A FEW STEPS TOWARD AN ANTHROPOLOGY OF THE ICONOCLASTIC GESTURE

A large part of our critical acumen depends on a clear distinction bet ween what is real and what is constructed, what is out there in the na ture of things and what is in there in the representation we make of t hem. Something has been lost however for the sake of this clarity and a heavy price has been paid for this dichotomy between ontological que stions on the one hand and the epistemological questions on the other: it has become impossible to understand the simplest features of actio n. What the critical gesture smashes into pieces is precisely the very possibility of hearing as synonyms the two sentences, ''I have fabric ated it well, thus it is autonomous.'' The paper tries to find a way t o avoid the critical gesture and link again together facts and fetishe s, producing this rather strange hybrid: factishes.