Theodor W. Adorno's Wall Clock

Contents: Foreword. Preface. 1. Introduction. 2. Rational/Anti-Rational/Post-Rational: the withering away of reason. 3. The question of superiority and domination. 4. Adorno: the ‘Gentle Socrates’. 5. Irrataionalism’s double disorder. 6. The first disorder. 7. Hitler’s strategy of artistic domination. 8. The alarm bell rings: protects and revolts of the artists. Conclusion. References.

The book Theodor W. Adorno's Wall Clock brings to our consciousness Auschwitz, the perils of authoritarianism and what we seem to have forgotten or have willfully chosen to forget. For those whose understanding of Fascism and Nazism is through some textbooks as part of some academic curricula or for those for whom it was a freakish chapter in history that can’t be repeated – it brings the horror and the brutality and the possibility of its repetition so much closer. What I find so commendable is the ease with which Amit Mukhopadhyay, a well-known curator and an authority in his field, straddles theory and praxis simultaneously underscoring the importance of activism, debate, reason and rationality in imagining equality. He engages in an ongoing conversation with Theodor Adorno and the Frankfurt school.

Incisive and fascinating, Theodor W. Adorno's Wall Clock foregrounds the role of the artist. The artist can stir the public imagination, can critique as well as imagine an equal world in adverse times and regimes. The creative spirit lives on in the middle of holocaust and catastrophe. It lives on as a testament of hope. Various artworks, poetry, photographs and reproductions form an integral part of the essay. An ongoing dialogue between art, poetry, photography and philosophy is accomplished with great finesse and alacrity.