The volume is conceived as an extended image commentary. The reference image: Anselm Kiefer “ The Seven Heavenly Palaces” (Pirelli Hangar Bicocca)

Symbols of the end of time. Focusing on the forms of self- recognition and the symbolic frameworks in late modernity, where the sheer volume of heterogeneous symbols produces inevitable tensions between communities of different origin that nevertheless share a common space. This is one of the effects of globalisation. It has removed the physical and geographical distance of groups and communities that are potentially in conflict with one another. However, at the same time these symbols become vital needs, as symbolic nourriture gestures, indispensable to orient and compensate the subjects at play both on the public and psychological scene.

Blocked future: modernity’s failure? Modernity as an ideal and as a reality is fragile and subject to attack as 9/11 demonstrated. Do ideals such as emancipation and tolerance still preserve that universal meaning the Enlightenment bestowed upon them? In general can one still argue in terms of universality in an age when the ethnic melting pot cannot realize itself in a symbolic melting pot? Secularization did not achieve the results its laic and religious advocates hoped for: the sphere of the public shared space has not expanded, on the contrary it has become fragmented in welcoming these new communities, with the most diverse origins, that cannot organise themselves into a society. It is as if we have to do with a modernity played by its own self.

Nature after nature. Nature after the catastrophe. Forms of utopia and anti-utopia between art and science.

Symbolic melting pot. Can a symbolic melting pot be achieved? It is perhaps our last chance of survival. It may be possible to realise a well thought out combination of symbols of belonging that transform the global world from a group of heterogeneous villages into a real civic society, a new expression of shared symbols and identities forming a collective imaginary on a psychological and cultural level, that is, however, also powerfully defined in biopolitical terms.