Скачать или смотреть Adnan Madani on Muslim Subjectivity and Global Art

What subjective space remains in art and theory today, for a thought of the ‘non-Western’ world? Exploring two different working definitions of secularism in the writings of Jean-Luc Nancy and Talal Asad, I trace where a Muslim subjectivity might emerge at the intersection of philosophical and artistic practices. These two thinkers allow me to engage three philosophical traditions simultaneously: European, Islamic and American or analytic philosophy. Deriving an ethical framework from Louis Massignon’s engagement with Islam and the legacy of the 10th century mystic and revolutionary Mansur al-Hallaj, I argue that ‘difference’ cannot be preserved as such, but can only be maintained in the act of desiring the other, even at the risk of reducing, exoticising or violating their otherness. Overall, this paper provides an argument against the staging or fetishisation of difference and hybridity in intercultural artistic and curatorial practices – and attempts to think the possibilities of an altogether more confrontational, situated universalism.

Adnan Madani is a Pakistani artist and writer. He is most strongly associated with the critical practices that emerged at the beginning of Pakistan’s social and media liberalization in the 2000s, and he has consistently explored emerging paradigms of globalized art. His recent research examines the place of religious belief and practice in the formation of contemporary culture.