After History: Alexandre Kojève as a Photographer

The James Gallery at The Graduate Center, CUNY announces the conceptual and experimental exhibition guest curated by Boris Groys, After History: Alexandre Kojève as a Photographer, on view from 11 April till 1 June 2013. The exhibition presents the photographs, collected postcards, and hand-drawn itineraries of the French-Russian philosopher Alexandre Kojève (1902–1968) to compose a visual exposition of his philosophy. Kojève’s lectures on Hegel in Paris before World War II deeply influenced critical thinkers of the post-World War II generation, and among his students were Jacques Lacan and Maurice Merleau-Ponty. He expressed in his writings on post-history that a commitment to certain aesthetic attitudes has replaced the more traditional “historic” commitment to the truth. Groys asserts that discourses of biopolitics put forward by Michel Foucault, Giorgio Agamben, and Gilles Deleuze are indebted to Kojève’s work. The project presents the philosopher’s world view in the tumultuous postwar era as colonial history was being played out between the West and the so-called “Third World.” Made in collaboration with BAK, basis voor actuele kunst, The James Gallery is the only US venue for the exhibition.