Gilles Deleuze - 100. Thinking is an Event

Gilles Deleuze (1925–1995) understood philosophy not as a form of knowledge, but as a creative act – the art of concept creation, a form of thought that affirms life in its most vital intensity. For him, philosophy was not the interpretation of texts or logical classification, but the revitalization of thinking beyond representational hierarchies – plastic, affective, experimental, nomadic, minoritarian, and critical.

Distancing himself from the philosophical trends of his time (phenomenology, structuralism, Marxism, etc.), Deleuze found allies within the history of philosophy (Bergson, Nietzsche, Spinoza, among others), transforming thought into a force that both invites, provokes, disturbs – forging a counter-current. The seriousness of this philosophy is not dogmatic; it is a tension that opens up heterogeneous fields of becoming and demands an intensity of co-thinking.

The conference is conceived as an event – a making of sense – that invites us to think with Deleuze, to revisit the familiar and encounter the paradoxical; not so much to interpret, but to experiment – to uncover “logics” emerging in the domains of image, affect, and cinematic space-time, that re-examine dominant currents of thought. To think is to enter a process of becoming, and to affirm multiplicity and sense. We invite contributions in the form of both traditional academic presentations and open practices (including performative formats). Suggested thematic trajectories include:

● Philosophy as concept creation

● Cinema and the principles of life / cinematic thinking

● Affect and percept in art; the problem of translation

● Thought of desire – life, vitality, immanence

● Problem, idea, critique – the passion of thinking

Please submit a short proposal (200–300 words abstract), including your name and institutional affiliation, by September 1, 2025, [email protected]. Notifications of acceptance will be sent within two weeks. 

Participation in the conference is free of charge. Working languages: Latvian and English.

Organizers: Zane Ozola, PhD (Faculty of Humanities, University of Latvia; Latvian Association for Aesthetics), Prof. Andrejs Balodis (Latvian Academy of Culture; LEA), Prof. Jānis Taurens (Art Academy of Latvia), Dace Līdumniece, MPhil (LEA).

Hosted by: Department of Philosophy and Ethics, Faculty of Humanities, University of Latvia; Latvian Academy of Culture; Art Academy of Latvia; Latvian Association for Aesthetics.

For more information:[email protected]