From June 8-10, 2026, the conference The Power of Art: Aesthetics and Politics in Classical German Philosophy will be held at the Departiment of Philosophy, Sociology, Education and Applied Psycology of the Univeristy of Padua.
The event will be held both in person and online. To attend via Zoom, please use the following link: https://unipd.zoom.us/launch/jc/84059901744
The conference is organized by Francesco Campana and Gabriele Tomasi. It is the second conference within the PolArt project, following the first conference, which was held at the New School for Social Research in New York in February 2025.
The event has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation program under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 101066460 (Project: PolArt – Political Art: Understanding the Function of Art in the Contemporary Social Space Through a New Interpretation of Classical German Philosophy.
The conference is sponsored by the Italian Society of Aesthetics and the PhD Program in Philosophy at the University of Padua, and is organized within the framework of the activities of the hegelpd research group.
PROGRAM
University of Padua
Department of Philosophy, Sociology, Education and Applied Psychology
June 8-10, 2026
The Power of Art
Aesthetics and Politics in Classical German Philosophy
11.00: Visit to the Scrovegni Chapel*
June 8, Sala delle Edicole
15.00: Reception
15.15-15.30: Francesco Campana, Gabriele Tomasi, Greetings and Introduction
Chair: Luca Illetterati
15.30-16.30: Giovanna Pinna, Aesthetic Universalism and the Aestheticization of Politics: On Schiller and Hegel
16.45-17.45: Mario Farina, Hegel: Art and the Critique of Modernity. The Hegelian Roots of the Politicization of Art
20.00: Dinner*
June 9, Sala Bortolami
Chair: Giulia Bernard
9.30-10.30: Kristin Gjesdal, Tradition, Critique, and Agency in Germaine de Staël
10.45-11.45: Francesco Campana, Aesthetics, Politics, and the Novel: The Case of Florentin by Dorothea Mendelssohn-Schlegel
12.15-13.15: Markus Gante, The Politics of Absolute Spirit
13.30 Lunch*
15.00: Visit to the Bo Palace*
Chair: Giovanna Luciano
16.30-17.30: Alberto L. Siani, Artcentrism, Eurocentrism, and the Stakes of Hegelian Aesthetics
17.45-18.45: Paul A. Kottman, The Attention Economy
20.00: Dinner*
June 10, Sala Bortolami
Chair: Elena Nardelli
9.30-10.30: C. Allen Speight, Inscrutability and the Aesthetic
10.45-11.45: Gioia Sili, Resisting Oblivion. Fanny Mendelssohn and the Female Narrative
12.00: Visit to the Padua Baptistery*
13.30 Lunch*
Chair: Giovanna Miolli
15.00-16.00: Italo Debernardi Cárcamo, The Ideal or Artistic Beauty and the Sense of Appearance in Hegel’s Aesthetics
16.15-17.15: Gabriele Schimmenti, Myth after Religion: The Politicization of Myth in Left Hegelianism
17.45-18.45: Gabriele Tomasi, Friendship, Love and Politics. On Hölderlin’s Quest for Community
19.00: Conclusion
20.00: Dinner
*Activities for speakers only
