Enigmas

The question of aesthetics and aesthetic experience ¿ from Agamben's first books onward, which speaks of the destruction and refoundation of aesthetics ¿ to the latest works, which are essentially commentaries of collections of paintings and poems ¿ never disappears from Agamben's theoretical horizon. According to Agamben the greatest enigma of art is that we do not know why we need art in the first place. Humans are not only thinking and talking animals, but also creatures that create artworks and find enjoyment in them too. Agamben's own answer as to what art is good for is not aesthetic but fundamentally ethical: art is inseparably part of the happy life (vita beata).

Veronika Darida is philosopher, aesthete, dramaturg. She is the Chair of the Department of Aesthetics at Eötvös Lorand University. Her main research interests are contemporary philosophy and theory of art.