UNDERGROUND/MYTHOLOGY Talks by Bifo and David Harsent Moderated by Riccardo Baldissone Following the first two events of the series Underground, with Timothy Morton & Federico Campagna (Ecology), Yanis Varoufakis & Danae Stratou (Politics), the third section will host philosopher Franco Berardi Bifo & Eliot Prize winner poet David Harsent explore the nature of Mythology. Theories on myth may be as old as myths themselves. But why do we still need myths today? What is their function in our contemporary world? By exploring the symbolic and cultural value of the hare in Harsent’s work and the mythology of Power, Potency and Possibility in Berardi’s latest book Futurability, Underground/Mythology aims to bring to light aspects of the foundations of existential and political consciousness. It’s hard to define the myth, in terms of its origins, its limits, its place in space and time but what we can try to do is to follow its vivid traces that lie in our conciounsness. In this sense, the poet and the philosopher, in particular David and Franco, are perfect scouts who can track down those traces… A whole volume could well be written on the myth of modern man, on the mythology camouflaged in the plays that he enjoys in the books the he reads. The cinema, that ‘dream factory’ takes over and employs countless mythical motifs.. Even reading includes a mythological function.. because, through reading, the modern man succeeds in obtaining an ‘escape from time’ comparable to the ‘emergence from time’ effected by the myth.” (M. Eliade) Underground / Ecology / Politics / Mythology is a series of three multimedia events hosted between The Showroom and Goldsmiths, University of London organised by Teodora Pasquinelli. We are living through an era of environmental, cultural, economical and political disintegration. The daunting challenges already in front of us demand an urgent re-grounding of our experience of the world. The Underground series aims to explore – litterally and metaphorically – the fundamental ‘ground’ that lies ‘under’ three fundamental structures: the realms of Ecology, Politics and Mythology. Underground, roots unfold and tangle, anchoring the plants growing on the surface. The underground sets the rhythm of the surface – yet, the attention devoted to it, is typically insufficient. Perhaps, it is exactly beneath our feet that we should point our keenest eye, to envision and invent a new path ahead. BIOGRAPHIES Franco 'Bifo' Berardi is a writer and theorist based in Bologna. His work revolves mainly around the aesthetics of the contemporary psychosphere. His latest books include Futurability, And: Phenomenology of the End, and The Soul at Work. In the 1970s he was one of the founders of the pirate radio station Radio Alice, the magazine A/traverso and of the political movement Autonomia. He has worked across media such as books, magazines, radio, TV and cinema. Currenlty, he is working on the project of a movie on the Soviet revolution. David Harsent is a poet and librettist. He has published eleven volumes of poetry. Legion won the Forward Prize for best collection 2005; Night (2011) was triple short-listed in the UK and won the Griffin International Poetry Prize. His most recent collection, Fire Songs, won the 2014 T.S. Eliot Prize. In Secret, Harsent’s English versions of Yannis Ritsos, was published in Britain and America in 2012.His forthcoming collection, Salt, will be published in October 2017 by Faber & Faber. Harsent has collaborated with a number of composers, though most often with Harrison Birtwistle. Birtwistle/Harsent collaborations have been performed at the Royal Opera House, BBC Proms, the Aldeburgh Festival, The Concertgebouw, The London South Bank Centre, The Salzburg Festival, the Holland Festival, the Megaron (Athens) and Carnegie Hall. In 2013 he received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Roehampton where he is now Professor of Creative Writing. Teodora Pasquinelli is a writer and event organiser with a background in Fine Arts and she is interested in looking at the morphology of the current age, through the relationship between art and fundamental philosophy. She is a contributor for art magazines Arte e Critica and Juliet. Having worked in several art institutions in London, she is currently working as a production assistant for the Greek documentary TV series Apo Agathi Rodo broadcasted by the national TV channel ERT2.
