0826473199_Virilio_Fear

Art and Fear
and the human figure was literally and figuratively
blasted to bits; or the horrific return to a literal
figurative, with Dr von Hagens' real human corpses
of unknown origin filled with plastic preservative
and exposed as anatomical art, at the very moment
the scientific community is baying for human
embryos to 'engineer'. No one else has traced this
twin genealogy of art and science that has had so
much to do with the 'routine horrors' of the last
hundred years.
Some people react badly not only to Virilio's
home truths, but to the gusto with which they are
uttered. When La Procedure silence came out in
France at the end of 2000, Virilio received threats
of violence against his person. He fielded questions
on talk-back radio from 'art lovers' who showered
him with righteous spite. That flak alone constitutes
proof if proof were needed of the pertinnce of what
he has to say here about contemporary art and
terrorism, silencing and noise. Virilio does not mince
words, whether in conversation or essay and these
papers are both. So it is impossible not to take a
stand, whatever that might be.
One pivotal dichotomy in what follows needs
explaining here. You will see I use 'pitiful' and
'pitiless' throughout, as Virilio does, and have kept
those terms even where a more sympathetic English
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