![Cover for: The weight of the past](https://www.eurozine.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/1532308b0b6100bb6bf3d79f60321262.jpg)
Responding to the appalling violence that the machineries of war and economics unleashed during the twentieth century, Marcel Cohen concurs with Samuel Beckett’s mid-century remark: “To find a form that accommodates the mess, that is the task of the artist now”. Based on a speech first delivered in 1998, Cohen’s essay remains hugely relevant today.