A rich collection of articles, which span various disciplines and areas of knowledge, from art criticism to the theater, philosophy, epistemology, architecture and science, provides an opportunity to interpret the present through the ideas of the leading exponents of the contemporary cultural scenario.
“Arte e le teorie di turno” is a tribute from leading international scholars to mark Bonito Oliva’s 70th birthday and his teaching career as Professor of Contemporary Art History at the Faculty of Architecture of the “La Sapienza” University in Rome. “Anyway my career has not been that of a critic but a cultural adventure.” As militant critic and curator of important international contemporary art exhibitions, Achille Bonito Oliva is also known to the public at large for his numerous appearances on television, in different contexts, from talk- shows to cultural programs, which have consecrated his role as an undisputedly important figure of our time. This rich collection of articles, which span various disciplines and areas of knowledge, from art criticism to the theater, philosophy, epistemology, architecture and science, provides an opportunity to interpret the present through the ideas of the leading exponents of the contemporary cultural scenario. The following writers have contributed to the work: Paolo Bertetto, Rossella Bonito Oliva, Massimo Cacciari, Fernando Castro Flórez, Germano Celant, Laura Cherubini, Stefano Chiodi, Andrea Cortellessa, Arthur Danto, Renato De Fusco, Pietro Doriano, Salvatore Fazia, Rudi Fuchs, Massimiliano Fuksas, Giulio Giorello, Lóránd Hegyi, Jan Hoet, Fulvio Irace, Koichi Kawasaki, Jean-Jacques Lebel, Giovanni Lista, Lorenzo Mango, Giacomo Marramao, Alessandro Mendini, Viktor Misiano, Lu Peng, Francesco Poli, Norman Rosenthal, Umberto Silva, Angelo Trimarco, Vincenzo Trione, Valentina Valentini, Gianni Vattimo, Paul Virilio and Stefania Zuliani. Achille Bonito Oliva is one of the undisputed protagonists of international art criticism. Known for his work as a historian and a militant art critic, he is the author of seminal works on Mannerism – including that classic of art literature “L’ideologia del traditore”(The Ideology of the Traitor) – and contemporary art “Il territorio magico” (The Magic Land) and the “Teoria della transavanguardia” (Theory of Transavantgarde), he has curated important international art exhibitions (from “Contemporanea” to “Minimalia”), in museums, art galleries and contemporary art reviews (such as the Biennal Art Exhibition of Venice of 1993). His latest publishing project is an ambitious Encyclopedia of the contemporary arts.