Christian Caliandro on Writing as Disagreement and the Erosion of Freedom

Christian Caliandro, an art historian and professor at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze, publishes the seventh installment of his series 'Conquistando luce' on Artribune, focusing on the concept of writing as a form of fundamental disagreement with reality. He argues that writing gives voice to the discomfort and irritation we feel toward the present, human habits, illogical rules, and mindless mechanisms, serving as a perennial digression from an essential discord with existence. Caliandro contrasts this with the contemporary erosion of individual freedom in Western societies, which occurs subtly with the active collaboration of the oppressed, citing airport privacy invasions and the organization of free time by para-state entities. He references the documentary 'Style Wars' (Tony Silver, 1983) to illustrate how graffiti writers' subculture was misunderstood when brought into the gallery system at The Kitchen in New York, with a viewer claiming no difference between a painting on canvas and one on a subway car. Caliandro also cites works by J.G. Ballard, Philip K. Dick ('A Scanner Darkly', 'Valis Trilogy'), and China Miéville ('The City & The City') to describe a condition of being suspended between two states, which he sees as normal in perceiving life and art. He mentions artists Cesare Tacchi ('.col telefono', 1967) and Gino De Dominicis ('Senza titolo Figura distesa', 1966). The series is published on Artribune, an Italian art magazine.