Il Dono: The Gift

by Jean Baudrillard, Sergio Risaliti, Antonio Somaini

Hovering potentially between generosity and insult, seduction and trap, homage and defiance, the gift is a gesture with which relations are established and desires intertwined. In a world in which personal interactions are more and more sternly regulated, in which the symbolic value of things has been eroded, to reflect upon the work of art as a gift means to emphasize its ability to establish new types of relationships and encounters. Fifty artists, including Marina Abramovic, Vito Acconci, Louise Bourgeois, Clegg & Guttmann, Nan Goldin, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Cai Guo-Qiang, Mona Hatoum, Alfredo Jaar, Joseph Kosuth, Piero Manzoni, Ana Mendieta, Yoko Ono and Gabriel Orozco, have fashioned gifts of object and self, gifts of one's own body and of symbols, discreet and intrusive gifts, free handouts and exaggerated donations. In the spirit of giving, a bountiful range of philosophers, anthropologists, art critics and essayists offer their own musings on the idea of the gift.

520 pages, Paperback

First published March 15, 2002

About the author

Jean Baudrillard was a French sociologist, philosopher and poet, with interest in cultural studies. He is best known for his analyses of media, contemporary culture, and technological communication, as well as his formulation of concepts such as hyperreality. Baudrillard wrote about diverse subjects, including consumerism, critique of economy, social history, aesthetics, Western foreign policy, and popular culture. Among his most well-known works are Seduction (1978), Simulacra and Simulation (1981), America (1986), and The Gulf War Did Not Take Place (1991). His work is frequently associated with postmodernism and specifically post-structuralism. Nevertheless, Baudrillard had also opposed post-structuralism, and had distanced himself from postmodernism.

Reviews

[Kathryn · Rating 5 out of 5]

The gift art, economy and exchange. beaut.