Lecture by Italian mathematician and essayist Piergiorgio Odifreddi
In dialogue with art historian Costantino D’Orazio.
The Italian Cultural Institute in Sydney is pleased to present a lecture by the Italian mathematician, logician, essayist and devotee of the history of science Piergiorgio Odifreddi, who will discuss the topic with art historian Costantino D’Orazio. Odifreddi will talk about the relation between art and science, while D’Orazio will explore the relationship between art and emotions, in a unique event which will present two different artistic perspectives.
Artistic perspectives
Science and Art provide complementary views of the world, having both developed their own techniques to describe the reality of the reality of the physical world, providing different perspectives of reality. Mathematics is a crucial tool when it comes to expressing essential features of reality, and therefore it can intervene on the artwork in three different ways: as language, representation and structure. The multiple examples available range from Van Gogh’s spirals to Dalì’s spheres, from Escher tilings to Brunelleschi’s perspective, Mobius’ string and so on. Just as the non-Euclidean geometries fostered the development of a new discipline by discrediting the Euclidean alternative, Impressionism, Futurism and Cubism contributed to the conception of a new abstract painting technique, axiomatized by Kandinsky. The most recent mathematical artistic expression are fractals, self-similar elements whose parts have the same structure as the whole. The entire course of the 19th century can be summarized by emphasizing the role of abstraction as the pure essence of both modern art and mathematics.
History of emotions in art
The history of art can be told from many points of view: through its techniques, movements, commissions, language and styles. Art historian Costantino D’Orazio has chosen a different path. He invites us to take a journey through history, from ancient to present times, to discover how the artists painted the emotions nested in our most ineffable and fascinating frame of mind. D’Orazio will guide us through famous masterpieces and less-known artworks to discover desire, delirium, agony, wonder, doubt and joy. Feelings that humanity has always felt and considered differently over the centuries. From the relics of ancient Greece to the masterpieces by Leonardo Da Vinci or Michelangelo, from Bernini’s inventions to the Impressionists’ revolution, until the provocations of the 20th century, art has drawn on the emotions of women and men by creating symbols and characters to narrate them. Eros to display desire, Prometeo for agony, Medusa for delirium, Maddalena for wonder, Polimnia for doubt and cherubs for joy, these are only some of the characters who reveal the tumult of emotions analyzed in this conference.
Born in Cuneo in 1950, Piergiorgio Odifreddi is an Italian mathematician and logician, extremely active also as a popular science writer and essayist. Odifreddi received his Laurea cum laude in mathematics in Turin in 1973; he then specialized in the United States, at the University of Illinois and UCLA, and in the Soviet Union, at Novosibirsk State University. He taught Logic at the University of Turin and Cornell University. In 2011 he won the Galileo Award for Science Dissemination. Odifreddi’s main field of research is computability theory, a branch of mathematical logic that studies the class of functions that can be calculated automatically. He is a regular contributor to Italian science magazine Le Scienze and has also written for several general-interest newspapers such as La Repubblica, La Stampa and L’Espresso. Italian public television station RAI has hosted many of his discussions on various scientific topics. His most influential and popular books are Le menzogne di Ulisse (Ulysses’ Lies, 2004), C’è spazio per tutti (There’s room for everyone, 2010) and Il museo dei numeri (The museum of numbers, 2013). He is the author of many controversial best-sellers such as Il Vangelo secondo la Scienza (The Gospel According to Science, 1999), Il matematico impertinente (The Impertinent Mathematician, 2005), Perché non possiamo essere cristiani (Why we cannot be Christians, 2007), Il dizionario della stupidità (The dictionary of Stupidity, 2016) and La democrazia non esiste (Democracy does not exist, 2018). After writing an open letter to Pope Benedict XVI in 2011 and receiving a public response in 2013, Odifreddi published Caro papa teologo, caro matematico ateo (Dear Pope I’m writing to you, 2013). His latest works are Il Dio della logica. Vita di Kurt Gödel (The God of logic. Kurt Gödel’s life 2018) and Il cinico e il sognatore (The cynic and the dreamer, 2019), written with Oscar Farinetti.
Costantino D’Orazio, born in Rome in 1974, is an Italian art critic and essayist. He is also 
senior curator at MACRO (Museum of Contemporary Art in Rome) and professor in the Master for curators at Luiss University and Link Campus. He talks about the history of Italian art on TV and radio: he presents the AR Frammenti d’Arte programme on RaiNews 24, as well as Bella davvero on Radio 2 and collaborates with Geo&Geo on Rai 3. He is the author of Caravaggio segreto (Secret Caravaggio, Sperling & Kupfer 2013), Leonardo segreto (Secret Leonardo, Sperling & Kupfer 2014), Michelangelo. Io sono fuoco. Autobiografia di un genio (Michelangelo. I am fire. Autobiography of a genius, Sperling & Kupfer 2016), Ma liberaci dal male (Free us from evil, Sperling & Kupfer, 2017), Mercanti di bellezza (Beauty merchants, Rai Eri, 2017) and Leonardo svelato (Leonardo revealed, Sperling & Kupfer, 2019).
The lecture will be in English.
Light refreshments will follow.
Free entry. Limited seats.
Booking essential: www.eventbrite.com.au