The Crack in the Wall: Thinking as Resistance

In this thought-provoking episode, we unravel the meaning behind Descartes’ enduring phrase: “Dubito, ergo cogito, ergo sum” – “I doubt, therefore I think, therefore I am.” From this foundational idea, we trace a philosophical journey through the minds of Gilles Deleuze, Franz Kafka, Jorge Méndez Blake, Doris Salcedo and Teresa Margolles, revealing how critical thought disrupts systems of silence and control.

What does it mean to think freely in a world that demands conformity? How can a single idea – or a single book – destabilise the foundation of a wall? We explore how Kafka’s The Castle quietly resists the weight of brick wall in the installation by Méndez Blake, which makes visible the invisible effect of thought, and how Margolles’ blood-stained textiles confront audiences with the consequences of collective amnesia.

This episode challenges listeners to consider how thinking – honest, uncomfortable, disruptive – can fracture even the most impenetrable structures. In the places where numbness and control reign, to think means to feel, to question, to resist, to cause a change – a crack of the system that allows light to enter.

Music: Lidérc - Aesthetic Boomopera