Beauté(s)

Contributions of : Estèla Alliaud, Claire Chesnier, Sophie Desrosiers, Philippe Descola, Vincent Dulom, Fabrice Lauterjung, Yves Le Fur, Yves Michaud, Camille Saint-Jacques, Michel Thévoz, Jean-Charles Vergne.

Editions L'Atelier Contemporain / co-Editions FRAC Auvergne - 2023
under the direction of François-Marie Deyrolle, Camille Saint-Jacques and Eric Suchère
http://www.editionslateliercontemporain.net/a-paraitre/beautes/article/la-beaute

(...) Continuing its effort to question the dominant aesthetic paradigm and de-hierarchise culture, Beautés, this time, delves deeper into and complicates the question of ‘beauty’, as its name suggests. This amounts to betting that a prolix and pluralistic thought can spring from an enigmatic aporia: beauty being that which always eludes us when we try to define it, or, in the words of Maurice Blanchot, ‘that which eludes us without anything being hidden’.

This does not mean, however, that nothing can be said about it. On the contrary, beauty is perhaps the very thing that sets thought in motion. Taking note of the end of Europe's claim to universalism, as well as the end of the claim to ‘human exception’ according to Jean-Marie Schaeffer's formula, Beauties brings together philosophical, anthropological and sociological approaches (those of Yves Le Fur, Michel Thévoz, Yves Michaud and Philippe Descola) and the aesthetic, ethical and political reflections of several contemporary artists (including Claire Chesnier, Estèla Alliaud and Fabrice Lauterjung).
Yves Le Fur thus seeks to ‘uncover beauty in many areas that do not fall within the usual categories’, such as stones that conceal cosmic landscapes, or African sculpture, whose perception is often biased by ethnocentrism. But we can also consider the theoretical and practical hypotheses formulated by Claire Chesnier, who questions the possibility of ‘stitching together a rainstorm’ to suggest that ‘defining the term “beauty” would be tantamount to encapsulating an untenable multitude’ (...)