In the frame of the exhibition Generosity. The Art of Giving. The exhibition was organized as part of the 220th anniversary of the National Gallery in Prague and it’s aim is to highlight and celebrate generosity, sharing, friendship, togetherness and related values as part of the context of collecting and presenting works of art.
The German philosopher Marcus Steinweg and the Czech cultural theorist Ondřej Váša wrote fascinating essays for the White Rabbit, a companion to the exhibition Generosity. The Art of Giving. Writing about the excess of subjectivity and generosity, Marcus Steinweg introduces the contemporary subject as a tropical vagabond, while Ondřej Váša asks for the frontiers of friendship and the boundaries of the friendly world in his “theoretical reverie,” “The Madness of the Best of Us. Ulysses, Kurtz and the Frontiers of Friendship”. Ulysses’ voyage and Kurtz’s journey, as all journeys into the unknown, Váša observes, depended on friendship as on the underlying coherence of the world where a friend has been perceived as a guarantee of a return, a principal fixed coordinate of home and the certainty of orientation. At the end of a day, as the author concludes, the frontiers of friendship correspond with the narrow limits of one human life.
Marcus Steinweg(born 1971 in Koblenz)
is a German philosopher based in Berlin. He is currently a Professorof Philosophy at Art Academy Braunschweig. In his philosophical work, Steinweg focuses on the intersection of Art and Philosophy. He is an editor of the journal Inaesthetics. Steinweg collaborated with artists such as Thomas Hirschhorn and Rosemarie Trockel. In 2011 he curated the exhibition Kunst und Philosophie (Art and Philosophy) at the Neue Berliner Kunstverein. He has given numerous talks, published many text and participated in art exhibitions. Amongst his projects realised in a collaboration with Thomas Hirschhorn are Nietzsche Map (2003), Hannah Arendt Map (2003), Foucault Map (2004), The Map of Friendship between Art and Philosophy (2007), Spinoza Map (2007) and The Map of Headlessness (2011). Steinweg’s books include Bataille Maschine (Berlin: Merve Verlag 2003), Subjektsingularitäten (Berlin: Merve Verlag 2004), Behauptungsphilosophie (Berlin: Merve Verlag 2006), Duras (with Rosemarie Trockel; Berlin: Merve Verlag 2008), Politik des Subjekts (Zürich-Berlin: Diaphanes Verlag 2009), Aporien der Liebe (Berlin: Merve Verlag 2010), and Kunst und Philosophie / Art and Philosophy (Cologne: Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König 2012).
Ondřej Váša
Czech cultural studies specialist Ondřej Váša publishes widely on art, philosophy and literature. Having graduated from the Faculty of Humanities and Faculty of Arts, the Charles University in Prague, he’s enrolled in the Department of Philosophy Doctoral course. Besides teaching art history and architecture, his research is focused on reflections of philosophical concepts in art and architecture and interpretations of subjectivity in literature and art.
