Hauntology. The spectral nature of painting on display in Todi at the Abbondio Gallery

With the concept of "hauntology “ (a corruption of the English terms ”haunting“ and ”ontology"), coined by Jacques Derrida in his 1993 book Spectres of Marx and later taken up by Mark Fisher in his Spectres of My Life. Writings on Depression, Hauntology, and Lost Futures in 2019, Derrida opposed the traditional concept of ontology, which defines being as a presence always identical to itself, by introducing the figure of the spectre. The spectre is an entity that is never fully present, that does not possess being itself but, as Martin Hägglund argued in Radical Atheism: Derrida and the Time of Life (2008), marks a relation to what is no longer and what is not yet. For Mark Fisher, ghosts exert a “spectral causality” on the present precisely because they cannot be fully present, being residues of the past or fragments of a future that never existed. Therefore, that which, not being fully present, enjoys a kind of ubiquity and exerts a haunting and ghostly power over the present can be called hauntological.

This is the theme of the exhibition Hauntology. The Spectral Nature of Painting, organized in Todi by Galleria Giampaolo Abbondio from March 25 to May 13, 2023. Starting with contributions from leading philosophers, essayists and sociologists, curator Ivan Quaroni develops the concept of Hauntology, arriving at the idea that painting possesses an intimately hauntological nature. Painting, any form of painting, reiterates the haunting power of spectres through persistences, repetitions and prefigurations that prevent any form of equation with the present. According to the curator, in fact, painting systematically evades the blocking power of reality as understood by traditional ontology.

It can be said according to Quaroni that all painting is “out of sixth” in that it never fully corresponds to reality of which it is, rather, semblance, outward representation, simulacrum and phantasmagoria. To give substance to such reasoning, the curator leads the audience within a thicket of cross-references, dialogues and contrasts between the works of a group of Italian painters very different in generation, experience and mode of execution, but all, each in their own way, capable of stopping in front of time, as Georges Didi-Huberman argued, and generating authentically hauntological painting: Giampiero Bodino, Giuditta Branconi, Danilo Bucchi, Pablo Candiloro, Maurizio Cannavacciuolo, Andrea Chiesi, Vanni Cuoghi, Alberto Di Fabio, Gianluca Di Pasquale, Fulvio Di Piazza, Elisa Filomena, Daniele Galliano, Miltos Manetas(pictured), Marco Neri, Nicola Verlato, Fulvia Zambon. All information can be found on the Giampaolo Abbondio Gallery website.

Hauntology. The spectral nature of painting on display in Todi at the Abbondio Gallery

Warning: the translation into English of the original Italian article was created using automatic tools. We undertake to review all articles, but we do not guarantee the total absence of inaccuracies in the translation due to the program. You can find the original by clicking on the ITA button. If you find any mistake,please contact us.