Surface

Summary

Dominique Pagani defines the surface as an "almost non-being": it is the boundary between two heterogeneous realities, and yet it is no less deep than what lies beneath1. His recurring example, from 2018 to 2022, is the liquid gold of the sunset on the sea. It is neither in the sky nor in the water but in their meeting, and it vanishes as soon as one takes a glass of water2. In his view, contemplation always has a surface as its object. Skin illustrates the same point: removing one millimetre of it is enough to stop loving, and it is the page where inwardness comes to the surface34. He distinguishes the sciences, such as physics and geology, which go beyond the surface, from geography, which draws upon it. He links this concept to Nerval, who projects his fantasy world onto a surface as onto a screen, and to Nietzsche, for whom depth lies in the surface, in a dialectic that runs from Hegel to Freud5. In art, the beautiful object is the mirror in which desire is reflected, and the surface is deeper than what lies beneath because our desires are projected onto it6.

1. 1Hegel on the Beach 5/52 Feb 2016 · 44:15
2. 2#9 Pictures at an Exhibition: art, seen from here or from the other side?10 Feb 2022 · 1:27:29
3. 3#4.4 Angélique (by Nerval)15 Jan 2018 · 15:30
4. 4#9 Pictures at an Exhibition: art, seen from here or from the other side?10 Feb 2022 · 1:33:48
5. 5#12 Nietzsche (right up) against Wagner28 Jan 2021 · 33:38
6. 6Who is hiding beneath the surfaces? Aesthetics and politics20 May 2022 · 1:06:30

Summary produced automatically from 18 of the passages below, to be reviewed; the numbers link to the moment in the session.