Spirit is a Bone

Spirit is a Bone Lisbon-based association. Thinking art together | Exploring the dialectics of reality SPIRIT IS A BONE is an association based in Lisbon.

Its name, taken from an infamous oxymoron (or "infinite judgment") by the German philosopher Hegel, underscores its commitment to exploring the productive potential of contradiction. The association aims to think together and explore how such infinite judgements function and especially how they relate to the dialectic, how far dialectic can think and what escapes the dialectic, what remains, what

gets separated, what gets stuck: the bone in the throat. The aim of the association is to propagate a thinking of these residual phenomena. Spirit is a Bone is currently curated by artists and researchers Luís Neiva and Björn Schmelzer. Alongside hosting a regular podcast, the association aims to organize readings, discussions, and live online events featuring other participants and guest speakers, as well as a summer and winter school, seminars, masterclasses, and other educational programs.

Happy to announce the screening of EEN DONKERE SPIEGEL, a film Björn Schmelzer made with and about Belgian maverick phil...
22/01/2026

Happy to announce the screening of EEN DONKERE SPIEGEL, a film Björn Schmelzer made with and about Belgian maverick philosopher Frank Vande Veire at KASKcinema, Ghent, on 2 February 20H30, followed by Q&A with Frank and Björn. The film premiered last August at our festival, “Not Only Are We Not Infinite, We Are Not Even Finite,” where it was met with great success.
Don't miss the oportunity to watch this unique portrait of one of the most important philosophers for the current moment!

(the film is subtitled in english)

https://www.kaskcinema.be/kaskcinema/vertoning/donkere_spiegel_2025?fbclid=IwY2xjawPfAh9leHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEeaG5EAFuQwNL5evGHtWOCce8SQKyNM2oAB_RrCDpkfPyIzlju0s2FenI0YXM_aem_ReKkgb98dsKKVZf-9EsGRw

Musicoloog en antropoloog Björn Schmelzer staat bekend om zijn onorthodoxe omgang met polyfone muziek, maar minstens even eigenzinnig zijn de gedachten die hij errond weeft. Daar sluipt steeds weer hetzelfde beeld binnen: het monsterlijke. Abjecte identiteiten die niet passen, maar ontsporen en gev...

And we're back! The sixth episode of Spirit is a Bone is now live!What is a symptom? Luís and Björn continue their journ...
15/11/2025

And we're back! The sixth episode of Spirit is a Bone is now live!

What is a symptom? Luís and Björn continue their journey through Slavoj Zizek’s first book “The Sublime Object” traversing Freud, Lacan and plenty of social and cultural examples from Kafka, Wagner, Joyce, Josquin Desprez and theorists like Carlo Ginsburg, Erwin Panofsky, Georges Didi-Huberman, Mladen Dolar, Robert Pfaller, Gilles Deleuze and Lawrence Kramer…
They explore ways of interpreting the symptom from meaningful to meaningless and its relation to enjoyment.

As usual, the episode is available on Substack, Youtube, Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

linktr.ee/spiritisabone

What is a symptom?

24/08/2025
20/08/2025
20/08/2025

A snippet from our Cusanus summer school with four singers of graindelavoix (Andrew Hallock, Albert Riera, Marius Peterson and Arnout Malfliet) and the engaged participants with whom we shared a very productive two days…today already last day of the school and tomorrow we welcome Antwerp philosopher Marlies De Munck at 20h for an intriguing lecture on writing about music, its attempts and failures, making of the “essay” the ideal genre.

21 August 20h - MARLIES DE MUNCK
Trials, Errors and Mistakes : A Talk about the Musical Essay

Link in bio:
https://www.graindelavoix.be/news-archive/summer-festival-not-only-are-we-not-infinite-we-are-not-even-finite

13/08/2025

Tomorrow 14 August 20h Luís Neiva and Björn Schmelzer discuss GEBRAUCHSMUSIK the exhibition in our festival space with works by Margarida Garcia and Bert Timmermans.
Expect an exciting talk about Art and autonomy, functionalism, the market, trauma and history.

Two amazing talks with Mladen Dolar and Alain Franco the previous days, and tomorrow Björn Schmelzer and Luís Neiva dive...
13/08/2025

Two amazing talks with Mladen Dolar and Alain Franco the previous days, and tomorrow Björn Schmelzer and Luís Neiva dive into the exhibition GEBRAUCHSMUSIK (new work by Margarida Garcia and Bert Timmermans); if you didn’t see the exhibition yet or you are intrigued and want to know more, join us tomorrow at 20h in the festival space at Nieuw-Zuid Antwerpen (Jos Smolderenstraat 76)!

https://spiritisabone.substack.com/

https://www.graindelavoix.be/news-archive/summer-festival-not-only-are-we-not-infinite-we-are-not-even-finite

04/08/2025

Manuel Mota, legendary guitarist of the Lisbon music underground scene (and well known from our Earthquake Mass CD!) taking a little break at our grand opening evening!

Join us for his concert tomorrow (5 August) at 20h! After the concert Margarida Garcia & Björn Schmelzer will dive into Mota’s vast oeuvre and pull out and discuss its highlights.

Jos Smolderenstraat 76, 2000 Antwerpen

https://spiritisabone.substack.com/p/5-august-20h-manuel-mota

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