Vesper 9 - L’avversario | The Adversary

The nineth issue of “Vesper” is dedicated to the Adversary. To oppose is to turn against someone or something (in a fight, in a game, in a discussion, in a trial), but it is also to distance oneself from a position, from a theory as well as from a practice. The etymology of the adversary therefore implies a logic of confrontation: being turned against, however, paradoxically discloses the constitutive bond of the interaction between antagonists. This ‘crossing of gazes’ makes conflictual interaction a privileged place for the production of masking, camouflage, but also parades, ostentation, threats, intimidation. The adversary takes shape both by relentlessly pursuing Eden projects, and by allowing immense miseries and shortcomings to thrive, shelving them in an elsewhere, which then returns. It is the (adversative) measure of the difficult search for a balance.