History of Animals: An Essay on Negativity, Immanence and Freedom. Oxana Timofeeva. Jan van Eyck Academie.

Posted in politics, Theory, writing on April 5th, 2013

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History of Animals: An Essay on Negativity, Immanence and Freedom. Oxana Timofeeva. Jan van Eyck Academie.

“The question of the animal is the question of subjectivity and power. It provokes a particular tension between philosophical ontology, politics and psychoanalysis, and it is interesting to track how in the unstable field of the ‘human’ animality produces itself in a radical way. Gainsaying the fact that animality has traditionally been consigned to non-historical nature, animals have a history. But the logic of this history does not conform to the optimism of the humanistic discourse of progressive liberation and emancipation of animals that would finally secure their rights. Quite the contrary; it seems rather that from ancient totemism, through the sequence of exclusions and inclusions, to the present tragedy and farce that combine slaughterhouses, pet shops and global touristic safaris, animals have had a bad ‘career’. Historically, they failed. But this point of failure
is at the same time a point of departure – for the new history of metaphysics, for the new materialist politics of nature, for the new horizon of the human animal.”

Foreword by Slavoj Žižek
Designed by Luisa Lorenza Corna

Pages: 168
ISBN: 978-90-72076-72-4

D 18€

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Dreaming the Mainstream. Mark von Schlegell. Merve Verlag Berlin.

Posted in Theory, writing on March 30th, 2013

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Dreaming the Mainstream. Mark von Schlegell. Merve Verlag Berlin.

»Wir, die wir im 21. Jahrhundert leben, sind nicht die ersten Generationen, die es mit einer veralteten Moderne zu tun haben. Unsere ehemals kritische Obsession für den Modernismus hat sich in ein Begehren verwandelt, denn als Moderne sehnen wir uns danach, modern zu sein, um das wiederherzustellen, was der Modernismus niemals war, aber doch endlich werden muss. Selbst darin sind wir noch Erben einer Tradition.« Mit dem Realometer (Berlin 2009) – als ästhetischem Instrument zur Erzeugung unwahrscheinlicher Wirklichkeiten – hat MVS eine amerikanische Fissur im Modernismus des 19. Jahrhunderts nachgezeichnet.

In Dreaming the Mainstream verfolgt er die Weiterentwicklung des Realometers im kulturellen Mainstream des 20. Jhs. Texte von Emily Dickinson, H.P. Lovecraft, Patricia Highsmith, Bob Dylan, Raymond Roussel und David Hume zeigen Anspruch und Scheitern des Mainstreams, seine fantastischen Versprechen einzulösen. Schlegells fiktiv-kritische Methode macht sich die Möglichkeitsformen zeitgenössischer Kunstkritik zu eigen, und erzeugt so einen futuristischen, textlichen Aktivismus, der die Schranken von Anstand, Plagiarismus, Genre, Gelehrsamkeit und Fantum weit hinter sich lässt.

Mark von Schlegell (*1967), schreibt Science-Fiction Romane (Mercury Station (2009) und Venusia (2005) bei Semiotext(e)), Essays und Kunstkritiken.
[www.sff.net/people/schlegell]

Mit Illustrationen von Manuel Gnam und Sergej Jensen.

Übersetzt von Petra Porsche.

IMD 345
2013
German / English
152 Seiten.
ISBN: 978-3-88396-283-2

D 14€

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Spike #35: Materializing the Unthinkable / Das Undenkbare materialisieren.

Posted in magazines, Theory on March 16th, 2013

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Spike #35: Materializing the Unthinkable / Das Undenkbare materialisieren.

Portrait Ed Atkins
The perfect surfaces of the digital take on a deathly sheen in the videos of the British artist, creating a fertile ground for zombies.

Artist’s Favourites
By Darren Bader: Gustave Courbet, Sandro Botticelli, Roe Ethridge, John Finneran, Clarice Lispector

Talk
Rita Vitorelli interviews Nicolaus Schafhausen about his curatorial vision, the value of discourse and causing a stir.

Curator’s Key
Chris Fitzpatrick on Serial Protest Signs by Frank Chu

Galleries
The young Tokyo-based gallery Take Ninagawa discovers a new generation of artists comfortable with incongruity. By Nick Currie

Institution
Clémentine Deliss re-imagines the collection of the World Cultures Museum in Frankfurt through collaborations with artists. By Jan-Philipp Possmann

Portrait Heinrich Dunst
His experience in conceptual practice with roots in 80s Vienna, has made the Austrian artist well versed in art’s discursive powers, and their limitations. By Hans-Jürgen Hafner

Hans-Jürgen Hafner
Portrait Cosima von Bonin
Oliver Basciano considers the impact of varying professional expectations, poses and ploys in the practice of the Cologne based artist.

21st Century Theory
The nature of objects, the role of science and the problematics of aesthetics are being approached by a new generation of thinkers. Our ongoing series of 21st century thought opens with Quentin Meillassoux’s proposal for a philosophical materialism. With an introduction by Armen Avanessian.

The body understood as an object
Swedish performer/choreographer Mårten Spångberg shares his thoughts on space, rhythm, expectation and embodiment with Filipa Ramos.

Acid in the Style of Carolyn Christov-Barkagiev
Digital composer Florian Hecker releases his documenta 13 sound work »Chimerization« on vinyl. By Christian Egger

Seduction
By Pablo Larios, Signe Ross, Anna Jermolaewa, Slavs and Tatars, Joanna Kamm

Reviews
»Amazing! Clever! Linguistic! An Adventure in Conceptual Art«, Vienna; »Fotos«, Vienna; »Zeichen, gefangen im Wunder«, Vienna; Rudolf Polanszky, Vienna; Kiluanji Kia Henda, Innsbruck; Tue Greenfort, Berlin; Barbara Hammer, Berlin; Natascha Sadr Haghighian, Berlin; Lutz Bacher, Frankfurt; David Hockney, Cologne; Daan van Golden, Zurich; Jos de Gruyter & Harald Thys, Antwerp; Clément Rodzielski, Paris; BANK, London; Matisse, New York; »Blues for Smoke«, Los Angeles; Guy de Cointet, Mexico

Spring / Frühling 2013
English / German
146 Pages

Price: €9.50

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Polysingularity Letters Vol. 3. Dmitry Paranyushkin.

Posted in Theory, Uncategorized on March 2nd, 2013
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Polysingularity Letters Vol. 3. Dmitry Paranyushkin.

This journal documents the most recent proceedings in the field of polysingularity. This term has originally been used mainly by Russian mathematicians to describe a special class of integral equations with multiple simultaneous solutions (Simonenko, 1965; Boikov, 2000; Gabdulkhaev, 2005).

Integral equations, to put it simply, are used to discover the processes (or causes, rules, and motives) that underlie a certain behavior that can be observed. They are the reverse of differential equations (dx/dt so much loved by Deleuze) that are used to discover how a certain already known process behaves over time. Polysingularity is the condition where several distinct sets of interacting processes may lead to the same behavior or phenomena. That’s why we refer to it as a study of co-isolated multiplicities that nevertheless retain their singularity. In other words, we don’t look at a phenomenon trying to understand how it works. Instead, we look at and study all the different contexts that are creating the conditions for the phenomenon to emerge. It’s not about why you love, but what else happens while you love. It ‘s not about finding the structure, it’s about complete and total engagement with each singularity not losing the multiplicity out of sight.

Such approach allows us to go one step beyond the contingency and equalized distancing that any speculative post-practice necessarily produces for the sake of its own safety. Instead, we jump into the abyss of the unknown and indefinable with the renewed fervor even if we know that at the very end we might fall down (although in this case we hope to bounce back sideways up). Hence the journal format, I guess. The barcode is just there to help computers catalogue, categorize, and distribute the knowledge, which in the end is going to alter their binary rationale in ways that are not yet predictable, but that are several.

English Language
Produced by Nodus Labs

D 25€

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Cine Qua Non #6

Posted in Theory, writing on January 22nd, 2013

Cine Qua Non #6
English and Portuguese texts

INDEX
NOTAS EDITORIAIS / EDITORIAL NOTES
Ana Luísa Valdeira da Silva

} {
Por fora / From abroad

AN AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL STATEMENT / UMA DECLARAÇÃO AUTOBIOGRÁFICA
John Cage

THINKING, YET AGAIN ABOUT JOHN CAGE / PENSAR MAIS UMA VEZ EM JOHN CAGE
Christian Wolff

FIVE STATEMENTS ON SILENCE BY JOHN CAGE / CINCO DECLARAÇÕES SOBRE O SILÊNCIO DE JOHN CAGE
James Pritchett

JOHN CAGE & MERCE CUNNINGHAM
David Vaughan

CAMERA-READY CIRCULAR VISUAL POEMS
Richard Kostelanetz

Ensaios / Essays

COLOR AND POWER: REFLECTIONS ON MATISSE IN A.S. BYATT’S “ART WORK” / (DA) COR E (DO) PODER: REFLEXÕES SOBRE MATISSE EM “OBRA DE ARTE” DE A.S.BYATT
Alecia Sudmeyer

OLHAR O TEATRO CONTEMPORÂNEO: UMA PERSPECTIVA NÃO TOTALITÁRIA / LOOKING AT CONTEMPORARY THEATRE: A NON-TOTALITARIAN PERSPECTIVE
Gustavo Vicente

{ }
Por dentro / Inside of

A OFICINA DA CANÇÃO / THE WORKSHOP OF SONG
José Mário Branco

O TEMPO, FODA-SE, O TEMPO. ALGUMAS NOTAS SOLTAS SOBRE JÁ PASSARAM QUANTOS ANOS, PERGUNTOU ELE / THE TIME, THE FUCKING TIME. SOME NOTES ON HOW LONG HAS IT BEEN, HE ASKED
Rui Pina Coelho & Gonçalo Amorim

SPOILER
A VERGONHA DOS OUTROS / THE SHAME OF OTHERS
Jorge Vaz Nande

D 8€
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Discipline #2

Posted in Theory, writing on December 22nd, 2012
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Discipline is a Melbourne-based contemporary art journal. It has a focus on longer, research-based essays, interviews and artist pages.

While based and published in Melbourne, the writers and artists who have contributed to Discipline are both local and international. In presenting longer-form essays, the journal aims to ground a new body of sustained intellectual writing about contemporary art that does not merely fall back on the crutch of ʻpluralityʼ as a means for theorising art after postmodernism and globalisation.

Edited by Nicholas Croggon and Helen Hughes, Guest edited by Maria Fusco
Design by Annie Wu and Ziga Testen
Language: English
Pages: 176
Size: 30 x 23 cm

Price: €20.00
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A Circular 2

Posted in literature, magazines, Motto Berlin store, poetry, Theory, writing on December 18th, 2012
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A Circular 2 is edited by Pedro Cid Proença and features David Antin on Real Estate; a trio of short loops on song and sound by David Morris; Richard Hollis on Flags, Stars and Signs; Pedro Neves Marques on 1972; Dieter Roth’s Trophies Rotated by James Langdon; Patrick Coyle fake fancying, feigning, forging; an extract of Fugue by Roger Laporte; Wayne Daly and Sean Lynch in conversation; Adrian Piper’s To Art (Reg. Intrans. V.) and another instalment of Will Holder’s Middle of Nowhere.

Author: Pedro Cid Proenca (Ed.)
Publisher: A Circular
Date of publishing: Dec 18, 2012
Language: English
Pages: 96
Size: 21 × 26.5 cm
Weight: 266 g
Binding: Softcover
Price: €12.50

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Texte Zur Kunst 88 / December 2012 “The Question of Value”

Posted in magazines, Motto Berlin store, Theory on December 17th, 2012

 

Texte Zur Kunst stands for controversial discussions and contributions by internationally leading writers on contemporary art and culture. Alongside ground-breaking essays the quarterly magazine, founded in Cologne in 1990 by Stefan Germer (†) and Isabelle Graw and published in Berlin since 2000, offers interviews, roundtable discussions and extensive reviews on art, film, music, market and fashion as well as on art history, theory and cultural politics. Since 2006 the comprehensive main section section, each time devoted to a different topic, and selected reviews are published in both German and English. With every issue internationally renowned artists support the magazine with exclusive artists’ editions.

Author: Isabelle Graw (Ed.)
Publisher: Texte Zur Kunst
Date of publishing: Dec 16, 2012
Language: English / German
Pages: 240
Size: 23 x 17 cm
Weight: 750 g
Binding: Softcover
ISBN: 3930628880

€15.00

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Making the walls quake as if they were dilating with the secret knowledge of great powers. Michal Libera and Lidia Klein (Ed.). Zachęta.

Posted in Theory, writing on September 10th, 2012
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Making the walls quake as if they were dilating with the secret knowledge of great powers, Michal Libera and Lidia Klein (Ed.), published by Zachęta National Gallery of Art.

A multidisciplinary reader on sound, space and architecture, that accompanies the exhibition of the same title in the Polish Pavilion at the 13th International Architecture Exhibition—la Biennale di Venezia. The texts were selected by the curator of the exhibition Michał Libera, together with Lidia Klein, and the publication was designed by Czosnek Studio. The book features an interview with the artist, Katarzyna Krakowiak, contributions by the editors, as well as a selection of theoretical analyses, essays, poems and music scores by Barry Blesser and Linda-Ruth Salter, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Francis Bacon, Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, Steve Goodman, Bohumil Hrabal, Bernhard Leitner, Alvin Lucier, Max Neuhaus, Georges Perec, Steen Eiler Rasmussen, Bruce R. Smith, Jonathan Sterne, Georges Teyssot, Emily Thompson, Shelley Trower, David Toop and many others.

D 28€

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Peep-Hole Sheet #13 – Summer 2012. Claire Fontaine: Imperceptible Abstractions.

Posted in magazines, Theory, writing on July 23rd, 2012
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Peep-Hole Sheet #13

Peep-Hole Sheet is a quarterly of writings by artists.
Each issue is dedicated solely to one artist, who is invited to contribute with an unpublished text whose content is completely free in terms both of subject and format.
The texts are published in their original language, with accompanying translations in English and Italian. All images are deliberately avoided. Peep-Hole Sheet is meant for those who believe artists are catalysts for ideas all around us, and who want to read their words without any filter.
Over time it aspires to build up an anthology of writings that might open new perspectives for interpreting and understanding our times.

The fourth Peep-Hole Sheet series starts with a contribution by Claire Fontaine on the concept of ‘human strike’. The essay investigates the central Marxian category of real abstraction, as the core defining the life under Capital, through the critical perspective of Alfred Sohn-Rethel. Deeply connected to the artists’ research, the text brings light to possible practices of re-appropriation of life, of time, of relations, that start within it. “Writing about the human strike is itself the experience of a double bind, it’s like walking on a suspended wire between making things possible and exorcising them through language… When we inhabit language we place ourselves on the permeable membrane between life and desires, where it clearly appears that life and desires are made of the same fabric. Desiring together makes things come true even when they are not technically true”

Peep-Hole Sheet is published by Mousse Publishing.

D 10€

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