State of Exception and Creativity

Considerations from Carl Schmitt and Emilio Garroni

Abstract

The article finds a relationship between the idea of “state of exception” – first presented by Carl Schmitt in his essay on Political Theology – and that of creativity – as conceived by Emilio Garroni in his article on Creativity written for the Enciclopedia Einaudi. These ideas share a common feature: both establish the sense, or order, capable of founding the validity of a norm in its application to singular cases. From the comparison of the two essays, it clearly appears that the sovereign decision under a state of exception is a form of creativity meant to define the conditions for the anaesthetization of experience under which it is possible to end the virtually infinite potential solutions to a problem, in order to found a normative order. This form of creativity is, thus, complementary to the artistic creativity theorized by Garroni, who thinks of the renewal of the senses already established in the experience, in order to find new exemplary solutions. Art and political decision are, therefore, two forms of creativity in a reciprocal debt since their very origin.