Art and Theory Today: Readings from the Index

Join us at e-flux on Tuesday, September 22 at 7pm for a night of readings and presentations to celebrate the ninth issue of e-flux’s quarterly print publication, e-flux Index.

For this night of readings, we are delighted to welcome Re'al Christian, Ben Davis, Keller Easterling, Liam Gillick, and Hindley Wang. They will each expand upon their contributions to issue 9 of the Index, covering quandaries from the capacity of technology to record various histories of collapse, the jeopardized role of art writing, the possibility of a disposition of architecture theory, the relationship between theory and class struggle, and the psychoanalytic preoccupation with childhood and its traumas. This event will be hosted by e-flux Index editor George MacBeth.

e-flux Index is a quarterly print publication like few others. It sets out to untangle the mess of the contemporary, bringing together art and film theory, philosophy, political theory, architecture, and criticism within the same publication. Each edition draws into dialogue commissioned essays, reviews, and articles from the five separate e-flux sections: e-flux Architecture, e-flux Criticism, e-flux Education, e-flux Journal, and e-flux Notes. 

Index #9 interweaves a selection of pieces published by e-flux throughout the Summer of 2025. It brings together material that the various independent publishing arms of e-flux published around the theme of the often-fraught relations between theory and (artistic, architectural, pedagogic, political) practice. In six chapters that investigate the state of Art and Theory Today, the first part of the issue accordingly revisits the primal scene of the Theory Wars—the tenor of which has changed, from an urgent ideological contest between humanist objectivity and postmodern relativism, to a more even-handed, pragmatic, and pluralist one, in the decades since.

Refreshments will be provided, and copies of Index #1–9 will be available for purchase.

For more information, contact program@e-flux.com.

Accessibility
 – Two flights of stairs lead up to the building’s front entrance at 172 Classon Avenue.
 – For elevator access, please RSVP to program@e-flux.com. The building has a freight elevator nearest to 180 Classon Ave, a garage door, leading into the e-flux office space. A ramp is available for steps within the space.
 – e-flux has an ADA-compliant bathroom with no steps between the event space and this bathroom.