TALK: On Reconciliation by Dora García

On Reconciliation offers a public reading of a selection of letters by German philosophers Martin Heidegger (1889) and Hannah Arendt (1906). It follows artist Dora García’s publication of the same name, bringing together a series of reflections on the correspondence between Hannah Arendt and Martin Heidegger, from 1925 to 1975, as a means to think about moral responsibility, ethical indebtedness, and the role of intellectuals in times of political insurgency. This event is presented in relation to A group exhibition with work by Dora García, Sharon Hayes, Emily Jacir, Mahmoud Khaled, Carlos Motta, Wu Tsang, and Akram Zaatari, as well as a letter by Quinn Latimer.

Throughout a period of fifty years, the letters of Heidegger and Arendt cover amongst many other things the rise of Fascism, the Second World War, the creation of the state of Israel, and the Cold War, and an abundance of philosophical developments. The two thinkers begun their correspondence from a student-teacher relationship and a notorious affair, but continued after the Second World War had separated and opposed the two both geographically and politically, fuelling the concept of reconciliation in the thinking of Arendt.

With an introduction about the work of Hannah Arendt and Heidegger by Dr. Tina Rahimy, political philosopher and lector of ‘Social Work in the super-diverse city’ at Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences. Presentation of the correspondence by Melissa Mabesoone and Peter Aers.