With great joy and honor, this year, CRIC – Festival for Critical Culture will host the most significant, provocative and most current philosopher of the 21st century, Martin Heglund. On 29. 06. 2026 (Monday), starting at 8:00 PM, at the Museum of Contemporary Art, we will have the privilege of attending Martin Hägglund’s lecture entitled :: This Life – Criticism and Emancipation :: which is based on his theses epistemologically elaborated in his already a cult book :: This Life – Secular Faith and Spiritual Freedom ::
At a time when the future is increasingly perceived as a threat rather than a promise, the question of how to live a good and free life is once again becoming one of the most pressing philosophical and political questions of our time. What is it that truly gives value to life? Where do our deepest commitments come from? And how can we build a society in which caring for others is not opposed to freedom, but rather a prerequisite for it?
In his lecture, Martin Hägglund will present his book “This Life – Secular Faith and Spiritual Freedom” (Kontrapunkt, 2020, translation: Žarko Trajanoski), a work that in recent years has emerged as one of the most significant interventions in contemporary political philosophy and critical theory. Starting from a seemingly simple but radical realization – that we have only this life – Hägglund develops a powerful defense of human finitude as the foundation of love, commitment, ethics, and political freedom.
This lecture develops the relation between critique and emancipation in his book This Life. Following Marx, he argues that social freedom is our highest good and that religious projections of a being beyond our mortal existence would wither away under emancipated conditions. Demonstrating why Marx is right, however, requires an argument that Marx himself does not provide. Drawing together the immanent critique of religion and the immanent critique of capitalism, Marin shows how This Life provides a new vision of freedom, which recognizes our mutual dependence on one another.
The lecture will offer an opportunity for in-depth reflection on the relationship between love and politics, between personal commitment and collective responsibility, as well as on the potential of democratic socialism to create conditions in which each person can truly dispose of their unique and irreplaceable life. The lecture will be followed by a conversation and critical discussion with the author.
After the lecture, a conversation with the author will follow, led by: Jasmina Popovska, Anastas Vangeli and Slavcho Dimitrov.
About the author:
Martin Hägglund is a Swedish philosopher and Professor of Comparative Literature and Humanities at Yale University, United States. He is the author of four highly regarded books translated into fifteen languages. His work focuses on questions of freedom, time, responsibility, and secular faith, as well as the ways in which political, economic, and cultural systems shape human dependence and care for others. He has received numerous prestigious awards, including the Guggenheim Fellowship and the René Wellek Prize, and his works and ideas have had a significant impact on contemporary debates about democracy, social justice, and collective responsibility.
Program editor and organizer of CRIC – Festival for Critical Culture:
Iskra Geshoska
Program consultants and organizers:
Tijana Ana Spasovska and Artan Sadiku
Collaborative team:
Petar Milat, Zorica Zafirovska, Aleksandra Bubevska, Koma design studio.
For more information follow us on:
https://www.facebook.com/KRIKfestival/
https://www.instagram.com/critical.culture/
https://youtube.com/@ngokontrapunkt3837?si=iUuGWynjhBAVMZJ5
Partnerships and support:
CRIC – Festival for Critical Culture is supported within the framework of the project “Culture for Development” of the Swiss Government, which is implemented by the Hartefact Foundation. The content/opinions expressed can never be interpreted as the views of the Swiss Government and the Hartefact Foundation.
CRIC – Festival for Critical Culture is supported by ProPeace North Macedonia, Friedrich Ebert Stiftung Skopje, the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, Future Bright Art Foundation, Goethe-Institut Skopje and the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the Republic of North Macedonia.
Funded by the European Union. The views and opinions expressed are solely those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union or the European Executive Agency for Education and Culture (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor the EACEA can be held responsible for them.
Споделено на: June 15, 2026 во 2:43 pm