공간과 예술, 몸: 탈신체화와 재신체화

Abstract

What is the space? The question concerning the space can be posed and answered properly only in terms of the human body, since no space is thinkable without the body experiencing it. The space is coextensive with the body, and vice versa. Then the space, seemingly physical, turns out to be experiential by nature. The value, meaning, and definition of the space vary in accordance with the changes in the way of perceiving and experiencing the body. The first part of this paper is an attempt to map the boundary between two spaces. The classical space is the space--to be exact, locations--enchanted with the various human experiences. For example, there is no neutral and objective space in the mythical world of The Iliad and The Odyssey: heroes of these epics live their idiosyncratic spaces saturated with the meanings of their life worlds. The space was the lived space. Though, such a lived space was disenchanted in the dawn of enlightenment in order to be replaced by the modern concept of the space as exemplified in the writings of Descartes. Descartes obtained an objective neutral space free of any human subject, by simply eliminating the presence of the human body from the space. The modern space is the space not influenced by the human body. The space becomes a substance independent of human subjects in which the link between them is severed. Now human subjects are isolated from their life world and the space is deprived of the human meaning. The second part of the paper addresses the role of the art in the modern world. The art is ways of re-enchanting the disenchanted space by reinserting the human body in the heart of the space. The art re-humanizes the space dehumanized by embodying the space disembodied. Here a question may arise concerning the ontological status of the art: Isn’t the art’s re-enchantment only subjective, thus another symptom of the modern world? This paper ends with the argument that the art’s embodiment of the space is not subjective but communicative, since the art builds a community based on the lived space.