EXHIBIT PDF
EXHIBIT PRESENTATION
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2020
7:45 PM | SECOND FLOOR AUDITORIUM
FLYER PDF | FLYER JPG
Near the end of his life, the great American novelist Walker Percy observed that ours “is the age of theory and consumption” and “the common mark of the theorist and the consumer is that neither knows who he is or what he wants outside of theorizing and consuming [because] one’s self is always a leftover from one’s theory.” This remark has interesting implications for the theme of this year’s New York Encounter: it suggests that the real divide is not primarily between people, but between abstract ideas and real life, between what we think will make us happy and what we really desire. We divide ourselves so fiercely along political and cultural lines because somehow we have allowed our theories and our false desires to displace our “self.”
Fortunately, from time to time reality breaks through the wall of ideology, and then suddenly, almost magically, also the barrier that seemed to separate us from other people disappears. This is the theme of this year’s New York Encounter, which this exhibit wants to explore.
