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A philosophical portrait of Giorgio Agamben — Interviewed by Akis Gavrilidis
Interview with Giorgio AGAMBEN conducted by Akis Gavrilidis.
the documentary by George Keramidiotis — A philosophical portrait of Giorgio Agamben, 2013
My English translation, the video is here, the interview was conducted in French.
Akis Gavrilidis (A.G.) — Professor, we are in the process of making a documentary on biopolitics, and we turned to you because you are one of the main exponents of this idea, which, if I am not mistaken, comes from Foucault, but you have approached it a little differently. You introduced the notion of the state of exception, of the camp. So, what made you interested in biopolitics and what is different that you added compared to Foucault or to the others who approached it?
Giorgio Agamben (G.A.) — Of course, the notion of “biopolitics” and that of “state of exception” for me are linked, and perhaps this was not the case with Foucault. Sure, I would say that the notion came to me from Foucault. I owe it entirely to him. But at the same time, I tried to cross the problems of biopolitics — that is, the fact that life has become the stake of politics and that ideology has become the stake of politics — with the problem of sovereignty, with the strictly political problem of sovereignty. But that’s also why it…
