The Banality of Evil

[Arendt] insisted that only good had any depth. Good can be radical; evil can never be radical, it can only be extreme, for it possesses neither depth nor any demonic dimension yet — and this is its horror! — it can spread like a fungus over the surface of the earth and lay waste the entire world. Evil comes from a failure to think. It defies thought for as soon as thought tries to engage itself with evil and examine the premises and principles from which it originates, it is frustrated because it finds nothing there. That is the banality of evil.
From Amos Elon, The Excommunication of Hannah Arendt, the introduction to Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil

And the distinction between violent and non-violent action is that the former is exclusively bent upon the destruction of the old and the latter chiefly concerned with the establishment of something new.

From: Volume 12, Number 4 · February 27, 1969
A Special Supplement: Reflections on Violence
By Hannah Arendt-Copyright applied for by the "Journal of International Affairs," School of International Affairs, Columbia University.

SHOAH- Il Giorno della Memoria

L'angelo della storia

“Un ritratto di Paul Klee si intitola Angelus Novus: raffigura un angelo con gli occhi spalancati, la bocca aperta, le ali distese. E' l'angelo della storia: nelle sue ali è impigliata una tempesta che lo spinge inesorabilmente verso il futuro, cui volge le spalle, mentre il cumulo delle rovine del passato sale dinnanzi a lui verso il cielo. Ciò che chiamiamo progresso è questa tempesta”

Walter Benjamin
A Klee drawing named “Angelus Novus” shows an angel looking as though he is about to move away from something he is fixedly contemplating. His eyes are staring, his mouth is open, his wings are spread. This is how one pictures the angel of history. His face is turned toward the past. Where we perceive a chain of events, he sees one single catastrophe that keeps piling ruin upon ruin and hurls it in front of his feet. The angel would like to stay, awaken the dead, and make whole what has been smashed. But a storm is blowing from Paradise; it has got caught in his wings with such violence that the angel can no longer close them. The storm irresistibly propels him into the future to which his back is turned, while the pile of debris before him grows skyward. This storm is what we call progress.

— Walter Benjamin,

Ninth Thesis on the Philosophy of History

ALICE & CO. Purveyors of language Arts and Other Wonders 159 Brunswick St. Fitzroy, Vic., 3065

ALICE & CO.
Purveyors of language Arts and Other Wonders
159 Brunswick St. Fitzroy, Vic., 3065 Australia

visit Alice & Co Saturdays: 11:00 am - 6:00 pm 159 Brunswick st. Fitzroy
Tram 112 Preston line Stop 14 Or call (03) 54234271 / 0439990271

IT WOULD BE MY FAVOURITE HAUNT IN MELBOURNE!

You can find there from ACADEMIC TUITION to seminars, Language Studies, ARTISTS in the Gallery, le petit theatre and the contact for the fantastic Littlefox press!

Australian Women Artists

Australian women artists:
If amongst initiates, in the sense of savants, of connoisseurs, then some may know as Australian women artists people like fantacinematic ( if you allow me the term!) Tracey Moffat ( picture)- also because she is so active in Europe-, perhaps Margaret Olley, maybe Caroline Williams, if really lucky you may know of the giant Margaret Cilento has been.

Margaret Cilento has painted for over 50 years and has painted like I have seen paint very few painters. Her life, her art have been so convincing that it is almost incredible that no exhibitions have taken place since her recent death. In the last three years I have had so many opportunitites to think about her work but thinking an artists is not enough.
Her work has evolved over half a century from London to New York, from Marseille to Spain to Australia with an authencity and a tenacity that deserves study and close appreciation ( for her life see what her great writer and designer daughter says of her here:

http://www.ailae.org/pdf/MargaretCilento.pdf )

This short appeal here is to celebrate a gigantic artist and a woman that has left a profound sign in my thinking about art and in my life. Please get to know Margaret Cilento if you can ( self portrait a cote'). Also look at this if you can :

http://www.artmuseum.qut.edu.au/downloads/BNG-Education-kit.pdf

and discover these 1920's or so women. I don't give damn about modernism and the like at this point but I wish that such convincing art could be more known.

Long live:
Margaret Cilento, Pamela Macfarlane, Margaret Olley,Betty Quelhurst,Joy Loggenkamp, Kathleen Shillam

Welcome to Outside Barriers

This is yet an other open space perhaps necessary, beyond all other arenas , to discuss and exchange thoughts, events, images, poetry, writing, information about all that overcomes barriers in general. Borders, barriers, confinements, detention camps, walls: this is a space outside them all.
(Guestbook bottom page)

Appel à contribution :
Images et pouvoirs dans le Pacifique, Rochefort, 27-28 mai 2009
Dans le cadre de la 3e édition du Festival du cinéma des Pays du Pacifique Sud, (Rochefort, 29 mai-1er juin), le Réseau Imasie (CNRS-FMSH) organise les 27 et 28 mai deux journées d’étude consacrées au rôle des images dans les représentations du pouvoir, à leurs sens et leur signification sociale et culturelle dans le Pacifique, espace où peu d'études ont été conduites sur ce sujet.
L’image permet de comprendre une société, d’en offrir de nouvelles lectures en révélant des non-dits et elle permet de saisir ses tensions et les enjeux de domination.
Comment les images appréhendent-elles le pouvoir ?
Sont-elles éphémères ou créent-elles des conceptions durables, prolongeant le passé (héritage océanien) ou introduisant en profondeur des nouveautés (plus ou moins véhiculées par les métropoles) ? On s'intéressera donc à la circulation et à l'acclimatation des modèles occidentaux réappropriés et remaniés.
Comment les images font-elles croire ?
Quelles sont les représentations concrètes, imaginaires ou symboliques qui ont marqué les sociétés du Pacifique et quelles sont celles qui prévalent aujourd’hui ? Que représente le pouvoir pour les Océaniens ? À quels signes, quelles couleurs et quelles images, à quelle musique aussi est-il associé dans le monde contemporain ? Quel est le rôle de l'image dans la perception, la construction, et la représentation du pouvoir ? Comment les images contribuent-t-elles à nourrir les imaginaires collectifs dans le Pacifique ?
Quel rôle particulier jouent les grands médias d'images dans la construction des représentations ?
Il faut souligner que les termes « image » et « représentation » sont ici pris dans toutes leurs acceptions, et que les études esthétiques se limiteront aux effets qu’écrivains, publicistes ou artistes font subir aux images afin de mettre en valeur la notion de pouvoir (gouvernement, administration, ascendant, autorité, gouvernement, hégémonie, puissance, prestige, etc.). On souhaiterait aussi accorder de l'importance aux perceptions étrangères (voyageurs, administrateurs, scientifiques, etc.) qui sélectionnent, créent et diffusent un point de vue autre.
Les interventions seront de 20 minutes. Elles pourront bénéficier d'une publication ultérieure. Les propositions communications de 500 mots devraient être envoyées avec des mots-clés, une courte biographie, les coordonnées et fonctions précises de l'auteur. On pourra mentionner les sources et les champs chronologiques de l'étude.
Merci d’envoyer les propositions avant le 15 avril 2009 par e-mail : vfayaud@msh-paris.fr

International Conference -University Paris XIII, France -26 and 27 March 2009

Does discrimination shape identity? Politics and minorities in the English speaking area and in France: Rhetoric and reality -
Several discourses on colonial heritage and immigration have recently emerged in the West. The current context is marked by a discourse emphasizing the positive impact of a past many people consider to be traumatic, triumphant, or both at once, and laws have been passed, in France and elsewhere, to create an official version of history. These laws echo political discourses which are meant to reflect the nation’s ideals and the claims of public opinion. For other groups, these laws are oppressive and discriminatory, and they have a negative effect on minority identities. These two approaches may suggest that there is an official national identity on the one hand, while on the other, peripheral identities are in the process of being constructed, and therefore cannot officially and overtly take part in the elaboration of national ideals.The conference will inquire into the nature of identity itself. Is it innate, the result of a social construction, or both? Analyzing these notions may also imply a historical reflection on the role, place, and history of minority groups in France and in the English-speaking world. This analysis has to be addressed in a context marked by discrimination in order to understand if the latter can shape identities, and if so, how. This conference is about the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Australia and Canada. It welcomes multidisciplinary contributions from the fields of civilization, history, historiography, sociology, and anthropology.
Vanessa CASTEJON castejon.vanessa@wanadoo.Fr or
Rim LATRACHE rim.latrache@univ-paris13.fr or
Olivette OTELE olivette.otele@googlemail.com
Members of the scientific committee:
Dr Vanessa Castejon (University Paris 13)
Pr. Didier Fassin (University Paris 13)
Dr Rim Latrache (University Paris 13)
Pr. Françoise Lejeune (University Nantes, France)
Pr. Fethi Mansouri (Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia)
Dr Olivette Otele (University Paris 13)
Pr. Claire Parfait (University Paris 13)
Pr. François Poirier (University Paris 13)