Du mourir de la statue aux procédés justes de l’oblitération: Levinas face à l’oeuvre de Sosno

In this paper, I examine how exposure to the art of obliteration of the sculptor Sacha Sosno led Levinas to describe the ontological and ethical scope of the practice of obliteration applied to the archetypical sculptures of classical art: obliteration by void (cutting, trimming, perforation) and obliteration by plenitude (obstruction, insertion). After forty-two years believing (in “Reality and Its Shadow,” 1948) that philosophical exegesis alone can reinsert the artwork into the world of human beings, Levinas recognizes an ethical stance within the technique of obliteration. Indeed, in On Obliteration (1990), the philosopher considers that the wounds caused by the undoing of forms of beauty disrupt our focused insistence on persevering in being, reveal the finitude and ambiguity of a face both visible and invisible, denounce the abuses of social life, and arouse the compassion and responsibility of the spectator.