A hundred years ago, while the First World War wrought its bodily and spiritual destruction, the young Ludwig Wittgenstein, a soldier and prisoner in the war, wrote an enigmatic, fascinating and difficult book which, since its publication some years later, has become one of the great works of philosophy, bringing endless research and controversy in its wake. The Tratactus Logico-Philosophicus changed philosophy by radically challenging its tenets. The author, Leonel Azevedo, is a philosopher whose work has been primarily devoted to Wittgenstein.

The portfolio we present here was prepared for Electra by one of the most renowned and most innovative artists of our time. He is also one of the most sophisticatedly learned and most effectively communicative.

In this work, William Kentridge couples semiology with iconology and finds the sacred meaning and profane use of words. By placing these two modes face to face, he creates through their coming together an indetermina-cy and interrogation. These works are like visi-ble sparks emitted by the incessant breath of an invisible fire. They are thus both familiar and strange to us at the same time.

Alexander Kluge has been an exceptional figure in German culture since the nineteen sixties. As a writer, film maker and essayist, he has provided a critical conscience not only in relation to Germany, compelling it to confront the traumas of its history, but also in relation to many aspects of the mutilation of life in the world in which we live.

Berlin is the city as palimpsest, the great metropolis and laboratory of modernism, where German history shows its most tragic side. It has been built and rebuilt in literature, film and the theatre by great authors, film-makers and playwrights. Durs Grünbein, Germany’s most respected poet and essayist of the post-Wall generation, offers a worthy addition to the great literary depictions of Berlin, describing a city that “rises once more from the rubble”.
 

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has moved into a phase marked by the law that defines Israel as the “nation state of the Jewish people”, adopting Hebrew as its only official language. Donatella Di Cesare, an Italian philosopher, and Éric Marty, a leading French voice in literary studies, have both written and taken a public stance on Israel, Judaism and the Jewish question. Here they comment on the law, taking different paths as to its meaning, reach and consequences.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has moved into a phase marked by the law that defines Israel as the “nation state of the Jewish people”, adopting Hebrew as its only official language. Donatella Di Cesare, an Italian philosopher, and Éric Marty, a leading French voice in literary studies, have both written and taken a public stance on Israel, Judaism and the Jewish question. Here they comment on the law, taking different paths as to its meaning, reach and consequences.

A new production of Wagner’s Lohengrin was premièred this year at the Bayreuth Festival. This was transformed into a mega-event with its live transmission to around a hundred cinemas in Germany, in a fusion of opera and audiovisual media.
 

With Les contes cruels de Paulo Rego, the great Portuguese painter is the first living artist to have a solo show at the Musée de L’Orangerie – a show widely reported in the press and praised by the critics. This is also the French public’s first big chance to get up close to a body of work they have no more than glimpsed in the past. João Pinharanda, an art historian and critic, explores the history (and the psychology) of France’s relationship with this oeuvre and its violence, seeking an answer to a puzzle that might only now be within our grasp. Deciphering this enigma is a crucial step towards discovering both the drive behind Rego’s work and the imprint of a culture.

Emmanuel Todd encompasses several disciplines and fields of learning: his vast output is notable for its ambitious range and the originality of his viewpoints and ideas, which have consistently sparked both interest and controversy. Referencing Todd’s books, Bernardo Futscher Pereira provides a portrait of a thinker who looks at geopolitics and the timespan of human history and dares to answer the question: where are we?

Jorge Molder’s work can be understood as a “series of series” that views us as a mysterious question. His photographs present a play on meaning that questions conventions, destabilising concepts (of reality and illusion, for instance) and shaking up our internal geography. Apropos of the recent publication of two books on Molder, Claudio Rozzoni looks at his work (the “Molder machine” and its effects) and its lasting artistic and philosophical impact.