Dialogue between Forms. Ethics of Space and Time

Abstract

Eduardo Chillida’s Monument to Tolerance, inaugurated in 1992 in Seville, was erected in remembrance of the Jews expelled from Spain 500 years ago. The public sculpture, located at the Muelle de la Sal, isn’t, however, a commemorative monument in a traditional sense. Although the tremendous historical event represents the motive of this artwork, its installation was arranged thus that it would turn its back to the Castle of Saint George, a building of the inquisition, where the last autos de fe of Seville were carried out. More than recalling the violence and suffering, that human beings had experienced in the past, the sculpture wants to give place and encourage, in the present, to understand and experience tolerance, whose repression had been, precisely, the cause of the expulsion. With its dynamic play between the forms, that emerges when one goes around and observes the sculpture in a constant movement, the Monument to Tolerance shows the possibilities and dimensions that dialogue openes up. Starting from the experience offered by Chillida’s artwork, the present study investigates sense and meaning of dialogue, of limit –which will be analyzed by means of the concept developed by Wittgenstein–, and of horizon, which will be altogether related to the idea and experience of tolerance.