Izabel Galliera: Socially Engaged Art After Socialism: Art and Civil Society in Central and Eastern Europe (2017)

“Reclaiming public life from the ideologies of both communist regimes and neoliberalism, their projects have harnessed the politically subversive potential of social relations based on trust, reciprocity and solidarity. Drawing on archival material and exclusive interviews, in this book Izabel Galliera traces the development of socially engaged art from the early 1990s to the present in Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania. She demonstrates that, in the early 1990s, projects were primarily created for exhibitions organized and funded by the Soros Centers for Contemporary Art. In the early 2000s, prior to Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania entering into the European Union, EU institutions likewise funded socially-conscious public art in the region. Today, socially engaged art is characterised by the proliferation of independent and often self-funded artists’ initiatives in cities such as Sofia, Bucharest and Budapest.

Focusing on the relationships between art, social capital and civil society, Galliera employs sociological and political theories to reveal that, while social capital is generally considered a mechanism of exclusion in the West, in post-socialist contexts it has been leveraged by artists and curators as a vital means of communication and action.”

Publisher I.B. Tauris, London/New York, 2017
ISBN 9781784537135, 1784537136
xx+361 pages

Review: Denisa Tomkova (ARTMargins, 2018).

Publisher
WorldCat

PDF (41 MB)
EPUB (12 MB)

I’ll Drown My Book: Conceptual Writing by Women (2012)

“The first collection of conceptual writing by women.

Conceptual writing is emerging as a vital 21st century literary movement and I’ll Drown My Book represents the contributions of women in this defining moment. The book takes its name from a poem by Bernadette Mayer, appropriating Shakespeare. It includes work by 64 women from 10 countries, with contributors’ responses to the question—What is conceptual writing?—appearing alongside their work. I’ll Drown My Book offers feminist perspectives within this literary phenomenon.”

Contributors: Kathy Acker, Oana Avasilichioaei & Erin Moure, Dodie Bellamy, Lee Ann Brown, Angela Carr, Monica de la Torre, Danielle Dutton, Renee Gladman, Jen Hofer, Bernadette Mayer, Sharon Mesmer, Laura Mullen, Harryette Mullen, Deborah Richards, Juliana Spahr, Cecilia Vicuna, Wendy Walker, Jen Bervin, Inger Christiansen, Marcella Durand, Katie Degentesh, Nada Gordon, Jennifer Karmin, Mette Moestrup, Yedda Morrison, Anne Portugal, Joan Retallack, Cia Rinne, Giovanni Singleton, Anne Tardos, Hannah Weiner, Christine Wertheim, Norma Cole, Debra Di Blasi, Stacy Doris & Lisa Robertson, Sarah Dowling, Bhanu Kapil, Rachel Levitsky, Laura Moriarty, Redell Olsen, Chus Pato, Julie Patton, Kristin Prevallet, a.rawlings, Ryoko Seikiguchi, Susan M. Schultz, Rosmarie Waldrop, Renee Angle, Rachel Blau DuPlessis, Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Tina Darragh, Judith Goldman, Susan Howe, Maryrose Larkin, Tracie Morris, Sawako Nakayasu, M. NourbeSe Philip, Jena Osman, kathryn l. pringle, Frances Richard, Kim Rosenfeld, and Rachel Zolf.

Edited by Caroline Bergvall, Laynie Browne, Teresa Carmody and Vanessa Place
Publisher Les Figues Press, Los Angeles, 2012
ISBN 9781934254332, 1934254339
455 pages
via CEP

Reviews: Rob McLennan (2012), TF (Diagram, n.d.), Janice Lee (HTML Giant, 2012), Lindsay Turner (Boston Review, 2012), H. V. Cramond (New Pages, 2013), Mia You (Zoland Poetry, 2013), Jill Magi (Drunken Boat, n.d.), Cecilia Corrigan (Jacket2, 2014), Nathan Austin (Sink, n.d.), Sarah S. Kortemeier (Progressive Librarian, 2016).

Publisher
WorldCat

PDF (44 MB)

Hamja Ahsan: Shy Radicals: The Antisystemic Politics of the Militant Introvert (2017)

“Drawing together communiqués, covert interviews, oral and underground history of introvert struggles (Introfada), here for the first time is a detailed documentation of the political demands of shy people.

Radicalised against the imperial domination of globalised PR projectionism, extrovert poise and loudness, the Shy Radicals and their guerrilla wing the Shy Underground are a vanguard movement intent on trans-rupting consensus extrovert-supremacist politics and assertiveness culture of the twenty first century. The movement aims to establish an independent homeland – Aspergistan, a utopian state for introverted people, run according to Shyria Law and underpinned by Pan-Shyist ideology, protecting the rights of the oppressed quiet and shy people.

Shy Radicals are the Black Panther Party of the introvert class, and this anti-systemic manifesto is a quiet and thoughtful polemic, a satire that uses anti-colonial theory to build a critique of dominant culture and the rising tide of Islamophobia.”

With a Preface by Nina Power
Publisher Book Works, London, 2017
Common Objectives series
ISBN 9781906012571, 1906012571
165 pages

Reviews: Dominic Fox (Review 31, n.d.), Hsiao-Hung Pai (OpenDemocracy, 2017), Carmina Masoliver (Norwich Radical, 2017), Rachel Seoighe (Ceasefire, 2017), Nicki Jameson (Revolutionary Communist, 2017).

Publisher
WorldCat

PDF (removed on 2020-4-9 upon request from publisher)