Christine Buci-Glucksmann's 'Philosophie de l'ornement' Traces Decorative Will from East to West

Christine Buci-Glucksmann's latest book, 'Philosophie de l'ornement d'Orient en Occident' (published by Éditions Galilée), concludes a journey tracing the repressed 'decorative will' across cultures and epochs. The work moves from Vienna to Japan, through Barcelona's Art Nouveau, Byzantine Venice, the mannerism of the Fontainebleau school, Islamic architecture at the Alhambra, Matisse's Morocco, and Klee's Tunisia. Buci-Glucksmann draws on Kracauer's concept of the 'mass ornament' to analyze the contemporary virtual age. She argues that the 'aesthetic of ornament' opposes Western rationalism by recovering three repressed cultural elements: the feminine, the primitive, and the Orient. The book combines theoretical precision with a passion for surfaces, textures, and organic rhythms, advocating for a hybrid, ambivalent gaze that interrogates diversity in a globalized world. The review by Stéphanie Katz was published in artpress in June 2008.