Professor Alessandro Orsini and journalist Michele Santoro on a starry night in Piazza della Santissima Annunziata in Florence, Italy, speaking against wars and warmongers. |
Friday, May 31, 2024
Goodnight Tonight
Summer on the Steppe
The dice is cast, the stage is set, the carpet was rolled out before her, and 侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán), the queen of chess, will take the stage of the 2nd FIDE World Rapid & Blitz Team Championships in Astana, Kazakhstan, August 1–6, 2024.
The nine who will defend the WR’s “team champ” title are listed as pictured above, top to bottom, left to right: Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Magnus Carlsen, 侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán), Ian Alexandrovich Nepomniachtchi, Vincent Keymer, Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Wadim Alexandrowitsch Rosenstein, Alexandra Konstantinovna Kosteniuk, and Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa. Playbill: FIDE. |
In Need of an Enemy
The invention of the enemy
Giorgio Agamben, Quodlibet, May 31, 2024
I believe that many wondered why the West, and in particular the European countries, radically changing the politics they pursued in the last decades, suddenly decided to make Russia their mortal enemy. An answer is indeed certainly possibile. History shows that when, for some reason, the principles that ensure one’s identity fail, the invention of an enemy is the expedient that allows — even if in a precarious and ultimately ruinous manner — to deal with it. This is precisely what is happening under our eyes. It is evident that Europe abandoned everything it has believed in for centuries — or, at least, believed it believed: its God, freedom, equality, democracy, justice. If even priests no longer believe in religion — with which Europe identified itself — politics too has long since lost its ability to guide the lives of individuals and peoples. Economy and science, which have taken their place, are in no way capable of guaranteeing an identity that does not take the form of an algorithm. The invention of an enemy against which to fight with any means is, at this point, the only way to fill the growing anguish in the face of everything in which one no longer believes. And sure it is not a proof of imagination to have chosen as an enemy that one that for forty years, from the foundation of NATO (1949) to the fall of Berlin Wall (1989), enabled to globally wage the so-called cold war, which seemed, at least in Europe, definitively disappeared.
Against those who thus stolidly try to find back somethig to believe in, it must be remmbered that nihilism — the loss of all faith — is the most disquieting of all guests, which not only cannot be tamed with lies, but can only bring destruction to whoever welcomed it into his home.
Giorgio Agamben, Quodlibet, May 31, 2024
I believe that many wondered why the West, and in particular the European countries, radically changing the politics they pursued in the last decades, suddenly decided to make Russia their mortal enemy. An answer is indeed certainly possibile. History shows that when, for some reason, the principles that ensure one’s identity fail, the invention of an enemy is the expedient that allows — even if in a precarious and ultimately ruinous manner — to deal with it. This is precisely what is happening under our eyes. It is evident that Europe abandoned everything it has believed in for centuries — or, at least, believed it believed: its God, freedom, equality, democracy, justice. If even priests no longer believe in religion — with which Europe identified itself — politics too has long since lost its ability to guide the lives of individuals and peoples. Economy and science, which have taken their place, are in no way capable of guaranteeing an identity that does not take the form of an algorithm. The invention of an enemy against which to fight with any means is, at this point, the only way to fill the growing anguish in the face of everything in which one no longer believes. And sure it is not a proof of imagination to have chosen as an enemy that one that for forty years, from the foundation of NATO (1949) to the fall of Berlin Wall (1989), enabled to globally wage the so-called cold war, which seemed, at least in Europe, definitively disappeared.
Against those who thus stolidly try to find back somethig to believe in, it must be remmbered that nihilism — the loss of all faith — is the most disquieting of all guests, which not only cannot be tamed with lies, but can only bring destruction to whoever welcomed it into his home.
(English translation by I, Robot)
Edvard Munch, The Kiss, 1897. Courtesy of WikiArt.
Thursday, May 30, 2024
Last Sunday in May
To celebrate the 75th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China and the 10th anniversary of 北京 (Běijīng)-天津 (Tiānjīn)-河北 (Héběi) Integrated Development Plan, on Sunday, May 26, 2024, the 由北京市金帆书画院丰台分院 (Běijīng Jīnfān Painting & Calligraphy Academy Fēngtái Branch) and the 北京市丰台区少年宫 (Běijīng Fēngtái District Children’s Palace) hosted an artistic and cultural event whose highlight was a parade (“我与冠军有约” | “I have a date with the Champ”) featuring four-time Women’s World Chess Champion 侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán). |
The Golden Queen
The queen of chess, 侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán), featuring as a model for RIMOWA’s Chess Attaché, a silver briefcase with a full and premium set, including 32 chessmen in silver and black aluminium, and a magnetic, aluminium-framed wooden board wrapped in leather. Photos: 瑞丽 (Rayli). |
Wednesday, May 29, 2024
Nylon and Silk
Handmade darkroom print of 葉琳 (Lín Yap). Photo © Charlie Tallott, via @charlie_tallott. |
Tuesday, May 28, 2024
The Dragon’s Reign
The first member assembly of the newly constituted “京兴青联” (“Jīngxìng Youth League”) — idem to say 兴化市在京青年人才联 (Xīnghuà Youth Talent Association in Běijīng) — was held on Saturday, May 25, 2024, in 北京 (Běijīng), China, in order to elect a board of directors and chief executive officers, on the background of 北京兴化企业商会 (Běijīng Xīnghuà Enterprise Chamber of Commerce)’s work promotion meeting “Double Recruitment and Double Introduction”. Unanimously four-time Women’s World Chess Champion 侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán), a native of 兴化 (Xīnghuà), was elected President of the “京兴青联” (“Jīngxìng Youth League”) and was congratulated by all present. Photos: 夏子轩 (Xià Zixuān)/澎湃新闻 (The Paper). |
Monday, May 27, 2024
The Last Supper
However hard times may be for mankind, the Lorenzo de’ Medici Cooking School on first floor of Florence’s Mercato Centrale in the San Lorenzo district always offers classes to anyone who will come. Believe it or not, even on March 8, 2020, the day before the end of the world, one student was there for the last class in presence. |
Sunday, May 26, 2024
Sentimentality
As Sunday people flock to Via San Gallo to peace and tranquillity, they may unexpecedly encounter a window shop featuring a Snoopy vintage poster (circa 1960), with the slogan, “We World War I pilots are very sentimental”. |
Saturday, May 25, 2024
Friday, May 24, 2024
The Devil’s Advocate
Four-time Women’s World Chess Champion 侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán) poses for a picture with criminal defence lawyer and political scientist Timur Ixanov in Astana, Kazakhstan. Photo: Timur Ixanov. |
The Nut
The shell of the snail
Giorgio Agamben, Quodlibet, May 23, 2024
Whatever the profound reasons for the decline of the West, of which we are experiencing its absolutely decisive crisis, it is possible to summarise its extreme outcome in what, taking up an icastic image of Ivan Illich, we could call the “theorem of the snail”. “If the snail”, the theorem reads, “after adding a certain number of spirals to its shell, instead of stopping, continued increasing, just one additional spiral would make the weight of its home sixteen times heavier and would inexorably crush the snail”. This is what is happening to the species that was once defined as homo sapiens with regards to technological development and, in general, the hypertrophy of the juridical, scientific and industrial apparatuses that characterise human society.
These have always been indispensable to the life of that special mammal that is man, whose premature birth implies a prolongation of the infantile condition, in cui the child is not able to provide for his survival. But, as often happens, a mortal danger just hides in what ensures its salvation. Scientists who, like genious Dutch anatomist Lodewjik Bolk, reflected on the singular condition of human species, actually have drawn consequences from it that are, to say the least, pessimistic about the future of civilization. Over time, the growing development of technologies and social structures produces a real inhibition of vitality, which heralds a possible disappearance of the species. Access to the adult stage is indeed increasingly deferred, the growth of the organism is increasingly slowed down, lifespan — and hence old age — prolonged. “This progressive inhibition of the vital process”, writes Bolk, “cannot exceed a certain limit without compromising the vitality and strength of resistance to inauspicious influences from outside, in short, man’s very existence. The more humanity advances on the path of humanisation, the closer it comes to that fatal point where progress will mean destruction. And it is certainly not in the nature of man to stop when faced with this”.
It is this extreme situation that we are living in today. The limitless multiplication of technological apparatuses, the growing subjection to constraints and legal authorisations of every kind and species and the complete subservience to the laws of the market make individuals more and more dependent on factors that are wholly beyond their control. Günther Anders defined the new relation that modernity produced between man and his tools with the expression: “Promethean gap” and spoke of a “shame” in the face of the humiliating superiority of things produced by technology, of which we can no longer consider ourselves masters in any way. It is possible that now this gap reached the point of maximum tension and man became completely incapable of assuming the governance of the sphere of the products he created.
To the inhibition of vitality described by Bolk is added the abdication of that very intelligence that could somehow curb its negative consequences. The surrender of that last connection with nature, which the philosophical tradition called lumen naturae, produces an artificial stupidity which makes technological hypertrophy even more uncontrollable.
What will happen to the snail crushed by its own shell? How will it survive the rubble of its home? These are the questions we must not stop asking ourselves.
Giorgio Agamben, Quodlibet, May 23, 2024
Whatever the profound reasons for the decline of the West, of which we are experiencing its absolutely decisive crisis, it is possible to summarise its extreme outcome in what, taking up an icastic image of Ivan Illich, we could call the “theorem of the snail”. “If the snail”, the theorem reads, “after adding a certain number of spirals to its shell, instead of stopping, continued increasing, just one additional spiral would make the weight of its home sixteen times heavier and would inexorably crush the snail”. This is what is happening to the species that was once defined as homo sapiens with regards to technological development and, in general, the hypertrophy of the juridical, scientific and industrial apparatuses that characterise human society.
These have always been indispensable to the life of that special mammal that is man, whose premature birth implies a prolongation of the infantile condition, in cui the child is not able to provide for his survival. But, as often happens, a mortal danger just hides in what ensures its salvation. Scientists who, like genious Dutch anatomist Lodewjik Bolk, reflected on the singular condition of human species, actually have drawn consequences from it that are, to say the least, pessimistic about the future of civilization. Over time, the growing development of technologies and social structures produces a real inhibition of vitality, which heralds a possible disappearance of the species. Access to the adult stage is indeed increasingly deferred, the growth of the organism is increasingly slowed down, lifespan — and hence old age — prolonged. “This progressive inhibition of the vital process”, writes Bolk, “cannot exceed a certain limit without compromising the vitality and strength of resistance to inauspicious influences from outside, in short, man’s very existence. The more humanity advances on the path of humanisation, the closer it comes to that fatal point where progress will mean destruction. And it is certainly not in the nature of man to stop when faced with this”.
It is this extreme situation that we are living in today. The limitless multiplication of technological apparatuses, the growing subjection to constraints and legal authorisations of every kind and species and the complete subservience to the laws of the market make individuals more and more dependent on factors that are wholly beyond their control. Günther Anders defined the new relation that modernity produced between man and his tools with the expression: “Promethean gap” and spoke of a “shame” in the face of the humiliating superiority of things produced by technology, of which we can no longer consider ourselves masters in any way. It is possible that now this gap reached the point of maximum tension and man became completely incapable of assuming the governance of the sphere of the products he created.
To the inhibition of vitality described by Bolk is added the abdication of that very intelligence that could somehow curb its negative consequences. The surrender of that last connection with nature, which the philosophical tradition called lumen naturae, produces an artificial stupidity which makes technological hypertrophy even more uncontrollable.
What will happen to the snail crushed by its own shell? How will it survive the rubble of its home? These are the questions we must not stop asking ourselves.
(English translation by I, Robot)
河野薫 (Kaoru Kawano), Girl in Shell, 1960. Courtesy of WikiArt.
Thursday, May 23, 2024
Arctic Miscellanies
A gentoo penguin — the fastest underwater swimmer of all penguins — flees for its life as a leopard seal bursts out of the water. Photo: egdelalamo@gmail.com/Eduardo Del Álamo. |
Wednesday, May 22, 2024
Cinder and Ella
A visitor looks at Diego Velázquez’s Rokeby Venus displayed as part of an exhibition challenging male desire in art at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool, Britain. Photo: Phil Noble/Reuters. |
OKO
Four-time Women’s World Chess Champion 侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán) was announced to take part in the 4th International Rapid Tournament “Chess Stars” which will be held in Moscow, Russia, from June 26 to July 2, 2024. The other participants are (in alphabetical order): Vladislav Mikhailovich Artemiev, Aleksandra Yuryevna Goryachkina, Valentina Evgenyevna Gunina, Sergey Alexandrovich Karjakin, Ekaterina Aleksandrovna Lagno, Teimour Boris oghlu Radjabov, Raunak Sadhwani, Seyyed Mohammad Amin Tabatabaei, and Evgeny Yuryevich Tomashevsky. For further details and information, click here.
Tuesday, May 21, 2024
Phantasmagoria
Europe or the imposture
Giorgio Agamben, Quodlibet, 20 maggio 2024
It is likely that very few of those who are preparing to vote in the European elections questioned themselves on the political meaning of their act. Since they are called to elect a not better defined “European parliament”, they can believe more or less in good faith that they are doing something that corresponds to the elections of the parliaments of the countries of which they are citizens. It is opportune to clarify straight away that this is absolutely not the case. When one talks of Europe today, the great removal is first and foremost the political and juridical reality of the European Union itself. That it is a real removal, it results from the fact that we avoid in every way bringing to consciousness a truth that is as embarassing as ìt is obvious. I am referring to the fact that from the point of view of constitutional law, Europe does not exists: what we call “European Union” is technically a pact between states, which concerns exclusively international law. The Maastricht Treaty, enforced in 1993, which gave the European Union its current form, is the extreme sanction of European identity as a mere intergovernmental agreement between States. European Union officials, being aware of the fact that talking about a democracy with respect to Europe made no sense, tried therefore to fill this democratic deficit by drafting the project for a so-called European constitution.
It is significant that the text that goes by this name, drawn up by commissions of bureaucrats without any popular foundation and approved by an intergovernmental conference in 2004, when it was subjected to a popular vote, as in France and Holland in 2005, was clamorously rejected. Faced with the failure of popular approval, which in fact made the self-styled constitution null and void, the project was tacitly — and perhaps we should say shamefully — abandoned and replaced by a new international treaty, the so-called Treaty of Lisbon of 2007. It goes without saying that, from a juridical point of view, this document is not a constitution, but is once again an agreement between governments, the only consistency of which concerns international law and which we were therefore careful not to submit to popular approval. No wonder, therefore, that the so-called European parliament that is being elected is not, in truth, a parliament, because it lacks the power to propose laws, which is entirely in the hands of the European Commission.
On the other hand, some years earlier, the problem of the European constitution had given rise to a debate between a German jurist whose competence no one could doubt, Dieter Grimm, and Jürgen Habermas, who, like most of those who call themselves philosophers, was completely devoid of a juridical culture. Against Habermas, who thought he could ultimately found the constitution on public opinion, Dieter Grimm had a good hand in arguing the unthinkability of a consitution for the simple reason that there did not exist a European people and therefore something like a constituent power lacked every possible foundation. If it is true that constituted power presupposes a constituent power, the idea of a European constituent power is the great absentee in the discourses on Europe.
From the point of view of its claimed constitution, the European Union has therefore no legitimacy. It is then perfectly understandable that a political entity without a legitimate constitution cannot express its own politics. The only semblance of unity is achieved when Europe acts as a vassal of the United States, taking part in wars that in no way correspond to common interests and even less to the popular will. The European Union acts now as a branch of NATO (the very NATO which, on its turn, is a military agreement between states).
For this reason, not too ironically taking up the formula that Marx used for communism, one could say that the idea of a European constituent power is the spectre that haunts Europe today and that no one dares evoke today. Yet only such a constituent power could restore legitimacy and reality to the European institutions, which — if an impostor is, according to the dictionaries, “he who imposes on others to believe things alien to the truth and operate according to that credulity” — are at present nothing else than an imposture.
Another idea of Europe will be possible only when we have cleared away this imposture. To put it without pretence or affectation: if we truly want to think of a political Europe, the first thing to do is to get the European Union out of the way — or at least, be ready for the moment when it, as now seems imminent, will fall apart.
Giorgio Agamben, Quodlibet, 20 maggio 2024
It is likely that very few of those who are preparing to vote in the European elections questioned themselves on the political meaning of their act. Since they are called to elect a not better defined “European parliament”, they can believe more or less in good faith that they are doing something that corresponds to the elections of the parliaments of the countries of which they are citizens. It is opportune to clarify straight away that this is absolutely not the case. When one talks of Europe today, the great removal is first and foremost the political and juridical reality of the European Union itself. That it is a real removal, it results from the fact that we avoid in every way bringing to consciousness a truth that is as embarassing as ìt is obvious. I am referring to the fact that from the point of view of constitutional law, Europe does not exists: what we call “European Union” is technically a pact between states, which concerns exclusively international law. The Maastricht Treaty, enforced in 1993, which gave the European Union its current form, is the extreme sanction of European identity as a mere intergovernmental agreement between States. European Union officials, being aware of the fact that talking about a democracy with respect to Europe made no sense, tried therefore to fill this democratic deficit by drafting the project for a so-called European constitution.
It is significant that the text that goes by this name, drawn up by commissions of bureaucrats without any popular foundation and approved by an intergovernmental conference in 2004, when it was subjected to a popular vote, as in France and Holland in 2005, was clamorously rejected. Faced with the failure of popular approval, which in fact made the self-styled constitution null and void, the project was tacitly — and perhaps we should say shamefully — abandoned and replaced by a new international treaty, the so-called Treaty of Lisbon of 2007. It goes without saying that, from a juridical point of view, this document is not a constitution, but is once again an agreement between governments, the only consistency of which concerns international law and which we were therefore careful not to submit to popular approval. No wonder, therefore, that the so-called European parliament that is being elected is not, in truth, a parliament, because it lacks the power to propose laws, which is entirely in the hands of the European Commission.
On the other hand, some years earlier, the problem of the European constitution had given rise to a debate between a German jurist whose competence no one could doubt, Dieter Grimm, and Jürgen Habermas, who, like most of those who call themselves philosophers, was completely devoid of a juridical culture. Against Habermas, who thought he could ultimately found the constitution on public opinion, Dieter Grimm had a good hand in arguing the unthinkability of a consitution for the simple reason that there did not exist a European people and therefore something like a constituent power lacked every possible foundation. If it is true that constituted power presupposes a constituent power, the idea of a European constituent power is the great absentee in the discourses on Europe.
From the point of view of its claimed constitution, the European Union has therefore no legitimacy. It is then perfectly understandable that a political entity without a legitimate constitution cannot express its own politics. The only semblance of unity is achieved when Europe acts as a vassal of the United States, taking part in wars that in no way correspond to common interests and even less to the popular will. The European Union acts now as a branch of NATO (the very NATO which, on its turn, is a military agreement between states).
For this reason, not too ironically taking up the formula that Marx used for communism, one could say that the idea of a European constituent power is the spectre that haunts Europe today and that no one dares evoke today. Yet only such a constituent power could restore legitimacy and reality to the European institutions, which — if an impostor is, according to the dictionaries, “he who imposes on others to believe things alien to the truth and operate according to that credulity” — are at present nothing else than an imposture.
Another idea of Europe will be possible only when we have cleared away this imposture. To put it without pretence or affectation: if we truly want to think of a political Europe, the first thing to do is to get the European Union out of the way — or at least, be ready for the moment when it, as now seems imminent, will fall apart.
(English translation by I, Robot)
Ipse dixit
侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán): “Efficiency is made higher by division of labour and cooperation, so as to discover individual talents and skills”. |
丝绸之路 (Silk Road)
Last evening I went in a Chinese store where I usually buy most of my DIY tools and was stunned to come across the Chiara Ferragni brand display! Ms. Ferragni is currently involved in a scandal over a case of alleged unfair and misleading commercial practices, which was raised by government loyalists in an orchestrated campaign against her on the grounds of her progressive ideas and the allegation that her charity partnerships hid lucrative fees and honorariums. Her story resembles that of one of the most venerated Chinese actress, 范冰冰 (Fàn Bīngbīng), who, in 2018, was found guilty of tax evasion due to “阴阳合同 (yīn-yáng contract)” practices, and one cannot but wish Chiara the same happy success. Keeping in mind that it took five years for 范冰冰 (Fàn Bīngbīng) to take the centre stage again — at the 73rd Berlin International Film Festival “Berlinale”. On that occasion, when asked about her via crucis, 范冰冰 (Fàn Bīngbīng) wisely replied that also such an experience can serve as a school for learning a lot about the world and people. |
Monday, May 20, 2024
A Sea In Between
A woman poses for a photo at 68 Nautical Mile scenic spot, China’s closest point to Taiwan island, in 平潭岛 (Píngtán Island), 福建省 (Fújiàn province). Photo: Héctor Retamal/AFP/Getty Images. |
Sunday, May 19, 2024
Saturday, May 18, 2024
Friday, May 17, 2024
Last Tango in Paris
Edible frogs with inflated vocal sacs mate in a pond in Rosny-Sous-Bois in the eastern suburbs of Paris, France. Photo: Geyres Christophe/Abaca/Rex/Shutterstock. |
Thursday, May 16, 2024
Wednesday, May 15, 2024
Si duo vident idem, non est idem
Marcel Duchamp playing chess with Eve Babitz, Duchamp Retrospective, Pasadena Art Museum, 1963. Photo: Julian Wasser. |
The Cask of Amontillado
Walled off: 侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán) playing Mariya Olehivna Muzychuk in the fifth game of the Women’s World Chess Championship match at Lviv, Ukraine, March 8, 2016. Due to fears of cheating, games were played behind closed doors, under a still-life painting, and broadcast with a 30-minute delay. Photo: Misha Friedman/Avaunt magazine. |
Tuesday, May 14, 2024
Altars of the East
Valérie Belin, Bride/XXX Toys, (Brides series), 2012. Photo: Valérie Belin/Courtesy of Galerie Nathalie Obadia, Paris–Brussels. |
Monday, May 13, 2024
Pearl of Water Town
Four-time Women’s World Chess Champion 侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán) gives her auspicious speech to all participants in the 55th Chinese Chess Championship which is being held from May 6-16, 2024, in her hometown of 兴化 (Xīnghuà), 江苏省 (Jiāngsū province), China. She offered a sincere prayer that her old birthplace, dubbed a “pearl of water town”, may still stand, and that it may continue to be China’s “capital of chess” still for long years to go on. Video: 兴化 (Xīnghuà) Media Centre. |
Sunday, May 12, 2024
Between Appear and Disappear
Inevitably, it may be that photos taken from the same place at different hours of the same day can show weather changes. |
Saturday, May 11, 2024
Now and Then
A thought for today, while wandering around Sesto Fiorentino, Metropolitan City of Florence, Italy — to those who died for their country, cease fire now. |
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