Thinking Worlds: International Symposium on Philosophy, Politics, and Aesthetic Theory, Moscow, November 17-18, 2006

Abstract

The international symposium on philosophy, politics, and aesthetic theory ‘Thinking Worlds’ was held on November 17-18 in Moscow in the Polytechnic Museum. The presenters were Bernard Stiegler, Valery Podoroga, Jacques Ranciere, Chantal Mouffe, Molly Nesbit, Boris Kagarlitsky, and Mikhail Ryklin. Also, Molly Nesbit read the paper of Saskia Sassen who, unfortunately, was not able to participate in person. Sven-Olov Wallenstein and Anna Kostikova moderated the discussion. The conference was organized by the Federal Agency for Culture and Cinematography, the Russian Institute for Cultural Research, the Moscow Biennale Art Foundation, and the Interros Publishing Program. The Symposium was timed to the Second Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art (Spring 2007). The organizers intended to create a ‘discourse’ around the Biennale, a kind of intellectual context of debates and discussions. We present a discussion of the Symposium in the form of a dialogue where the discussants, being ‘hot on the trail’, attempt to reflect (not in the least bit, from sociologists’ standpoints) the event: to discern the place of such conferences in Russian intellectual space and to share their impressions of that space itself.