June 2009 / Issue No. 74
Out now
“13 THESES ON CONTEMPORARY ART”The current issue of “Texte zur Kunst” gathers contributions from art historians, critics, artists, and curators under the programmatic title “13 Theses on Contemporary Art” – each attempts to outline the parameters, phenomena and trends with a normative claim in the field of contemporary art that are crucial for their respective current projects. The crisis in the finance market and its gradual effect on the so-called “real economy,” or the provisional end of the “boom” in contemporary art are everywhere associated with the ominous hope that it is “finally” once more all about “content.” But what is this much-lauded content that is supposedly able to resist every crisis? What is at stake “after the crisis” for various actors in the art field? How does their perspective change? Or can it still be business as usual? It is thus the present situation, in which more or less well-founded existential anxieties intermix with diffuse hopes for a return of “fixed values” that has been the inspiration to gather findings on the current state; these are inevitably particular and unfinished, but they are all the more significant for it.
Plus reviews from New York, London, Berlin, Vienna, Gent, Batimore, Basel, Cologne, Munich, Bonn and Aachen
Exclusive new artists’ editions:
Liam Gillick, Paulina Olowska
ENGLISH CONTENT
PREFACE
ALEXANDER ALBERRO
CONTEMPORARY ART, PUBLICITY, AND THE LEGACY OF THE ARTISTIC AVANT-GARDE
INA BLOM
IN THE WAKE OF OBJECT FEVER, ART CRITICISM WILL TURN TO THE POLITICS OF THINGS
WHW/WHAT; HOW & FOR WHOM
YES, DEAR FRIENDS, I DETECT IN THIS HALL THE ODOUR OF DEPRESSION
DIETER ROELSTRAETE
ON THE IMPOSSIBILITY OF THESES, AND WHY THAT IS A BAD THING
SUSANNE PFEFFER
103 THESES ON CONTEMPORARY ART
MICHAEL FRIED
WHY ANTI-THEATRICALITY STILL MATTERS
DOROTHEA VON HANTELMANN
RECONFIGURING THE RITUAL
HITO STEYERL
REFLEX WITHOUT REFLECTION
CHRISTIAN HÖLLER
ENOUGH WITH THE IMPOSSIBLE THEORETICAL DEMANDS!
HEIKE MUNDER
LIVE IN YOUR HEAD: A WISH LIST
ALICE CREISCHER/ANDREAS SIEKMANN
“THERE ARE, IT SEEMS TO HIM, A THOUSAND BARS, AND PAST THE THOUSAND BARS, NO WORLD.”
KARLHEINZ LÜDEKING
LINIKING CRITICAL ART IS NOT IN ITSELF A SUFFICIENT CONTRIBUTION TO A BETTER WORLD
WALEAD BESHTY
PRELIMINARY REMARKS ON THE PERSISTENCE OF ALLEGORICAL CRITIQUE
REVIEWS
MIKE SPERLINGER
HOLY TERROR
On Merlin Carpenter at Simon Lee Gallery, London
SVE LÜTTICKEN
AGAINST THE WALL
On Mathias Poledna and Christopher Williams at Bonner Kunstverein
BRANDEN w. JOSEPH
UNCLEAR TENDENCIES
On Carolee Schneemann at PPOW and Carolina Nitsch Projects Room, New York
JOHN MILLER
NO PUNCHLINE
On the reception of Martin Kippenberger’s work in the United States
T.J. DEMOS
CRITIQUE AND CREATIVITY
On Dara Birnbaum at S.M.A.K., Gent
T’AI SMITH
WEST(ERN) WASTE(LAND)
On Franz West at Baltimore Museum of Art
ARTISTS’ EDITION ISSUE 74:
LIAM GILLICK
“Frankfurt Kitchen Paper Weight”, 2009
YOUNG ARTISTS’ EDITION ISSUE 74
PAULINA OLOWSKA
“End of Biuro”, 2009
For additional information, orders or subscriptions please contact
TEXTE ZUR KUNST
STRAUSBERGER PLATZ 19
10243 BERLIN
Germany
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FAX +49 (0)30 – 30 10 453 44