Questa conferenza è stata tenuta a Londra il 27 ottobre 1999 alla Hayward Gallery nel quadro delle manifestazioni culturali che hanno affiancato l'esposizione di Lucio Fontana. Ringrazio il prof. Simon Glendinning dell'università di Reading, organizzatore dell'incontro, per il suo cortese invito e l'aiuto prestatomi nella elaborazione del testo inglese.
This paper was given in London on October 27, 1999, at the Hayward Gallery, as one of the cultural events that accompanied an art exhibition by Lucio Fontana. I thank Prof. Simon Glendinning of University of Reading, organizer of the meeting, for his kind invitation and for the help provided in preparing the English text.
The questions before us concern the nature of our interpretations of works of art. In this talk I will present my position on this subject with reference to the thought of a twentieth century philosopher who has been my philosophical master and main point of reference: Paul Ricoeur. In one of my books, I attempted to trace the development of his whole philosophy. My focus there was his conception of the human subject and the interpretive processes through which that subject "finds itself." It seems to me that this issue of self-interpretation has a profound relationship to questions about the aesthetic experience and interpretation of art. I will try to explain why in the following passages. In order to do so, however, I need to introduce some of the basic features of Ricoeur's view of self-interpretation. It will only be at the end that I will be able to say something about the issues of interpretation and objectivity that Prof. Simon raised in his introduction.