Utopia: Gesamtkunstwerk

Book published by Corner House (2012)

Utopia Gesamtkunstwerk attempts to analyse a phenomenon, which has been hotly debated for more than 100 years. Avant-garde art, in which the idea of the Gesamtkunstwerk (total/universal art-form) came ... [more ▼]

Utopia Gesamtkunstwerk attempts to analyse a phenomenon, which has been hotly debated for more than 100 years. Avant-garde art, in which the idea of the Gesamtkunstwerk (total/universal art-form) came into bloom, has installed a first shift in meaning of the term as a unit of art and life. This publication and the exhibition Utopia Gesamtkunstwerk (21er Haus, Vienna, 20 January - 20 May 2012) begins where Der Hang zum Gesamtkunstwerk ended (Harald Szeemann's landmark show he curated in 1983). Featuring more than 50 artists from the 1950s until today it presents a new views on the phenomenon. A comprehensive display, conceived by the artist Esther Stocker for Utopia Gesamtkunstwerk, serves as a stage for works by Marc Adrian, Klaus Auderer, Josef Bauer, Joseph Beuys, Monica Bonvicini, Christian Boltanski, Marcel Broodthaers, Günter Brus, Daniel Buren, Tom Burr, Ernst Caramelle, Bernhard Cella, Cityrama, Heinz Emigholz, VALIE EXPORT, Claire Fontaine, Peter Friedl, gelatin, Inspection Medical Hermeneutics (Pavel Pepperstein, Sergej Anufriew), Isa Genzken, Liam Gillick, Franz Graf, Thomas Hirschhorn, Julia Hohenwarter, Hans Hollein, Christian Jankowski, Ilya Kabakov, Tillman Kaiser, Jean Kalman, Ian Kiaer, Friedrich Kiesler, Martin Kippenberger, Mahony, Gordon Matta-Clark, Ralo Mayer, Paul McCarthy, Jonathan Meese, Hermann Nitsch, Oswald Oberhuber, Hermann Painitz, Seb Patane, Helga Philipp, Walter Pichler, Marjetica Potrc, Jason Rhoades, Thiago Rocha Pitta, Gerwald Rockenschaub, Constanze Ruhm, Gerhard Rühm, Markus Schinwald, Jörg Schlick, Christoph Schlingensief, Gregor Schneider, SUPERFLEX, Una Szeemann, Peter Weibel, Franz West, WochenKlausur, Fritz Wotruba, Heimo Zobernig and others. [less ▲]

Actors, Agents and Attendants: Social Housing — Housing the Social

Book published by Sternberg Press (2012)

Social Housing—Housing the Social: Art, Property and Spatial Justice examines ongoing transformations in social housing and asks how these transformations are reflected in the aspirations and practices of ... [more ▼]

Social Housing—Housing the Social: Art, Property and Spatial Justice examines ongoing transformations in social housing and asks how these transformations are reflected in the aspirations and practices of artists. Housing provides essential shelter, but also gives form to the social. It represents and embodies the materiality of civic politics and thus demonstrates the uneven nature of spatial justice at local and global scale. For many years artists have contributed to the design and organization of structures of living together, often with ambivalent effect. Whilst many have imagined—and attempted to implement—radical new forms of social housing, as alternatives to both privatization and state provision, they have also ushered in waves of gentrification, thus contributing significantly to a story of capitalization now dominant within urban infrastructures. Social Housing—Housing the Social: Art, Property and Spatial Justice questions the politics of urban practice from a variety of geopolitical and disciplinary viewpoints, from liberal private initiatives to the Occupy movement, from Almere to Ramallah, mixing artistic and architectural contributions with those of sociologists, urban historians, philosophers, and activists. Social Housing—Housing the Social: Art, Property and Spatial Justice is the second volume in the Actors, Agents and Attendants series of publications and symposia initiated by SKOR | Foundation for Art and Public Domain to investigate the role of cultural practice in the organization of the public domain. [less ▲]

Zak Keyes Working With…

Book published by Sternberg Press (2012)

To accompany his exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Leipzig, this book presents the work of the Swiss-American graphic designer Zak Kyes. In collaboration with the curator, Barbara Steiner, the ... [more ▼]

To accompany his exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Leipzig, this book presents the work of the Swiss-American graphic designer Zak Kyes. In collaboration with the curator, Barbara Steiner, the exhibition and publication bring together a range of works by Kyes, as well as works by a host of collaborators that includes architects, artists, writers, curators, editors, and graphic designers, presenting contemporary graphic design as a practice that mediates, and is mediated by, its allied disciplines. Kyes, who lives and works in London, is known for his critical approach to graphic design, which encompasses publishing, editing, and site-specific projects for and in collaboration with cultural institutions. In 2005, Kyes founded the design studio Zak Group, and, in 2006, he became Art Director of the Architectural Association (AA), London. Under the auspices of the AA, he organized the seminal touring exhibition “Forms of Inquiry: The Architecture of Critical Graphic Design,” and later cofounded Bedford Press, an imprint that seeks to develop new models for contemporary publishing. By broadening the highly specialized role of the designer, Kyes challenges and further develops today’s graphic design practice. While this work constitutes the exhibition’s point of departure, its focus is on the conceptual, visual, and economic intersections that link Kyes with his collaborators, revealing and further unfolding the designer’s multivalent practice. These intersections vary in form from idealistic to pragmatic, urgent and time-sensitive to abiding and long-lasting. Rather than presenting a chronological overview of Kyes’s work, the book highlights the designer’s relations with partners, clients, and institutions, and the creative potential of these collaborations to evolve traditional understandings of graphic design, art, and architecture. [less ▲]

Manifest March Build Dialogue

in Manifest March (2012)

Albtraum Partizipation

Book published by Merve Verlag (2012)

Seit etwa zehn Jahren kann man einen stetig steigenden übermäßigen Gebrauch des Begriffs „Partizipation“ beobachten. In dem Maße, in dem sich jeder zu einem „Teilnehmer“, einem „Partizipanten“ wandelte ... [more ▼]

Seit etwa zehn Jahren kann man einen stetig steigenden übermäßigen Gebrauch des Begriffs „Partizipation“ beobachten. In dem Maße, in dem sich jeder zu einem „Teilnehmer“, einem „Partizipanten“ wandelte, nahm die meist unkritische, naive und romantische Verwendung des Begriffs streckenweise beängstigende Ausmaße an. Versehen mit einem oft nostalgischen Flair von Schutzwürdigkeit, Scheinsolidarität und politischer Korrektheit, hat sich die „Partizipation“ insbesondere in der Politik zur Standardausrede entwickelt, wenn es darum ging, sich aus der Verantwortung zu ziehen. Der hier vorgelegte dritte Teil einer „Trilogie der Partizipation“ versucht die Rolle des „interesselosen Außenseiters“, eines „ungefragten Teilnehmers“ stark zu machen, der, unbehindert von bestehenden Regelvorgaben, einzig mit seinem kreativen Intellekt und dem Willen zur Veränderung ausgerüstet auf den Plan tritt. Graphic Design and Photography by Zak Group. [less ▲]

Conditions

in Conditions, issue 9 New Knowledge - New Practices? (2011), 9

Metropolis M no. 5 Politicians Without A Party

in Metropolis M (2011), 5

Frieze blog Dutch Budget Cuts: An Interview

in Frieze blog (2011)

Kaleidoscope, issue 10 The Outsider Art (of Politics)

in Kaleidoscope, issue 10 The Outsider Art (of Politics) (2011)

Arch+ , no. 201/202 The Future Academy: An Institution in the Making

in Arch+ , no. 201/202 The Future Academy: An Institution in the Making (2011)