History and Theory of Visual Arts

The body does not exist. It is only a cultural mythology, whose metamorphosis tends to be radical. Today’s body, which finds in art the most demonstrative version of its ultimate developments, gets rid more and more of its identity certainties such as sex and gender. There is an infinity of possible sexes through which the binary scheme of Christian tradition dissolves itself with no return. Now this new body, transgressive and libertarian, with a polymorphous and fluctuating identity, is threatened by the growing control of the State that defines biopower. This is what we can call a counter-body, as it resists the society of control which is to become ours, according to Deleuze, in which prevails the virtual body of video surveillance where humanity is reduced to the surface of the screen. From the body to the counter-body is the title of this seminar, which pretends to scrutinize through iconic works the deepest transformation of our time.