Seven years after the publication of Santiago Zabala’s Why Only Art Can Save Us: Aesthetics and the Absence of Emergency, the prestigious cultural institution Círculo de Bellas Artes of Madrid will host an exhibition based on Zabala’s aesthetic theory. The exhibition, La mayor emergencia (The Greatest Emergency), will open October 24, 2024 and run through January 12, 2025. It will present to the public eleven works of art by contemporary artists that strive to save us, that is, to “rescue us into our greatest emergencies” before they become emergencies, as Zabala descibes in the book.

During these seven years, Why Only Art Can Save Us has been translated into Italian, reviewed, and debated in several newspapers, book reviews, and journals. At a press conference held the day before the 2023 awards ceremony of the Praemium Imperiale, the Nobel Prize of the fine arts, member of the Praemium Imperiale’s advisory panel and former Italian prime minister Lamberto Dini praised Zabala’s argument that “art itself is destined to save us, to save our future.” In this Q&A, Zabala discusses how the exhibition was planned, how his theory has evolved over the years, and which artists he selected.

Q: Tell us about the exhibition and the cultural institute where it will occur.

Santiago Zabala: This exhibition results from a conversation with the philosopher and director of Círculo de Bellas Artes of Madrid

(CBA), Valerio Rocco Lozano, in 2021. We discussed the end of art (he is a Hegelian) and how I selected the works of art that rescue us “into” great emergencies. Looking at the book’s images, we noted they could easily form the basis of an exhibition given their relation to contemporary emergencies. A few weeks later, I began to work with the exhibition director, Laura Marzano, who was very helpful throughout the process, as I’m not a curator. After three years of selecting the works of art, persuading artists to participate, and programming the whole event, the exhibition will take place in Minerva Hall, one of the finest spaces in the building that houses CBA. I have always been fond of this institution because every year they award the CBA Gold Medal to creators and intellectuals whose work has contributed decisively to the renewal of contemporary arts and culture. Gianni Vattimo, together with Slavoj Žižek and Judith Butler, have been awarded the medal. I could not think of a better institution for such a philosophical exhibition.

Q: How have philosophers and artists received your aesthetic? Are there recurring questions that keep coming up?

Zabala: During these years, I had various opportunities to discuss the central thesis with academics, curators, and artists who were kind enough to read the book. In these conversations, the concepts of salvation and emergency played a central role. While philosophers and curators thought I relied too much upon art’s ability to save us, the artists insisted that art is more than just a realm of salvation. Something similar occurred with the theory of emergency I defend throughout the book: “The greatest emergency is the absence of emergency.” Scholars repeatedly pointed out the numerous emergencies that constitute our lives—from the war in Ukraine to the recent Crowdstrike failure—indicating that emergencies keep occurring. But my argument is not against the reality of emergencies as much as about which are the most urgent, significant—greatest. These are the ones we do not confront enough, such as climate change, gender violence, and the return of authoritarian leaders. If I’m interested in these great emergencies, it’s not simply because they are absent but also because of the saving power they entail, as Dini pointed out at the 2023 awards ceremony of the Praemium Imperiale.

Q: But why can art save us “into”—as you say—these great emergencies?

Zabala: Great emergencies entail a danger that can also save us. This is why Friedrich Hölderlin’s renowned verse, “But where the danger is, also grows the saving power,” was not simply meant to draw us close to danger but also to acknowledge the risk that ignoring it entails. The reason to confront absent emergencies now instead of waiting for their realization is for the pressure they exercise against such realization. And this is where art comes in. What often emerges in contemporary art is not a representation of beauty but rather the disclosure of an invisible event to our aesthetic senses, intellectual skills, and cultural interests. The goal of art in the twenty-first century is to rescue us into this danger.

Q: How do the works you selected for the exhibition convey this salvation? Who are the artists?

Zabala: Since 2017, friends and colleagues have drawn my attention to artists who rescue us into absent emergencies similar to the ones I’ve included in the book. Together with Filippo Minelli—who created an installation for the exhibition announcement and entrance—I’ve invited Diane Burko, Arturo Comas, Gabriel Barcia-Colombo, Beverly Fishman, Julia Galán, kennardphillipps, Josh Kline, Pekka Niittyvirta, Timo Aho, and Avelino Sala. For example, Burko’s painting of the Amazon forest fires rescues us into an environmental emergency that we have continued to ignore despite scientists’ alarming warnings and unquestionable evidence. (Warnings are at the center of my forthcoming book.) Fishman’s installation and Kline’s video instead rescue us into our addiction to pharmaceutical drugs and the precarious conditions of employees in the service sector. I could go on, but I do not want to spoil the other great emergencies these works convey.

Q: Should visitors read the book before visiting the exhibition?

Zabala: Yes and no. Reading the book will help people understand the aesthetic theory that sustains the exhibition’s meaning and goal. But those who haven’t read it will find at the entrance a brief explanation of the exhibition’s concept and will also find that each work of art is accompanied by a description that contextualizes the work within the exhibition. In addition, we’ve created a webpage that includes press releases, information about the artists, and photographs of the exhibition.