Blindness

Abstract

The dialectic between marginal-central, as a system of representations, is created electively through the body, and the dialogue between the observer and the observed subject in an inter-subjective process of recognition; art it is a privileged area of investigation. The blindness phenomenon is an ooportunity for a reflection on the cultural construction of a marginality relationship. Giuseppe Penone’s tilting of the observation point, Alfredo Jarr’s focus on the use of the text rather than of the image as an activator of a reflective thought, and Strand’s doubling of the connection between text and image, are all cases of study to use in order to illuminate the role of certain artistic practices of the twentieth century who faced marginalization not only as a subject, but with a focus on social and cultural processes that create it. Art shows an epiphanic potential, of 'no concealment' and revelation of reality to confront. Therefore, blindness is not, confined to a disadvantaged group, but it becomes key to understand a 'relational scheme', that establishes a logic in the third person, and objectifies the other. The intersubjective perspective, in the artistic practices of Penone, Strand and Jaar calls into question a value system, that - turning our gaze to what is marginal - makes the other object, and hides the responsibility of a subject who is never generic, but remains distant, remote and blind.