We met Sylvère Lotringer at the beginning of the end of the 1970s. At the time he was preparing the Autonomia issue of Semiotext(e), while we were discovering the no wave scene in American culture and art.
Sylvère was not only a brilliant intellectual and a talented publisher, but also a sort of dowser, a diviner of ideas who roamed the territories of art, philosophy, and the margins of social behavior, all to find signs of the future. He was a volcanic organizer of cultural innovation, a radical experimenter in existential adventures, and a wonderful friend.
The magazine Semiotext(e), which he founded and eventually transformed into a collection of books, has been a bridge between European critical thought and North American radical culture through decades of turmoil and deep transformation in politics and culture. No one has been so daring or extreme in provoking cultural innovation. No one has managed to approach Sylvère’s sense for the relation between aesthetics, sexuality, and culture.
We’ll miss Sylvère because he was a friend. But we’ll also miss him because now, more than ever, we need spiritual adventurers and cultural explorers like him.
© 2021 e-flux and the author
