In the book In-Statuere. Figures of Institutional Building (Frankfurt am Main, Vittorio Klostermann, 2022), Petar Bojanić sets out to show how an institution is created or how an institution is institutionalized from a group conducting engaged acts. At the same time, these engaged acts are characterized by a projective mind; they hold critical potential and protocols of resistance that necessarily produce something new. A counter-institution (Europe, for example), for its part, is an institution that alters and deconstructs all other existing institutions. In the lecture, Bojanić focused especially on the conversion of violence (military action and massacres fall under “extreme” violence), into right, justice, and institutions. He is interested in whether the “institution of victory” and its various figures can truly transform violence into long-term stable peace.
Petar Bojanić is a Full Professor of Philosophy at the University of Belgrade and Director of the Center for Advanced Studies, University of Rijeka. He is also a President of the Institute for Democratic Engagement Southeast Europe based in Belgrade. He is a researcher of war, ethics of war, violence and its cessation, Jewish political theory, institutions and counter-institutions and the theory of the architectural concept and project.
Bojanić studied philosophy at the University of Belgrade and at the École des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris under the supervision of Miladin Životić and Jacques Derrida. He has been visiting professor at many universities around the world, such as Cornell, Aberdeen, Yekaterinburg, London, Roma, and others. Currently he is a visiting professor in Turin and Rijeka.
Bojanić is also the co-editor of Khorein: a journal for architecture and philosophy. His recent publications include In-Statuere. Figures of Institutional Building (Frankfurt am Main, Vittorio Klostermann, 2022); Ethics of War in Orthodox Christian Countries (Saint Petersburg, Vladimir Dal, 2022); Provocatio. Vocativo Ius Rivoluzione (Milano – Udine, Mimesis Edizioni, 2021); Violence and Messianism. Jewish Philosophy and the Great Conflicts of the 20th Century (London – New York, Routledge, 2018) (translated into eight languages).
Ivan Vejvoda, IWM Permanent Fellow and head of the Europe’s Futures program, hosted and moderated the event.
A recording of the event is available below.
