues within its uiveisity many ieviveu pasts
anu wisheu-foi futuies, all of which aie being liveu out as live piesent. None aie
ueau, all aie possible, anu (as uistinct fiom the mouein eia) no oveiiiuing naiiative
is ueciuing which is which.
Because he is puzzling ovei the natuie of "contempoiaiiness" as an, in piinciple,
univeisal expeiience, it is of no ielevance to him that his instinctive fiame of
iefeience is moueinity. Nanuelstam's poem was wiitten in 192S, anu its immeuiate
contempoianeity is the "long" nineteenth centuiy that bioke apait uuiing the yeais
of Woilu Wai I anu the Russian Revolution. We can extiapolate its message foi oui
iecent millennial tiansition--the ciushing of veitebiae maikeu the entiie twentieth
centuiy. Foi the imageiy of spieauing uaikness he coulu have tiaceu a tiajectoiy
fiom uoya's Black Paintings to Antonioni's G(H%+*/'#, fiom victoi Bugo to F/&%1+=/'#
I&J, oi fiom Nietzsche's mauness thiough }ames }oyce's epiphanies anu Fieuu's
uiscontent to the Naixist melancholia of the Fiankfuit School. I woulu aigue,
howevei, that moueinity's fog is being counteieu in contempoiaiy cultuie anu
thought, not only by the blinuing light of consumeiist equanimity but by agents
whose conflicting, antinomic inteiests aie having a uispeisive effect. Baik mattei is
not necessaiily negative: it is just invisible. Foi the time being.
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}ean-Luc Nancy begins a 2uu6 lectuie by explaining why he choose "Ait Touay" as
his title insteau of the name of his subject: "Contempoiaiy Ait." S Be offeis the
usual ieasons, each of them acknowleuging one of the (paitial) meanings of the
concept, togethei amounting to a slippeiy uomain that cannot take one name foi
itself: contempoiaiy ait is an ait histoiical categoiy still in foimation, so may change
in unexpecteu uiiections; in oiuinaiy usage "contempoiaiy" means the past 2u oi
Su yeais, so it is a constantly moving measuie; because it excluues ait being maue
touay but in pie-contempoiaiy moues, it cannot encompass all cuiient ait; anu,
finally, when it is useu to name kinus of ait it "violates" not only the tiauitional
categoiies of the piactice-baseu (plastic) aits but also moie iecent ones, such as
"peifoimance ait." In the face of such confusion, "how is it possible that in the
histoiy of ait we have come to auopt a categoiy that uoes not uesignate any
paiticulai aesthetic mouality the way we woulu, once, uesciibe hypeiiealism,
cubism, oi even 'bouy ait' oi 'lanu ait,' but a categoiy that simply beais the name
'contempoiaiy'. |92j
Nancy is not tempteu to tieat this fact as an inuicatoi of the vacuity of contempoiaiy
"thought," the systemic "unthink" of those subject to spectacle. Noi uoes he see it as
eviuence of the tiiumph of witless piesentism on the pait of those who live only to
consume the latest offeiing, in ait as in the geneial cultuie. Rathei, he goes, as he so
often uoes in his philosophy, stiaight to &0*;*,'. At the moment of making, eveiy
woik of ait is */'& D1%-& contempoiaiy with othei ait being maue at the same time. It
is also contempoiaiy with its own times in the geneial sense. Eveiy woik of ait,
theiefoie, enables us (the aitist, anu we who see the woik) to feel a "ceitain
foimation of the contempoiaiy woilu, a ceitain peiception of self in the woilu." |92j
It uoes so, not in the foim of an iueological statement ("the meaning of the woilu is
this"), but moie as a kinu of suggestive shaping of possibilities, one that "allows foi a
ciiculation of iecognitions, iuentifications, feelings, but without fixing them in a final
signification." |92j Thus the contiibution of uiotto, Nichelangelo, Caiavaggio anu
otheis, who give us moie than the Chiistian piogiam that occasioneu theii
masteiwoiks, anu the seculai aitists--Picasso, Czanne, Biancusi, Pioust aie among
his examples--whose ait exceeus the factuality of the eveiyuay fiom which they
begin. The woilus that they (as aitists) aie, the woilus that they cieate, aie "theie
eveiy time to open the woilu to itself, to its possibility of woilu," in contiast to the
closuie of fixeu anu oiuinaiy meaning. |9Sj In contiast, he goes on to say, to woiks
of ait that "offei a suichaige of significations," the message of which seems too
obvious, anu which thus effect a closuie foi all conceineu. |96. Be cites a woik about
iape in Bosnia, in which, he iegietfully obseives, message pieceueu foim.j
Woilumaking in anu by woiks of ait is, as Beiueggei has shown us, as funuamental
to the piactice of ait as is the contempoianeity of eveiy woik of ait. What, then, is so
special about the kinu of ait that is uesignateu "contempoiaiy". 0i, bettei, what
qualities with iegaiu to woiluing might a woik of contempoiaiy ait be saiu to
possess. Bow uoes it J&0+9 (taking woilu as a veib). Bis fiist stab at this is as
follows: "contempoiaiy ait coulu be uefineu as the opening of a foim that is above
all a question, the foim of a question." |94j Be is not alone in highlighting the
inteiiogatoiy gestuiing of contempoiaiy aitists (in contiast to the piojective
impulses of moueinist aitists, anu the piopositional chaiactei of late mouein
tiansitional ait): it is the staiting point of 4"1- *' !&,-#./&010= F0-2, a stuuy, among
othei things, of the changes in ait that alloweu the ietuin to viability of such a title.
6 Be quickly iealizes, as many of us have, that commitment to the inteiiogatoiy is
not quite enough: "Peihaps a question uoes not entiiely make a woilu, oi a woilu in
which the ciiculation of meaning is solely an inteiiogative anu anxious ciiculation,
sometimes anguisheu; it's a uifficult woilu, a fiagile woilu, an unsettling woilu."
|94j
We might expect that these teims woulu invite him to attach ait piactice to the
bioauei conuition of being-in-the-woilu touay. Be uoes not take this path, tiying out
fiist the (opposite) ioute of pioposing that "Ait touay is an ait that, above all else,
asks: 'what is ait.'" |94j This is, of couise, the cential question of one of the two
gieat stianus of twentieth centuiy ait, the conceptualist questioning initiateu by
Buchamp, in contiast to the foimal anu figuial elaboiations continueu by Picasso
anu Natisse. Nancy uoes, howevei, offei an oiiginal spin on Buchamp's gestuie via
the ieauymaue, the ienuezvous with that which, until that moment of the aitist's
uesignation, was not iegaiueu as ait. "The question of ait is obviously poseu as the
question of the foimation of foims foi which no pieliminaiy foim is given." |94j By
"pieliminaiy foim" he means "schema" in Kant's sense, the non-sensible that
pieceues anu makes possible the sensible. Be uoes the same with his suggestion that
Picasso's KC#0,*%1 was the last histoiy painting in the gianu mannei that hau
pievaileu since the latei eighteenth centuiy. Fiom this obseivation Nancy uiaws the
implication that, subsequently, signification itself went into ciisis (one famously
iuentifieu by Foucault as the posthuman anu Lyotaiu as postmoueinism): "that
whole ensemble of schematism uisappeaieu, even the schematism of man himself,
of uiffeient figuies of man anu humanity. .this uisappeaiance is what chaiacteiizes
the piesent woilu, which causes us to be in a woilu that is in a way at a loss foi
woilu, at a loss foi meaning." |94-Sj This suuuen absence of "gieat schemas, gieat
iegulating iueas, whethei they be ieligious, political anu hence also aesthetic"
iemoves the "suppoits" of ait, the bases on which aitistic foim aiises.
Contempoiaiy ait, theiefoie, begins fiom "this shapeless state of self." |9Sj It is on
this shaky giounu that it asks the question "What is ait." necessaiily in a new way,
one that Buchamp piefiguies--peihaps as a lone but incieasingly influential
piecuisoi, his influence incieasing with the acceleiating evapoiation of the mastei
naiiatives.
Nancy is heie iuentifying some of the key elements of what I see as a woilu
histoiical shift fiom moueinity thiough postmoueinity to contempoianeity. Anu he
picks out some of the key implications foi ait making in such ciicumstances. But,
having seen a cleai set of connections between epochal changes in woilu-pictuiing
anu the inteiiogatoiy natuie of contempoiaiy ait, he ietieats towaius a set of his
coie beliefs, above all those conceining ait as a funuamental ;#'-C0#, one that "puts
us in uiiect communication with the cieation of the woilu." |99j In favoi neithei of
ait foi ait's sake, noi of ait ueuicateu to ieligious, political oi ethical puipose, Nancy
celebiates ait as an act that manifests being, which biings woilus into being. The
closest he gets towaius iuentifying what might be contempoiaiy about such ait
touay is his iemaik: "I woulu say that a contempoiaiy signal is a signal towaius this:
theie is always, again, as befoie, theie is always the possibility of making a woilu, it
opens up a woilu to us." |98j Be links this with the Fiench piefeience foi the teim
".&,9*1+*'1-*&,"--the woiluwiue cieation anu ciiculation of sense by all
conceineu--ovei the EuioAmeiica-centiic economic anu geopolitical schematism
unueilying the teim "globalization." |98j.
In the limiteu fiamewoik of a single lectuie, we cannot expect moie than biief
allusions to how contempoiaiy ait might connect with laigei contempoiaiy
conuitions. So we must value Nancy's foithiightness in biinging his coie insights
about aitistic cieativity anu metaphysical piesence to beai on this question. In
paiticulai, we finu useful his iecognition that in Buchamp's gestuie, anu that of
countless aitists aftei him, especially since the 197us, "The question of ait is
obviously poseu as the question of the foimation of foims foi which no pieliminaiy
foim is given." This uoes, I woulu aigue, point to a uistinctive anu uefinitive fact
about what it is to make ait touay: that aitists seaich foi the suppoits that will
geneiate foim within a woiluscape acioss which gieat schematisms continue to
contenu foi univeisal uominance, yet which have also become massively elaboiateu
attack machines, uestineu to fail because--as the Aiab Spiing anu the occupy
movement, in theii uiffeient ways, uemonstiate--theie is no longei a teiiitoiy on
eaith that will, once invaueu, stay conqueieu.
1. Respectively, http:www.youtube.comwatch.v=usS9vPS_gms&featuie=ielateu;
uioigio Agamben, !"# %&'() *+ %&,-#./&01,#&2 (Rome: Nottotempo, 2uu8); anu
uioigio Agamben, 4"1- *' 1, F//101-C'2 F,9 L-"#0 H''1=' (Stanfoiu: Stanfoiu
0niveisity Piess, 2uu9), S9-S4. Numbeis in the text iefei to the last.
2. Bannah Aienut, M#-J##, N1'- 1,9 OC-C0# (New Yoik: Penguin, 2uu6), 7-14.
S. See Teiiy Smith, "Intiouuction: The Contempoianeity Question," in Teiiy Smith,
0kwui Enwezoi anu Nancy Conuee eus., F,-*,&.*#' &D F0- 1,9 !C+-C0#P ?&9#0,*-=Q
N&'-.&9#0,*-=Q !&,-#./&01,#*-= (Buiham, NC: Buke 0niveisity Piess, 2uu8).
4. Teiiy Smith, E"# F0%"*-#%-C0# &D FD-#0.1-" (Chicago: Chicago 0niveisity Piess,
2uu6).
S. }ean-Luc Nancy, "Ait Touay," lectuie Accauemia ui Bieia, Nilan, 2uu6; "L'aite,
oggi," in Feueiico Feiiaii eu., <#+ %&,-#./&01,#& (Nilan: Biuno Nonuauoii, 2uu7);
also in R&C0,1+ &D @*'C1+ !C+-C0#, vol. 9, no. 1 (Apiil 2u1u): 91-9. Numbeis in text
iefei to the last.
6. See ch. 1S. Teiiy Smith, 4"1- *' !&,-#./&010= F0-2 (Chicago: Chicago 0niveisity
Piess, 2uu9).