The Simulacrums

The theme is “the Event”, namely the Real that violently breaks into our lives in all its inhumanity. Not a “fact”, such as the storming of the Bastille, the seizure of the Winter Palace or 9/11, which belongs to a historical and rhetorical narrative—and therefore exists within language—but the overwhelming manifestation of what lies beyond language, of the pure power of the Real: that “thing” which appears and cannot be contained within the linguistic structures of subjects, existing beyond the finite existence of the subjects themselves. It is therefore what we may define as the horrible. Yet only this “horrible” — that is, the Simulacrum — is capable of generating new possible orders: a Real that, from the moment it manifests itself, must necessarily be given a new form. Is the Covid-19 pandemic crisis, like the plague in Thebes, a “state of exception” capable of generating new cultural orders, or does it mark “The End of the World”, as analysed by Ernesto De Martino?

The event that most symbolically represents the emergence of the horrible is the temporary occupation of Capitol Hill by Donald Trump’s supporters. Other episodes are also significant as products of the manifestation of the superhuman, such as the collapse of the Morandi Bridge, the symbolic nature of the cargo ship blocking the Suez Canal, or the return of mass graves in which the bodies of Covid victims were piled without any funeral rites. Yet the symbolism of the occupation of Capitol Hill marks a point of no return. We did not witness an ordinary protest march, such as those organised during the same period by activists from the Black Lives Matter movement with an entirely political purpose. Trump’s troops instead staged the seizure of the institutions of power, but their intention was not, as mentioned above, to raze the Bastille to the ground or exterminate the Tsar’s family: they did not want to carry out a revolution; they staged one. They were well supplied with weapons and participants, and blood was also shed, but the true objective was to take selfies inside the “museum-like” halls of Capitol Hill, without any Constituent Assembly. What is the meaning of all this?

It is precisely in the Capitol Hill event that the term “reality” was cast in a new light. Among the colourful procession of QAnon supporters appeared figures that usually inhabit the web: memes beloved by the American right, flags of Kekistan, Pepe the Frog masks, as well as unlikely shamans… Yet those masks and those figures “actually existing before our eyes” at Capitol Hill are, in “reality”, truly real on the web, not in the world of perceived things, in what we call reality, distinct from the digital virtual realm. Those images, threads, subthreads, links and memes are elements of a fully fledged culture, insofar as it provides shared meaning and “visualises” experiences. The real event, meaning the public event taking place in broad daylight, has value because it generated images, comments, posts and videos that brought the web to life. In fact, as we can see, the concept of the Real is completely overturned in favour of its iconographic representation: things happen on the web, while Reality is merely a temporary stage and, ultimately, even a superfluous one.

This project aims, on the one hand, to analyse contemporary visual culture in relation to this latest “pictorial turn”, briefly outlined here, and, on the other, to test the symbolic and mythical heritage of European culture in the face of such changes. In this respect, Ernesto De Martino’s studies on “The End of the World” and the “crisis of presence” may guide the research and lead it towards the ethnographic humanism proposed by the author as a response to the “end of the world”. Testing Europe’s cultural heritage means, first and foremost, recognising its specificity, which distinguishes it—and distinguishes us—from other civilisations. Above all, it means examining it in order to identify its distinctive features and determine whether they are still capable of containing and evoking meaning.

The “Simulacra” project will involve a number of Fine Arts and design academies across Europe and will invite students to work on the concept of the Simulacrum as described here. We are presenting this project because RUFA intends to establish partnerships with European academies interested in working with us on the submission of a proposal under the Creative Europe calls, the European Union’s funding programme for the development of culture and creativity. In Italy, the project partners include Marcello Massenzio, President of the Ernesto De Martino International Association, the Santa Cecilia Conservatory, one of the oldest musical institutions in the world, and the National Academy of Dance. Music, dance and images, as Ernesto De Martino taught, were the tools available to the “magical world” to overcome cultural crises and restore human beings to history. Will they still be effective?