ANNOUNCEMENT CUSANUS SUMMER SCHOOL : 18 till 20 August 2025 in Antwerpen (Belgium)
Nicholas of Cusa, the Arts and Polyphony : Working Through a Productive Non-Relation
"I saw myself as arriving in the back of an author and giving him a child that would be his own offspring, yet monstrous. It was really important for it to be his own child, because the author had to actually say all I had him saying. But the child was bound to be monstrous too, because it resulted from all sorts of shifting, slipping, breakages, and hidden emissions that I really enjoyed.” (Gilles Deleuze)
ABOUT
Cusanus is one of the most exciting and eccentric thinkers of the late Middle Ages bridging Neoplatonism and German Idealism. We explore the specificity of Cusanus' dialectical theology (which is his philosophy) that makes him radically modern, in order to explore this dimension in polyphony and other arts as well. Cusanus never theorized polyphony or the arts in a direct way. There seems not to exist any aesthetic theory or thinking about polyphony and the arts from that time. Nevertheless, polyphony and arts are dramatic structures of thinking. Polyphony as a practice is performed based on a totally quantified diagrammatic writing. However, they were considered “mechanical" arts and lacking a stable form on which to constitute thinking.
The unthought dramaturgy of aesthetic dialectics revealed in polyphony and visual arts resonates surprisingly with Cusa’s own thought.
Polyphony and the arts are the symptom of Nicholas of Cusa. We will explore the short-circuit between Cusanus and the arts and problematize historicist approaches as well.
WHAT
The seminar-sessions (one in the morning and two in the afternoon) will be lead by Björn Schmelzer, joined by Luís Neiva (Nova University Lisbon / Spirit is a Bone) and by Cusanus expert Inigo Bocken (Universities of Nijmegen and Leuven)
Bocken and Schmelzer are currently working on a book on the topic. Their research will provide the framework for the three days.
On 19 August the sessions will be interspersed with polyphonic performances as examples and study materials by four singers of Graindelavoix (Andrew Hallock, Albert Riera, Marius Peterson, Arnout Malfliet) engaged in the Cusanus project.
FOR WHOM?
We welcome all students, researchers, scholars, artists and all interested folks in the domains of the arts, music, philosophy, art history, theology, anthropology and musicology a.o. to join us and think together!
The sessions will be in English.
PRACTICAL
The Cusanus Summer School takes place at Jos Smolderenstraat 76, 2000 Antwerpen (Nieuw-Zuid) on 18, 19 and 20 August 2025, from 11h till 18h.
Joining the Cusanus Summer School for three days : 50 euro (separate day: 20 euro)
Inscription: katrijn@graindelavoix.be
Information: info@graindelavoix.be
The Cusanus Summer School is a collaboration between Graindelavoix (Antwerpen) and Spirit is a Bone (Lisbon) and part of the Antwerp Summer Festival “Not Only Are We Not Infinite, We are Not Even Finite."
