After Hegel, Who Are We Going to Spit On? – Thesis
«There is no goal, there is only the present», Carla Lonzi
Crachons sur Hegel, Oggetto 46 ([1974 ca.]) by Lonzi CarlaLa Galleria Nazionale
The concept on which the essay Sputiamo su Hegel (Let’s spit on Hegel) written by Carla Lonzi in 1970 is based, is the birth of an «unexpected subject» identified, at the time, as the woman and, to date, as a multiplicity of subjects who wish to get rid of power to create something new.
Crachons sur Hegel, Oggetto 7 ([1974 ca.]) by Lonzi CarlaLa Galleria Nazionale
Just like the subjects, power and patriarchy have taken on new forms and authoritarianism. An example is the neoliberal system that was established shortly following the publication of Carla Lonzi's work.
Crachons sur Hegel, Oggetto 46 ([1974 ca.]) by Lonzi CarlaLa Galleria Nazionale
The revolutionary intuition, mentioned in the title’s quote, is the actual exercise of the present, which detaches itself from a past conventionally narrated by a predominant voice that deprived women of their identity.
If the new subject is no longer linked to the past, but is here and now and is above all changing, then perhaps it is legitimate to ask: today, after Hegel, what do we spit on?
Crachons sur Hegel, Oggetto 7 ([1974 ca.]) by Lonzi CarlaLa Galleria Nazionale
The neolib imagination increases the illusion of bodies free to enjoy and consume, however social justice and respect for rights are far from guaranteed in this system, which on the contrary needs to create subordination to feed on and exploit in order to generate profit. Then perhaps today’s patriarchy has become more subtle, it adapts, transforms and confuses, always maintaining the same logic of power.
Crachons sur Hegel, Oggetto 46 ([1974 ca.]) by Lonzi CarlaLa Galleria Nazionale
The spit is a new word that a new subject pronounces and instantly entrusts its diffusion to.
Crachons sur Hegel, Oggetto 34 ([1974 ca.]) by Lonzi CarlaLa Galleria Nazionale
So let's spit, for example, on those cultural logics that today still relegate women to the role and place in the home, naturalising their position as mothers and automatically excluding trans and queer people.
Let’s spit on the mechanisms that continuously create «golden cages», as Emanuela Gioia defines them, where diversity is imprisoned. Cages that protect from the outside, but which inside are used to deceive and to dominate.
And if new forms of authoritarian power are born or old ones are transformed, new subjects are born, that is all those who are on the fringes, who are excluded from conventional History, made invisible and whose self-awareness is capable of generating new discovery and astonishment.
The Call
The Call Dopo Hegel, su cosa sputiamo? (After Hegel, who do we spit on?) is an invitation to anyone who wishes to participate with their writing in a debate on the thought of art critic Carla Lonzi. An invitation to actualise the thought, to understand who the author sees as modern «unexpected subjects» and what the spit, the gesture of breaking away from the patriarchal logic of the past, means today. All the texts sent were then gathered in a document to which, together with the National Gallery, the Italian-American International Organization, La Sapienza University and the International Association of Women Philosophers collaborated.
Written by Marina Pietrocola.
