Introduction: The Work of the Artwork

In contrast to the view of art as mimesis, art is also linked by Plato to poiesis, meaning creation and production. From a Marxist point of view, the artist is driven by the impulse for production. Heidegger too links art to productivity, albeit for different reasons: what is worked out in the artwork is viewed phenomenologically as disclosure in the space of aletheia. It is thus possible to say that what is worked out in the artwork is the work of hospitality. In contrast to Levinas, who situates hospitality in the ethical domain, the current discussion situates it in the aesthetic domain. This re-situating of the event of hospitality opens up an entirely new perspective on art—that of aesth-ethics—the initial contours of which are traced in this book.