Abstract existence disconnects us from the world and kills us, just as Hercules killed Anteus in Greek mythology. The son of Gea had his strength in his connection with the earth. Knocking him down would only reinvigorate him. Realising this, Hercules lifted his opponent, keeping him suspended above the ground. And so, disconnected from the earth, Anteus was exhausted to death. We, the children of the earth today, have not yet died, but we have suffered a suspension that is not the same but is analogous. We urgently need to be knocked down, to go to the ground and rediscover the world that we can touch with our bare feet, with our bodies that sit and lie on the ground, with our hands that clap the earth, with our faces pressed to the ground. The ground is the membrane between us and the world. Its notion and the word that names it have a lot of ground themselves.

To de-abstract existence is not to go back, like a refusal of the present that returns to pre-modernity or even earlier. Returning to concrete existence is more like getting down to earth from the present time. For example, returning to the experience of walking barefoot, letting the ground and the sole of the foot breathe between them.

The Brazilian poet Manoel Barros, recalling his connection to the bush, suggested looking down at the ground. 

I still don't understand why I inherited this downward look. 
I always imagine it comes from bruised ancestry. 
I was brought up in the bush and learnt to love the little things on the ground 

Portrait of the artist as a thing (1998)

Information and registration

Saturday 29th March, 10h00 - 13h00
Free registration required: esadidea@esad.pt
Audience: whoever wants to attend
Maximum capacity: 20 people
Meeting point: esad-idea Exploratory (Rua Brito Capelo, 243, Matosinhos)
Route: through different floors, with a beach

About André Barata

He studied at the University of Lisbon, where he obtained his doctorate in Contemporary Philosophy (2004). He is a full professor at the University of Beira Interior, where he has taught since 2002 and where he currently heads the Faculty of Arts and Letters. In the field of scientific research, he coordinates the Praxis Research Unit - Centre for Philosophy, Politics and Culture. He also chairs the Portuguese Philosophy Society.

His academic interests include social and political philosophy and phenomenological and existential thought. He regularly writes columns in Jornal Económico and Público. He is the author of several books of essays and, most recently, published a trilogy in Documenta - What if we stopped surviving - A short book for thinking and acting against the dictatorship of time (2018); Disconnection from the world and the question of the human (2020) and To live in any world - Us, places and things (2022).