Octavian Eşanu: Transition in Post-Soviet Art: The Collective Actions Group Before and After 1989 (2013)

“The artistic tradition that emerged as a form of cultural resistance in the 1970s changed during the transition from socialism to capitalism. This volume presents the evolution of the Moscow-based conceptual artist group called Collective Actions, proposing it as a case-study for understanding the transformations that took place in Eastern European art after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Eşanu introduces Moscow Conceptualism by performing a close examination of the Collective Actions group’s ten-volume publication Journeys Outside the City and of the Dictionary of Moscow Conceptualism. He analyzes above all the evolution of Collective Actions through ten consecutive phases, discussing changes that occur in each new volume of the Journeys. Compares the part of the Journeys produced in the Soviet period with those volumes assembled after the dissolution of the USSR. The concept of “transition” and the activities of Soros Centers for Contemporary Art are also analyzed.”

Publisher Central European University Press, Budapest, 2013
ISBN 9786155225116
xvii+357 pages

Review: Amy Bryzgel (Slavic Review, 2013).

Publisher
WorldCat

PDF (7 MB)

Anselm Franke, Sabine Folie (eds.): Animismus: Moderne hinter den Spiegeln / Animism: Modernity through the Looking Glass (2011) [DE/EN]

“Animism. Modernity through the Looking Glass takes its cue from the ethnological concept of animism that emerged in the nineteenth century in the context of colonialism in search of a “primal” religion. The term was applied to cultures that view nature and objects as having a soul and a life of their own. This concept borrowed from ethnology also plays a key role in psychoanalysis, where it denotes a mental state in which the inner and outer worlds are not distinct from each other.

The catalogue brings together artworks, documents, and artifacts to create an essayistic visual space that points to the need for a decolonialization and revision of this traditional understanding of animism. The show juxtaposes historical materials such as early attempts to animate technologically reproduced images with contemporary works addressing the line between life and non-life.”

With essays by Sabine Folie, Anselm Franke, Isabelle Stengers, and conversation with Elisabeth von Samsonow by Angela Melitopoulos and Maurizio Lazzarato.

Publisher Generali Foundation, Vienna, and Buchhandlung Walther König, Cologne, 2011
ISBN 9783863350703
229 pages
via cblip

Publisher
WorldCat

PDF (35 MB)

Ulises Carrión: Dear Reader. Don’t Read (2016) [EN, ES]

“A key figure in Mexican conceptual art, Ulises Carrión (1941–1989) was an artist, editor, curator, and theorist of the post-1960s international artistic avant-garde.

Texts by Guy Schraenen, Felipe Ehrenberg and João Fernandes, among others, illustrate aspects of his artistic and intellectual work. From his early career as a young, successful writer in Mexico to his numerous activities in Amsterdam where he cofounded the independent artists’ run space In-Out Center and founded the legendary bookshop-gallery Other Books and So (1975–79), the first of its kind dedicated to artists’ publications.”

Catalogue published on the occasion of the exhibition at Reina Sofia, Madrid, March-October 2016.

Edited by Guy Schraenen
Publisher Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, 2016
Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 4.0 International License
ISBN 9788480265393, 8480265396
267 pages

Exhibition
Publisher
WorldCat

English: PDF, PDF (19 MB), Issuu
Spanish: PDF, PDF (23 MB), Issuu