Political Art: Understanding the Function of Art in the Contemporary Social Space Through a New Interpretation of Classical German Philosophy

PolArt intends to rethink the relationship between art and politics: it will answer the questions of what the political dimension of art is and what art can give to society.

The general aim of PolArt is to understand how art can play a central role in determining the fundamental ideals of a society, acting as a significant way to know, understand, criticize and transform reality (both epistemically and practically).

PolArt will produce a new hermeneutic model to investigate the relationship between art and politics, rethinking a decisive historical moment in its construction, in order to address the current situation.

It will explore the origins of the contemporary view on the topic in classical German philosophy, as the first real moment in which this relationship is conceived philosophically.

On the one hand, the current debate on the art/politics dichotomy still has as its main frame of reference the 20th century discussions, which remains dominant and obscures the relevance of classical German philosophy on this topic; on the other hand, critical literature on classical German philosophy has not yet explored the topic with a sufficiently unified and comprehensive view.

Thanks to a methodology that combines 'distance reading' and 'conceptual history' in an original way, PolArt aims to fill this gap by developing a new interpretive paradigm derived from an innovative interpretation of classical German philosophy, which can genealogically show its fundamental value for subsequent discussions and produce a reflection on the issues of today's debate.

In addition to the innovative scientific results expected in the fields of classical German philosophy studies and Aesthetics, from a more general point of view, PolArt will philosophically show how art can be a decisive element for the construction of a political community and for the formation of an active and conscious citizenship for individuals.