*OPEN ARTISTS CALL*
Virtual Art Exhibition:
“Gilles Deleuze, Félix Guattari and Cosmic Art”
“If there is a modern age, it is, of course, the age of the cosmic.”
(Deleuze and Guattari, A Thousand Plateaus)
Gilles Deleuze (1925-1995) and Félix Guattari (1930-1992) are among the few contemporary thinkers who incorporate cosmological questioning into their philosophy, thus renewing an old and partly lost way of seeing philosophy's task. They redefine traditional transcendent cosmologies, which speculate on the laws of organization and ontological superiority of heavens, in favour of an immanent experience of the world and the universe, which makes of the geodynamic and “cosmic” Earth an object of philosophical investigation.
This redefinition is inspired by scientists (Mandelbrot, Prigogine, etc.), philosophers (Nietzsche, Whitehead, Bergson, etc.), and artists. Among the most prominent artists who announced the development of Deleuze and Guattari’s c(ha)osmological thinking are Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky’s cosmic pictural and theoretical themes, James Joyce and Witold Gombrowicz’s cosmic literary awareness, and Karlheinz Stockhausen’s cosmic music. The objective of this exhibition is to explore the multifaceted aspects of the “cosmic” in Deleuze and Guattari’s through the work of contemporary visual and musical artists. The exhibition will reflect the new interpretations of contemporary art as grasped by artists through the concepts of Deleuze and Guattari's c(ha)osmological theory. It shall provide consistency to the “cosmic” that Deleuze and Guattari consider characteristic for modern art.
This exhibition is intended to favour dialogue among artists, art lovers, art historians, Deleuze scholars, scientists, as well as amateur astronomers. It will gather visual art works (painting, sculpture, drawing, cinema/video, multimedia) and musical works from local, national, international and Deleuze-inspired artists, and/or art works reflecting the topics, including works from Aboriginal/Indigenous artists. It will be complemented with an open access booklet which will include commentaries and excerpts from Deleuze and Guattari’s work.
The exhibition was initially envisaged to be presented in an art gallery, but the pandemic inspired us to make it virtual. Pending on the health crisis situation, it might later be turned into a traveling exhibition presented in various cities, art galleries, or other venues such as Science North (Sudbury, Canada), Alvernia's Miller Gallery (USA) and/or Galerie Antoine-Sirois (Université de Sherbrooke, Canada).
Artists are kindly invited to send by email a high definition photos or video of their visual art works, or digital musical recordings, and/or a web link to their work, along with a short description (title, year of composition, etc.) that should be accompanied by an explanatory note of their work and how it relates with the work of Deleuze & Guattari.
Email:
cosmo@laurentian.ca
Art works that fits this open call will be posted in a special section of our research’s webpage ‹www3.laurentian.ca/deleuzecosmo›. There is no formal deadline. The idea is to build a catalogue of contemporary art works inspired by Deleuze and Guattari’s conception of the cosmic, or art works that connect implicitly with Deleuze and Guattari’s sense of cosmicity. This catalogue is meant to remain incomplete, just like the uni/multi-verse itself which is eternally in the midst of its own composition…
Research team:
Dr. Janae Sholtz (Philosophy, Alvernia University, USA)
Dr. Gennady Chitov (Institut quantique, Université de Sherbrooke, Canada)
Dr. Ubi Wichoski (Snolab, Canada)
Dr. Alain Beaulieu (Laurentian University, Canada)
Martin Boucher - Research coordinator (Human Studies & Interdisciplinarity, Laurentian Uni., Canada)
This virtual exhibition is part of a research project entitled “Gilles Deleuze and Cosmology” funded by the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), housed at Laurentian University, and developed in partnership with Alvernia University as well as Université de Sherbrooke.