Art as Fiction: Can Latour’s Ontology of Art be Ratified by Art Lovers? (An Exercise in Anthropological Diplomacy)

Abstract

A new diplomat has been appointed in the city. His name is Bruno Latour. But why would we need a new diplomat? Because, he claims, we are at war. This war is not physical and it is not between countries: it is metaphysical and it is between domains of action. Each one of these domains of action claims to have a privileged access to Reality as such. Typically, sciences would claim to describe the world, while politics or religion would only be about rules of conduct. But reciprocally, religion rejects science as an untrustworthy witness to what truly exists. In consequence, everything is progressively being swept up in a terrible escalation of unreality, to the point where it seems we end up living only among ghosts.