1 December 2025 | Presence: What is the relationship between unsettling, threatening, or even horrific realities and the activity of artists and intellectuals who pursue “purely” aesthetic or academic endeavors? Can art or scholarship have a direct effect on socio-political reality, and should it aspire to do so? Conversely, when does aesthetic, artistic, or historical contemplation become a kind of escapism, a healthy or unhealthy coping mechanism with unbearable realities?