Thinking ‘After’: I can’t breathe

As part of the ‘Euphoric Criticism’ series, organised by the Grup Obert d’Art Polític (GOAP) in collaboration with Museu Tàpies, we have asked Franco ‘Bifo’ Berardi to talk about the notion of ‘after’, which seems to have permeated our lives in recent years: pandemics, polarisation, wars and genocides, as well as runaway technology, have reinforced the feeling that the world and its institutions have entered a new era.

Like poetry after Auschwitz according to Adorno, like history after the end of history according to Fukuyama, we find ourselves in a disaffected point in time in which we need to learn to think from other reference points: we live in a post-humanism after the rupture between nature and culture, and with a technology that is automating us for the benefit of a techno-fascist elite. Berardi’s latest book, Thinking Gaza, confirms this same disaffected and disoriented situation. We do not know where these space and time of the ‘after’ lie, nor through what body or what politics a humanised way out can materialise. ‘I can’t breathe’, we say, as victims of violent repression: let us breathe and share political intuitions.

Presentation by Xavier Bassas and Laura Llevadot, members of GOAP.

Franco Berardi, known as Bifo since youth, has been a leading figure in left-wing thought in recent decades. In May 1968, he took part in the student revolt at the University of Bologna. He also joined the extra-parliamentary group Potere Operaio, alongside figures such as Toni Negri. During those years of unrest, he founded the magazine A/traverse and participated in the pirate radio station Alice. In his works, Berardi abandons orthodox Marxism and draws on the teachings and concepts of psychoanalysis to articulate his critique of post-industrial capitalist society. His latest books are permeated by the idea of the future, of what comes after, of our emotional (in)ability to move beyond an automated and depressing era.

Some of his numerous books include Thinking Gaza: An Essay on Ferocity (English translation forthcoming: Semiotext(e), 2026) and Breathing: Chaos and Poetry (Semiotext(e), 2019).