Abstract: Georges Didi-Huberman adopts a trans-historical and interdisciplinary approach to image, and his theory of image unfolds through an ongoing dialogue with such particular figures as Friedrich Nietzsche, Sigmund Freud, Aby Warburg, Walter Benjamin, and Gilles Deleuze. On the one hand, Didi-Huberman develops a style of “figurative thinking” in which he often starts from an old image and reformulates his own conceptual framework, such as the “Ninfa fluida”, the “firefly of resistance” and the “double Atlas” (atlas and resistance). On the other hand, despite the extensive and diverse nature of Didi-Huberman's research, his theoretical thinking maintains remarkable coherence. In the early years, he focused on the issue of image migration and survival represented by the image of the flowing Ninfa, as a means of reassessing the potential for rewriting art history as an open narrative. He later turned to the visual form of image juxtaposition, the atlas approach, and introduced the multiplicity and heterogeneity of montage. In recent years he has attempted to transform the historical and political reflection on image into a philosophy of action: how images move towards emancipatory action through the mediation of desire, affect and imagination.

Key words: Georges Didi-Huberman, Atlas, surviving image, Ninfa, poetry of action