Jean-Luc Nancy on Art, World, and the Absence of Meaning

In a 2002 interview with artpress, philosopher Jean-Luc Nancy discusses his book "La Création du monde ou la mondialisation" (Galilée, 2002), arguing that art and world share a condition of being without external purpose or finality. Nancy posits that the world today is in the position of art: it serves no design, produces nothing, and comes from no otherworld. He introduces the concept of "ab-sens" (absent sense), borrowed from Blanchot, to describe a meaning that withdraws from directionality and signification. Nancy rejects normative aesthetics, insisting that art is "without end" — without stop, satisfaction, limit, or signification — and that it opens infinitely onto truth. He critiques the confusion between art's self-reflexivity and aestheticism, asserting that art's only intention is to have none. The interview also touches on the political implications of this thought, linking the non-givenness of art to the non-givenness of democracy, especially in the context of the 2002 French presidential election. Nancy references works by Mathilde Monnier, Kiarostami, and Bataille, and discusses body art's literal extraction of the body's secret.