Dédale et Icare : situation du mythe dans la culture européenne
Institution:
Paris 3Disciplines:
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Abstract EN:
Ce mythe, malgre son apparente dispersion, rejoint certains vecteurs de la culture europeenne, par l'eclairee en un point focal : le statut de la "techne". En effet, l'histtoire de ce mythe de l'artiste fait surgir, aux cotes de l'artisan dedale, ses feux fils qui deviennent deux autres figures d'artistes: icare, au xixe siecle, chercheur d'absolu voue a la chute, et le minotaure au xxe siecle, face d'ombre sacrificielle du demiruge. Longtemps l'europe a accoulte le pere (le createur d'images est presque absent de la representation picturale) et manifeste sa fascination pour le fils: icare, embleme de demesure, au centre d'un reseau serre d'images, prend d'autant plus de relief que signes scripturaures et iconiques se font parfois echo. Paradoxalement, les peintres l'abandonnent au moment de crise ou, symbolisant a la fois le triomple de l'aeronautique et l'impuissance de l'artiste dans sa quete de sublimation, il incarne le divorce consomme entre art et technique. Icare devient meme la figure d'un lieu commun dont des interpretations burlesques et grotesques bousculent l'usage et l'usure. A travers les relectures du mythe affleure un scenario stable, d'une grande richesse symbolique, centre sur une demiurgie liee a la rivalite du pere et du fils et a la conquete d7un nom fetichise, ce qui suppose l'eviction de toute feminite et induit le renversement dangereux de la creativite en pulsion de destruction. Les autres invariants deploient tout un imaginaire dynamique et polysemique : devenir-animal (oiseau, taureau), corps cosmique, labyrinthe, danse envol, ebouissement et chute.
Abstract FR:
This myth, in spite of its seeming dispersion, follows the vectors of european culture throwing light onto one focal point, the status of art. If we examine the history of this myth, we ses emerging on either side of the craftsman daedalus his two sons who are to evolve into artist figures themeselves : icarus in the nineteenth century in search of the absolute but destinde to fall and the minoteur in the twentieth century, the dark sacrificial side of the demiurge. European culture had long since occulted the father (the craftsman himself is virtually absent from any pictorial representation) and yet showed a marked fascination for the son icarus, whose hubristic tendancy makes him stand out from the mass of imagery all the more so since both inconic and written representation mirror each other. Paradoxically artists abandon him at a critical moment when, symbolising both the triumph of aeronautics and the failure of the quest for the sublime, he would seem to incarnate the divoprce betwwen art and technology. Icarus was to become a common place figure in interpretations which, breaking with tradition, were burlesque. Reading through the different interpretations of this myth, one can perceive a stable scenario which is richly symbolic and centres on the demiurge linking both father-son rivality and the creation of a fetishistic name; feminity is cast aside and creativity verges on destruction. The other common features of the myth open up a vivid, ambiguous imaginary wolrd