Alexander Galyatsky
art space
Aesthetics of being
"Simplicity is possessing little, which allows opening the path to what is essential, to the heart of things. Moreover, simplicity is beautiful, because miracles are hidden behind it."
— Dominique Loreau
The theme of the "Aesthetics of Being" offers an in-depth study of the nature of existence, beauty, and our conscious perception of the world. It draws on various philosophical currents, particularly existential philosophy and phenomenology, to understand how being—our mode of existence—is inextricably linked with aesthetics.
The aesthetics of existence, or the "aesthetization of the subject," is a concept developed by the French philosopher Michel Foucault in his later philosophical works. By aesthetization, he understood the aspiration for "the transformation of oneself."
An aesthetic being can be called a creator, crafting one's own life from an assemblage of one's choices. An individual's free choice is a choice of oneself; it is the construction of oneself from not-yet-being into full-fledged being here and now.
Making an existential choice that transforms a person and tears them from their former life is a breakthrough of a human being toward being as a mode of human existence. It is when a person ceases to be a passive part of the world, subjected to the bustle of everydayness, and draws closer to oneself, truly discovers oneself, and begins to recognize one's "I" as it truly is.
Martin Heidegger, in his seminal work Being and Time, asserts that the question of Being (Seinsfrage) is the fundamental question of philosophy. He argues that our everyday understanding of being is mediated by our mode of existence, which he calls "Dasein" (Being-there). This experience is not only intellectual but also aesthetic, deeply connected to our Being-in-the-world.
The subject of inquiry in the works of this series is the complex relationship between Being in its ontological and cosmological aspects, on the one hand, and an aesthetic system of signs embodied in various models, on the other.
