After the appointment with writer Rachel Cusk in December 2022, in May 2023 Judith Butler (Cleveland, 1956), among the most relevant contemporary thinkers and theorists of today, was the second protagonist of the cycle "Lo stato dell'arte" who invites important personalities from the world of international culture to make an original contribution starting from her personal reflection on the state of the art today. 

In her reflections and in the volume “Between Loss and Regeneration. Climate, Art and politics”, published by Marsilio Arte (in bookstores from 12 May 2023), Judith Butler starts from the relationship between art, political institutions and the market, to question the ways in which we attempt to oriente ourselves and make sense of the suffering and change that we feel as inevitable. The author thus tries to understand what world is created by the forms of protest that put works of art at risk through demonstrative actions – such as those recently implemented by some activists to raise awareness of climate change – and how art can instead create new ways to interact capable of counteracting destructive forces.

Interview of Judith Butler

“Lo stato dell'arte” is promoted by Palazzo Grassi and curated by Barbara Carnevali, Director of studies in Philosophy at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) of Paris. The protagonists of the cycle, from very different disciplinary fields, are called to produce a text, which will be published in its entirety in a dedicated series published by Marsilio Editori, Venice, in collaboration with Palazzo Grassi.

Talk by Judith Butler at the Teatrino di Palazzo Grassi