The article deals with the interpretation of Nothing in the writings of the Catholic religious thinker Bernhard Welte. The issue of Nothing is considered in the general context of Welte’s philosophy of religion and his concept of experience. The main points of experience – wholeness, immediacy and transformative character – are emphasized. The author demonstrates that for Welte a characteristic feature of religious experience in the modern era is the absence of religious experience. We analyze the treatment of the phenomenon of nihilism and show the crucial influence of the interpretation of Nothing in Heidegger’s existential analysis. Bernard Welte’s consideration of Nothing reveals a close relationship between Dasein and the Nothing. The key characteristics of Nothing include infinity and unconditionality. Bernard Welte’s understanding of Nothing is characterized by an emphasis on the positivity of Nothing. Such positivity is grounded in the correlation between the understanding of Nothing as a basic factor of human existence and the postulate of meaning. As a result, Nothing is understood not simply as negative destructiveness, but as the mysterious presence of an infinite meaning-making power, which Welte describes in terms of the sacred and the divine. We argue that the interpretation of not-being in Welte’s works is realized from within nihilism and reveals the possibility of transforming the constitutive experience of Nothing into a new religious experience.

Among the many works created by L.P. Karsavin (1882–1952), the cycle “The Wreath of Sonnets” and “Terzines” by the author and comments on them are regarded by experts as one of the most original works of Russian religious philosophy, but at the same time those texts remain the least studied today. The article deals with revealing the inner connection of the prison cycle with the works of Dante Alighieri (1265–1321) and the Spanish mystic John of the Cross (1542–1591). An analysis of religious and scientific books dedicated to John of the Cross suggests that the Russian thinker and poet knew about his fate and works.

The author of the article concludes that the legacy of two great writers of the Middle Ages became one of the creative impulses for Karsavin and hinted suggested the form of self-commentary of his religious poems.

The paper continues a review of the issues of early speech ontogenesis based on M. Merleau-Ponty’s collection “Psychology and Pedagogy of the Child. Lectures at the Sorbonne 1949–1952” 2001. The text precedes the second fragment of translation of the collection from the section “Consciousness and Language Acquisition” and presents a short introductive overview of Merleau-Ponty’s approach to early speech ontogenesis. The author considers the linguistic studies that Merleau-Ponty relies on, linking them with the ideas of phenomenology, Gestalt psychology and structuralism. Merleau-Ponty aims to describe, as closely as possible, the main phenomenon of his research – the child, including how the child acquires his native language. The result of the synthesis of those research areas is an original concept, outlined in the article in the form the child language acquisition features, which correlate with his other well-known ideas, and a brief commentary on them is given. The article attempts to outline the philosophical foundations for the linguistics of child speech and child psychology by the example of M. Merleau-Ponty’s developments.

Gerasimov’s book “Kill the State in Yourself” brings back to modern culture a huge stratum of half-forgotten libertarian thinkers of early twentieth-century Russia: mystical anarchists, Christian anarchists, anarchobiocosmists, and many others. At the center of their work: rebellion, dream, and freedom in all spheres of culture, from philosophy to religion, from science to artistic practices. While some of the figures discussed in the book seem redundant and many others are lacking, thе study, which is of interest to both specialists and the general reader, using archival sources and referring to many contemporary issues and currents of relevant culture, opens a panorama of Russian libertarian thought in its diversity, richness, and variety.

The article deals with the study of the monumental decoration in the Church of St. Mary and St. Clement in Schwarzreindorf. The double church in Schwarzreindorf, built in the middle of the 12^th century in the suburbs of Bonn, represents a unique picturesque ensemble of the Romanesque era. Arnold von Wied, the founder of that building, was a prominent statesman and a bright representative of the church aristocracy, close to the reigning house. The picturesque ensembles of the upper and lower chapels leave many questions concerning the dating of the murals, the interpretation of individual characters, and the possible influences of Arnold von Wied’s environment on the design of the iconographic program. The article considers various existing interpretations of one of the most controversial objects of the iconographic program of the monument – the images of the Kings represented in the niches of the lower church of Schwarzreindorf. Based on the historical, biographical and iconographic method of analysis, the author offers a generalized version of their interpretation and identifies their role in the implementation of the overall plan of the double chapel program, representing “two cities”, two Jerusalem – earthly and Heavenly. It is shown that the main role of those images in the program of the Schwarzreindorf church is to combine the programs of two chapels into a single integral ensemble.

The special development of Enlightenment ideas in Russia, inextricably linked to religious and moral concepts, was reflected in Russian portrait painting of the second half of the 18^th century, influencing the conservation of some of its archaic features. The portrait of the statesman A.Ya. Protasov in the cabinet interior conveys information on the most important career achievements of the model, including work in the Legislative Commission of 1767–1768, which united all estates of the Russian Empire in those years. In memory of the event, deputies were presented with a commemorative medal “To the Deputies of the Legislative Commission”, which is found on a number of provincial portraits of the last third of the XVIII century, including the portrait of A.Ya. Protasov. The involvement of various estates in the development of the draft New Code became one of the reasons for strengthening the self-awareness of representatives of the non-noble estates, which contributed to the development of portraiture in the vast Russian provinces. Protasov’s portrait, focused on metropolitan samples, illustrates the contact between metropolitan art and its more archaic branch – provincial portrait – reflecting the trends in the development of Russian art of the New Age.

The article considers a monument as a form of monumental art and as a cultural form. A monument is a priori a symbol because it embodies those highest values that belong to the transcendental world in the space of everyday life. In the second half of the 20^th – 21^st century, radical transformations occur in public consciousness and culture. Those changes pose the researcher with the question: are simulative forms of a monument possible? Behind that question lies not so much an artistic-aesthetic dilemma, but rather an issue of a philosophical and cultural-anthropological nature, related to the change in human attitudes towards the transcendent and the sacred. In the article, the author gives a comparative analysis of the categories of “symbol” and “simulacrum” in monumentalism, the analysis shows the differences and similarities of such cultural phenomena.

A thesis is put forward and justified that during the historical development of the monument as a cultural form, a postmonument emerges at the turn of the 20^th to 21^st centuries a post-monument emerges as a deconstruction of a monument-symbol, which after reassembly turns into a postsymbol (monumental simulacrum).

The article defines the methods of studying the narrative of exhibitions that use works of sound art in the exposition. The exhibition is considered simultaneously as a form of artistic fiction, a form of information presentation and a communicative sign system capable of transmitting a special type of information message. Expanded interpretations of the concepts of “music” and “sound” are used, which allow us to study the exhibition narrative with any exhibits associated with sound or the idea of sound. The exhibition narrative is defined as a mixed text that uses a combination of verbal, audiovisual and spatial means to create and transmit a story about the exhibit. The structure of intratextual interrelationships of the narrative is considered through the correlation of different types of media. Taking into account the specificity of the form-content integrity of the exhibition, the methods by which sound art can convey a predetermined narrative. The identified methods are used as a research scheme for analyzing the exhibition narrative. Finally, the obtained scheme is tested on the example of the project “We are sound people! Music of the Russian Avant-Garde” and conclusions are drawn about the specifics of communicative levels, medial structure and the degree of narrativity of the exhibition.