Forthcoming
Art Oriented Philosophy
Wilfried Laforge
September 2024
Learn more




Julian Charrière, Towards No Earthly Pole - Conway, 2019. © the artist; VG Bild-Kunst Bonn, Germany
Forthcoming
Art
Oriented
Philosophy
Wilfried Laforge
June 2024
Learn more
Forthcoming
Thinking with our Ears
François Noudelmann
June 2024
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Florence Giroux Gravel, EARS, 2023-2024, glass casts on Plexiglas panel, site-specific installation at Sorbonne Artgallery. Florence Giroux Gravel, photo Elio Cuilleron
Forthcoming
Thinking
with
our Ears
François Noudelmann
June 2024
Learn more

Wilfried Laforge (1982) is a French art theorist.

He holds a PhD in art sciences from Paris 1Pantheon-Sorbonne University, specializing in aesthetics.

Wilfried is an expert in modern and contemporary art, with a keen interest in current trends, the development of new media, the philosophical subtext of contemporary art, and the relationship between the history of exhibitions, collections, and the art market. His work questions the future of philosophical aesthetics in an era of major upheavals in the art world. He balances academic research, teaching, publishing, and art consultancy.  

Alongside his role as an art advisor, Wilfried  has been a professor of aesthetics at School of Visual Arts in New York City since 2018. He has designed and taught a wide range of courses straddling philosophy and art history, about the state of contemporary art, new media theory, recording practices, exhibition history, and emerging trends in the art market. His lectures and artist talks series have caught the interest of art world professionals from all over the world.

Wilfried joined Vrin Editions in 2018  as senior acquisition editor. He co-created the REC (Research in Contemporary Aesthetics) series, which promotes innovative art theory essays and unpublished translations. As a translator of eminent figures in the philosophy of art, he is currently working on a series of essays by philosopher Lydia Goehr (Columbia University in the City of New York).

He founded Enceladus Press in 2023 and is currently its CEO. Based in Paris and New York City, EP is a publishing house that promotes a philosophy of art  anchored in the materiality of artistic practices and artists' words. Enceladus Press will soon release Art Oriented Philosophy, a groundbreaking investigation into artists' relationships with philosophy based on  interviews with some of the most important artists of recent years. EP is an innovative platform that extends its focus on books as objects to a variety of media: podcasts, audiobooks, recorded conferences, and more.

Wilfried has published essays on art theory (À la frontière des arts, L'Écho du réel) and organized major, seminal international conferences on current trends in contemporary art in collaboration with prestigious institutions. His academic work has included visiting fellowships or collaborations with internationally renowned institutions such as La Sorbonne, Paris (as a Research Associate since 2012), Columbia University in the City of New York, New York University, and others. His book-in-progress proposes a theory for the comprehension of contemporary art drawing on the philosophy of T.-W. Adorno.

Wilfried singular approach to art consulting is rooted in this vast knowledge of the contemporary art world in all its aspects, nourished by his academic work and investigations in galleries and artists' studios, attuned with the latest art evolutions. Since the 2000s, he has patiently built up a vast network of trusted partners in the art world.

— Publications (selection)
L’Écho du réel, w. C. Crignon & P. Nadrigny, Paris: Mimésis, 2020.
À la frontière des arts, Paris: Mimésis, 2018 •  Altérités des arts contemporains, Paris, Klincksieck, forthcoming (2024)
Art Oriented Philosophy, The Uses of Philosophy in Contemporary Art, EP, Paris; New York: forthcoming (2025)

— Recent talks
“Bruce Nauman, Some Sort of Process“, New York University, Dpt of French Studies, October 25, 2022 • “Pragmatist Applications: Allan Kaprow’s Quest for the Real“, New York University, Dpt of French Studies, March 30th, 2022.• "A good job makes a good work"", Pantheon-Sorbonne University, Forthcoming January 2025
— Recent Articles
“It was in the Air, Bruce Nauman and Contemporary Philosophy“, New York University Press (forthcominge) • “Allan Kaprow’s Quest for the Real“, New York University Press (forthcoming) • "Adorno en terres réalistes", in Christophe David et Florent Perrier (dir.), Où en sommes-nous avec la Théorie esthétique d’Adorno ?, Rennes: Pontcerq, 2018, pp. 270 c• "L'effrangement, entre aporie et utopie, in " À la frontière des arts, Paris: Mimésis, 2018, pp. 7-13. 

— Organisation of conferences (selection):
Scientific director,  international conference "L’écho du Réel/Echoes of the Real, Philhar-monie de Paris-Cité de la Musique, Paris, 2019 • Organiser, Artists Talks Series at SVANYC The Uses of Philosophy in Contemporary Art • Scientific director, international conference "À la frontière des arts", Philharmonie de Paris-Cité de la Musique, Paris, septembre 2016  • panel organiser, "Inquiéter le réel, le modernisme américain au prisme des pratiques artistiques contemporaines", Cinquième congrès de l’EAM (European Network for Avangarde and Modernism Studies 5th Conference), Université de Rennes 2, 1-3 juin 2016.

—Teaching (SVA, 2018-)
"The Situation of the Arts", ; "Recording Art"; "New Media Theory"; "Exhibiting Your Art","New Media, NFTs, and all That"; "Philosophy for Creatives", "Art & Perception" and more.