Anne Cauquelin's Stoic Theory of the Virtual in Contemporary Art

In 'Fréquenter les incorporels', philosopher Anne Cauquelin draws on Stoic theory to analyze the immaterial in contemporary art, from painting's invisible halos to digital virtuality. The book alternates between philosophical exposition and concrete descriptions of artists' practices involving voids, blanks, and withdrawal, as well as conceptual and contextual art. Cauquelin develops a theory of cyberspace that revisits the territory opened by the 'Les Immatériaux' exhibition, addressing reconfigurations of time and place, the role of fiction, and the poetics of interface. She presents a 'maquette' of the virtual without hiding its limits and dead ends, identifying a 'Stoic moment' in contemporary art. The essay was published in artpress in July 2006.