Merleau Ponty’s Eye and Mind: Re-Thinking the Visible
In the “Application and Dialogue” section, Merleau Ponty first emphasizes that the body’s own “interior visibility” is not only a resource for epistemology but should also serve as the starting point for contemporary art and cultural theory. He argues that the language of the body–soul composite can break the hegemony of pure reason over perception and practice, allowing us to reconstruct our understanding of art, aesthetics, and even subjectivity. This claim carries crucial implications for migration studies: migrants are not merely “Others” defined by law or social structures; their bodily experiences—the traces of perception lodged in the flesh—are equally central to the formation of identity and belonging.
Merleau-Ponty’s illustrations of contemporary art practice show how the “texture of visibility” can bridge personal experience and public discourse. For example, he cites artists like Bridget Riley, who use spare geometry and rhythmic color to awaken the viewer’s bodily resonance. This strategy parallels how migrants, through artistic media—images, sound, performance—project the “rhythms of home” onto foreign contexts, thereby creating new visible forms for their own mobility. Crucially, these works do not simply “represent” the past or “symbolize” a culture; they generate meaning on the spot through lived bodily experience, just as Merleau-Ponty puts it: visibility itself is a genesis.