“POLITICAL ART?” With this 80th issue, Texte zur Kunst celebrates its 20th anniversary. However, the correspondingly “grand” topic of the anniversary issue is not immediately revealed on the cover. Only gradually do the words “Politische Kunst?” (“Political Art?”) emerge from the golden stripes. Already this visual effect, but even more so the question mark in the title highlights the innumerable layers of meaning in this pair of concepts, which can hardly be reduced to a common denominator. For political art seems to be omnipresent today. In addition to the Kunstvereine, biennials and other large-scale events have meanwhile established themselves as venues predominantly presenting political art. Yet it cannot be grasped as a fixed category. What does apply, though, is that a certain form of commitment and a fixed positioning of political art must by all means be considered in the framework of their differentiation. But what is the political of political art in the first place, and in what relation do art and politics stand? How do the claims, modes of reception and the effects of political art relate to each other? Plus reviews from Berlin, Los Angeles, New York, Antwerp, London, Montréal, Frankfurt, Paris, Madrid and Basel Exclusive new artists’ editions: John Baldessari, Zoe Leonard and Christopher Williams ENGLISH CONTENT PREFACE HELMUT DRAXLER THE CURSE OF THE GOOD DEED The claim to autonomy and the suspicion of ideology in political art WHEN ART MEETS POLITICS A roundtable conversation about political art with ALICE CREISCHER, HANS-CHRISTIAN DANY, TIM EITEL UND CONSTANZE RUHM, moderated by SVEN BECKSTETTE SIMON SHEIKH THE POLITICS OF ART AND THE PROCESS OF BIENNALIZATION MARIA MUHLE POLITICAL ART AS AESTHETIC REALISM OR PASSION OF THE REAL? BETWEEN CIVIC TRAINING AND POLTICAL ART! A SURVEY ABOUT POLITICAL ART: CLEMENS KRÜMMEL POLTICAL ART! HANS HAACKE HANS HAACKE RESPONDS TO QUESTIONS FROM TEXTE ZUR KUNST DIEDRICH DIEDERICHSEN SPEAKING OF POLITICAL ART CLAIRE BISHOP ART AND POLITICS TOM HOLERT CRITIQUE OR GESTURE: IS THAT THE ALTERNATIVE? OTTO-KARL WERCKMEISTER MARX´S THEORY DOES NOT PRESCRIBE AN ART OF THE LEFT TANIA BRUGUERA POLITICAL ART TRANSFORMS THE AUDIENCE INTO CITIZENS REVIEWS DEVIN FORE HOW COULD THAT POSSIBLY HAPPEN? On Peter Geimer’s “Bilder aus Versehen. Eine Geschichte fotografischer Erscheinungen” LAURENCE A. RICKELS ASSEMBLY LINE On Eva Hesse at Hammer Museum, Los Angeles DAVID REISMAN LIFE AT WORK On David Lieske at Alex Zachary, New York SVEN LÜTTICKEN A MUSEUM OF MONOLOGUES IN THE VICINITY OF ART On Falke Pisano at Extra City, Antwerpen LIZ KOTZ FOREST OF SIGNS On “How many Billboards?” in the city of Los Angeles DAVID BUSSEL FORWARD, NOT FORGETTING On Chto delat? at Institute of Contemporary Art, London ARTISTS’ EDITIONS ZOE LEONARD “Untitled, East Jerusalem”, 1999/2010 CHRISTOPHER WILLIAMS “C”, 2010 JOHN BALDESSARI “Sediment: Throat, Nose and Spider”, 2010 For additional information, orders or subscriptions please contact TEXTE ZUR KUNST STRAUSBERGER PLATZ 19 10243 BERLIN Germany TEL +49 (0)30 – 30 10 453 45 FAX +49 (0)30 – 30 10 453 44 editionen@textezurkunst.de www.textezurkunst.de