This book is published on the occasion of the eponymous exhibition produced by the Wiels and curated by Dirk Snauwaert and Charlotte Friling. It held at the Manège de Sury, Mons (European Capital of Culture), from June to October 2015.

This project takes as its starting point the history of Mons and the Borinage, comparing it with the history of the modern age on an international scale, and relating it to the present time through the voices of some twenty artists questioning our times and our environment.

What we generally call “modernity,” that history of multiple conquests targeting control over reality through technology and science, also refers to the exploration through art of the hidden dimensions of our behaviour, our ideas and our subjectivity.

Atopolis proposes to rediscover models of social and cultural utopia developed by personalities from our region, but the exhibition also unveils captivating works created by artists who are watchful and critical of the era of globalisation in which we are living, that of uniform channels of information and free trade, leading both to an unprecedented connectivity and to a loss of frames of reference.

Atopolis, a title which echoes the ideas of Edouard Glissant, a writer who has philosophised about identities and migratory movements, seems an excellent metaphor of our digital era, given the importance it grants to the development of models of cohabiting and coexistence which seem to hark back to the social utopias that have emerged from our region.

This publication is composed of two interdepedent parts: one with the texts of four different authors on all the works at show; the second one with visual and textual elements from the Mundaneum Archives, excerpts of texts of Edouard Glissant, Raoul Vaneigem, Paul Lafargue, a.o., and unpublished material of Allan Sekula on the Borinage.

With Saâdane Afif, Nevin Aladağ, Francis Alÿs, Danai Anesiadou, El Anatsui, Yto Barrada, Huma Bhabha, Vincen Beeckman, Vlassis Caniaris, Abraham Cruzvillegas, Meschac Gaba, Jef Geys, Thomas Hirschhorn, David Medalla, Adrian Melis, Benoit Platéus, Walter Swennen, Diego Tonus, Jack Whitten…

Edited Sébastien Biset and Raphaël Pirenne (sic)

Textes by Jan Baetens, Sébastien Biset, Yves Citton, Charlotte Friling, Raphaël Pirenne, Dirk Snauwaert, Yoann Van Parys, Elvan Zabunyan.

€39.00

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Under the Clouds: from Paranoia to the Digital Sublime

Since the second half of the twentieth century, we have lived under the shadow of two clouds: the mushroom cloud of the atomic bomb, and now the ‹cloud› of information networks. How did the symbol of post-war paranoia become the utopian metaphor for today’s interconnected world? Under the Clouds confronts the interrelated effects and affects of these two clouds on life and work, leisure and love, and on images, bodies and minds, through contributions from an intergenerational group of artists.

Texts by
Enrico Baj & Sergio Dangelo, Thomas Hirschhorn, Sean Landers, Metahaven, Seth Price, João Ribas, Frances Stark, Hito Steyerl, Stan VanDerBeek

€34

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Print Response is a series of prints that were altered by various artists whom Burnoski had approached by mail or in person.
In his request to the artists, Burnoski left it open to what could be done in response to the print, saying only that it could be as simple as they wished.

The artists include:
John Baldessari, Pierre Bismuth, Martin Boyce, Herbert Brandl, Angela Bulloch, Martin Creed, Richard Deacon, Jimmie Durham, Michael Elmgreen & Ingar Dragset, Valie Export, Peter Fischli, Ryan Gander, Joe Goode, Rodney Graham, Wade Guyton, Mary Heilmann, Isabell Heimerdinger, Carmen Herrera, Susan Hiller, Thomas Hirschhorn, Jenny Holzer, Joan Jonas, Jannis Kounellis, Louise Lawler, Paul McCarthy, Jonathan Monk, François Morellet, Olivier Mosset, Marcel Odenbach, Albert Oehlen, Roman Ondák, Tobias Rehberger, Allen Ruppersberg, Ed Ruscha, Anri Sala, Roman Signer, Nedko Solakov, Stephanie Taylor, Jeffrey Vallance, Kelley Walker, Lawrence Weiner, Christopher Williams & Johannes Bendzulla, Jack Youngerman, Heimo Zobernig

Print Response, 2012
by Christian Burnoski
Designed by Daria Holme

Special Edition of 50 + 10 AP includes a DVD titled “Put It Back Together – Tape It Together” 49 mins (A film of Paul McCarthy’s response being taped back together.)
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Limited Edition of 200 + 50 AP
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