The interdisciplinary festival of contemporary art steirischer herbst is pleased to announce the publication of the catalogue of its 53rd edition, Paranoia TV, as well as that of the accompanying reader There Is No Society?.
As lockdowns set in all across Europe and all over the world in 2020, the 53rd festival edition of steirischer herbst in Graz, Austria, turned into a semi-fictitious media company called Paranoia TV. The festival’s site and its accompanying app featured newly commissioned works by artists, including feature films, binge-worthy serial formats, and online discussions galore. Assuming the role of a broadcaster did not just involve moving to the virtual, however. From its real-life headquarters in the center of Graz, Paranoia TV employed guerrilla tactics such as direct delivery, invading newspaper pages, accidental meetings in supermarkets, hospitals, bookstores, and the streets of the city. Richly illustrated with color images, the Paranoia TV catalogue documents the films, series, performances, interventions, giveaways, and online games of the festival, expanding on all the on- and offline content with additional texts by participating artists. Together, they flesh out television’s celebration of reality as well as that reality’s complete absence as the next platform contemporary art can critically embrace.
Published in parallel, the anthology There Is No Society? Individuals and Community in Pandemic Times is a collection of texts born out of the discussion program of Paranoia TV. The success of social distancing as a cure-all to the COVID-19 pandemic proves that neoliberalism has created an insurmountable distance to the very notion of society itself. This rejection is best embodied in Margaret Thatcher’s infamous dictum “There is no society,” which supplies the title of this anthology, with a crucial question mark added. How can we deal with the paradoxical mix of solitude and imposed togetherness that the pandemic entails? How can culture and critical discourse even continue when public space has been shut down upon the advice of epidemiologists? How do we grasp the new political constellations arising today? Such are the questions tackled by the authors of this anthology.
With contributions by Fahim Amir, Franco “Bifo” Berardi, Nika Dubrovsky, Silvia Federici, Srećko Horvat, Eva Illouz, Achille Mbembe & Milo Rau, Robert Pfaller, Renata Salecl, Natascha Strobl, and Ece Temelkuran.
Paranoia TV was created by all participating artists, thinkers, and philosophers, as well as Ekaterina Degot, Director and Chief Curator; Henriette Gallus, Deputy Director; Christoph Platz, Head of Curatorial Affairs; David Riff, Senior Curator; Dominik Müller, Curator; Mirela Baciak, Curator; and steirischer herbst team.
Both publications were designed by the Ljubljana-based independent collective Grupa Ee (Mina Fina, Damjan Ilić, and Ivian Kan Mujezinović).
Ekaterina Degot and David Riff (eds.). Paranoia TV. Cologne: Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther und Franz König, 2021. ISBN 978-3-96098-998-1. 243 × 341 mm. 340 pp. ca. 180 ill. Softcover. 35 EUR
Ekaterina Degot and David Riff (eds.). There Is No Society? Individuals and Community in Pandemic Times. Cologne: Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther und Franz König, 2021. ISBN 978-3-96098-0046-7. 118 x 219 mm. 216 pp. Softcover. 20 EUR
Paranoia TV and There Is No Society? Individuals and Community in Pandemic Times are now available wherever books are sold and can also be ordered via our webshop.
Members of the press who wish to review this publication can contact us via email.
Further information and press contact: press [at] steirischerherbst.at.