The Prix François Morellet 2017 was awarded to Michel Onfray on May 14 in 2017 for his writings on Contemporary Art. French philosopher and essayist, Michel Onfray created in 2002 the Popular University of Caen. His media reach is reinforced by regular interventions on TV or radio where he expresses himself about political and social debates. Michel Onfray has written more than eighty books. His thinking is mainly influenced by philosophers such as Nietzsche and Epicure, by the cynical school, by French materialism and by Pro-Dhonian anarchism.
In his conference « Must Contemporary Art Burn? « (ed. Frémeaux et associés) Michel Onfray « offers us a rare opportunity to question the foundations of what constitutes the artistic production of our time, to understand, judge and appreciate it.
With his usual clarity, he delivers the keys to a world too often closed to the general public, absent from our education and neglected by thinkers. By going back over the history and the causes of the construction of a movement, on the meaning of the works in the face of the questions of our society, Michel Onfray awakens curiosity and interest: he finally opens the doors of museums and contemporary art collections to us. »
(Lola Caul-Futy Frémeaux).
