Event overview
(Repenser le monde par la dissidence et la subversion) A Talk by Firoz Ghanty
The conception of the world as having progressed from a primitive state to civilisation is nowadays obsolete. This systemic idea has been constructed during the last centuries by what Russian-born French sociologist Georges Gurvitch has called philosophies of comfort, remorse and progress, which promote a prescribed notion of truth as being absolute and universal. Whether in philosophical debates, religious doctrines, political ideologies and moral or ethical propositions, there has been a focus on Man as capable of care and compassion and having the ability to construct and reach an ideal state of being. Firoz Ghanty, as an ‘engaged spectator’, proposes to discuss how we can aspire to become human by expanding on an idea of a tabula rasa and rethinking the world through the lens of dissidence and subversion at an ethical, intellectual and political level.
Ghanty will develop his line of thought by first engaging with an anthropological and a biological view of the evolution of Man, as a territorial predator who thrives in a hierarchical society. He will then discuss the Occidental Man and his mechanism of colonial control through the framework of ‘human augmentation that purports biological stagnation’. Ghanty’s argument rests on the fundamental idea that while Man is a bio-technological mutating animal, being human is not biological. It is a philosophy of (human and non-human) life.
Firoz Ghanty is a Mauritian artist-activist-intellectual who is overtly critical of the coloniality of power that permeates political and cultural institutions. Inspired by Marx, Lenin and Mao in the 1970s, he was engaged in post-Independence protests against the first Government in power in Mauritius and denounced their politics of compromise. He was arrested during a protest and imprisoned in 1981. Since then, Ghanty has contributed regularly to public debate with critical and philosophical reflections on local and international issues. He has also produced work and participated in over a hundred collective exhibitions abroad and locally, and has had more than twenty solo exhibitions in the Indian Ocean region, with works in private collections across continents.
Organised by Gitanjali Pyndiah, London-based Mauritian writer and doctoral researcher in Cultural Studies, Goldsmiths
Dates & times
| Date | Time | Add to calendar |
|---|---|---|
| 29 Jun 2018 | 5:00pm - 7:00pm |
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