2024-03-16 16:20:39
Time.news – From 21 to 24 March the Auditorium of the Mole Vanvitelliana in Ancona will host the first national edition of the Popsophia festival, an event entirely dedicated to exploring the very current theme of the spectacularity of evil.
To find out what the spirit of this event is and how it aims to combine entertainment and dissemination by dissecting the causes and origins of our fascination for the images of violence, cruelty and catastrophes proposed by cinema, TV and new media, Time.news met the creator and curator of Popsophia, the philosopher, writer, TV commentator and teacher of History of Entertainment Lucrezia Ercoli.
What is the main idea of Popsophia?
The attempt is to combine pop – in the double sense of pop culture and mass culture, understood as the set of phenomena of everyday life – and philosophy as the ability of critical thought to reflect on the present. Born in 2011, and traveling for thirteen editions in various cities in the Marche region, Popsophia arrives in Ancona on the wave of the intent, shared with the city municipality and the Marche region, to stabilize the cultural challenge that we carry out on a national level. Also through the idea of opening a permanent laboratory on the themes of the event.
How will the festival program respond to this challenge?
During the day through meetings with journalists, writers, teachers and philosophers included in the three shows Philofiction, Cinesophia and Mediascape which we will dedicate to the cinematographic imagination, television series and the digital universe. In the evening with the specificity of our project: the Philoshow philosophical show formats. We will try to create performances in which live music, audiovisual montages and words, mine and those of guests, will explore different themes. With Marcello Veneziani we will talk about nihilism and songs, with the science communicator Michele Bellone about dystopian imagery, with Carlo Massarini about rock and evil. We will also propose philosophical workshops for adults and children, in which the philosopher will act as a mediator, rather than a lecturer, leaving the audience the role of protagonist. Finally, we have the Pentagon art exhibition planned, which in our virtual and modular MeGa gallery, accessible with viewers, will tell the idea inherent in the location, the perfect pentagon of the Mole Vanvitelliana, exploring the relationships between geometry and philosophy.
What is the purpose of psychoanalyzing the voyeurism of the average spectator?
That of awareness. The truth is that today we can no longer exempt ourselves from being spectators of evil, because it reaches us through too many channels. The imagery of literature, cinema, TV series and music can help us become aware of our constant passive observation of the pain of others. It is a necessary step, if we do not want to close our eyes to what we are. It’s time to try to turn our gaze towards ourselves, instead of always looking for the monster elsewhere.
Today philosophy is experienced as something disconnected from everyday life, what could its active role be in our time?
Philosophy should represent the toolbox with which to face the present, a key to open ourselves to reflection and understanding of mechanisms that without its contribution would remain foreign to us. The philosophical discipline was not born in an academic dimension, it was the technical language that it adopted over time that distanced its ability to speak to us without distinction. If it becomes a living and concerted thing again, I believe it can still play a crucial role in public space. The festival’s attempt is to show how its ability to read reality, beyond the manuals, has remained intact.
‘The spectacle of evil’ is also the title of one of his essays just published by Ponte alle Grazie, the thesis of which is that evil is inherent in each of us.
The festival was actually born from a long work, starting from the need to look Medusa’s face in the face: that cruelty that is specific to the human race as it does not belong to other animal species. The aim is to come to terms with this dark side that we try to remove, always trying to find a scapegoat. To take note of our being, as Susan Sontag said, in the face of the pain of others.
The new technology, now an extension of the body, offers us through Smartphones the terrible possibility of being seamlessly immersed in a spectacle of pain that moves or outrages us. But in reality they are reactions that fuel the show itself, emotionally aimed at justifying voyeurism and the perverse enjoyment it causes us. The bombardment of images of evil is making us forget the role of our gaze, the faults and responsibilities that fall to it.
Does art have to hurt?
I think so. In fact, in the exergy to my book I quoted Michel de Montaigne: “I cruelly hate cruelty”. Art and philosophy must not leave us intact in their passing. They aim to fuel our awareness and shake us, even with a bit of necessary violence.
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