“Becoming Cosmic”
Wednesday lecture by Boris Groys

Wednesday lecture by Boris Groys, moderated by Eva Geulen, 18 Nov 2015

During modernity we have become accustomed to understanding human beings as determined by the social milieu in which they live, as knots in informational networks, as organisms dependent on their environment. But Earth is not isolated in the Cosmos. It relies on processes that take place in cosmic space—on black matter, waves and particles, star explosions, and galactic collapses. In the 19th century, Friedrich Nietzsche was already describing our material world, of which the human being is only a part, as the setting for the eternal battle between Apollonian and Dionysian forces or, in other words, between Cosmos and Chaos. There are only two ways of reacting to this battle: either an ecstatic embrace of Chaos or an attempt to control the Cosmos and secure its victory over Chaos. Russian thinkers, poets, and artists from the end of 19th and the beginning of 20th centuries were theorizing and conceptualizing both approaches, at a time when Russia was on the verge of a revolution that would plunge the whole country into total chaos.

Video: © ZfL