DR. CHRISTOPH HAFFTER LECTURE “THE PHILOSOPHY OF MATERIALISM IN CONTEMPORARY ART”

Thursday 8 May 2025, 14:30
LMTA Balcony Theatre (Gedimino Ave. 42, Vilnius)

DR. CHRISTOPH HAFFTER LECTURE “THE PHILOSOPHY OF MATERIALISM IN CONTEMPORARY ART”

The lecture will be held in English.

In contemporary discourses of art theory and cultural studies there are many new interpretations of the concept of materialism. In essence, they are opposed to historical materialism, which derives from the Marxist tradition, because it understands materialism not historically, but naturally (naturalistically). On the contrary, the history of art theory, based on Marx’s insights, has proved to be extremely fruitful in explaining the relationship between the different art forms and their material conditions and the social, political and economic contexts that shaped them. The lecture will address both the potential and the limitations of the Marxist materialist philosophical tradition, and will seek to update its key insights in the philosophy of contemporary art production.

Dr. Christoph Haffter is a postdoctoral researcher in philosophy of music at the University of Basel and the University of Music Basel. He studied philosophy and musicology in Basel, Paris, Berne and New York and defended his PhD thesis on “Musical Materialism – Philosophy of Contemporary Music”. He has taught aesthetics and philosophy of art at the University of Freiburg and was editor of the journal Dissonance, and is currently co-editor of the digital journal Partisan Notes (partisan-notes.com).