AUTOREFERENZIALE – Emilio Fantin on Art and Logic

This video documents a foray into a logic class to present from an artist’s perspective. The presence of an artist in such a context means that a link between art and logic has already been achieved. In the past, I have tried to bridge these two different worlds that are so far apart, but what I managed to do was to introduce logic into an artistic context. In this instance, it was the other way around. So, how did I handle it? 

I was able to bring logic into the art context thanks to Piero Pagliani, who is a logician who formalized some artwork related to an exhibition. What prompted me to do this kind of research? The fact that, while reading some logic texts, I found some definitions such as, “harmonic balance” and especially, “elegant formalization.” This led me to the concept of “aesthetics”. Speaking about “elegance” (in the sense of a beautiful synthesis), suggests that there is a reference to the word “art”. Similarly, in the artistic context, we often talk about conceptualism or paradox: we can see that in the art world that there is a cross-reference to the world of logic. These two references are important because they highlight an initial point of contact. But what is the goal here? The goal is to find a territory, a free territory that is at the boundaries of art and that relates art to other disciplines. The meaning of discipline as something that is defined by rigid boundaries is no longer sustainable. We must persevere in the search for free spaces of knowledge, where experimentation can be activated without preclusion or prejudice.
 

Emilio Fantin, a longtime friend of the Ecoversities Alliance is an artist working on dematerialization of art as his individual research and on the concept of organism in collective experiences. His work is mainly based on studying the problems of behaviour and philosophy. He has been carrying on research about the structure of sharing art practices for many years. At present, he is working on multidisciplinary research which studies the relationship between art and agriculture, art and mathematical logic, art and dreams, and art and architecture. He has participated in important contemporary art events (the Venice Biennale, I; Performa07, NY, USA; Le Magasin, Grenoble, F; Neue Galerie, Graz, A; Documenta XIII, Kassell, D). Since 2005, he has taught at the Politecnico, School of Architecture and Society, University of Milano and is also one of the coordinators of the ‘Osservatorio Public Art’, a research laboratory which promotes projects and ideas about art in public spaces.

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