BAVO (eds.): Cultural Activism Today: The Art of Over-Identification (2007)

“Contemporary art seems to be caught in the blackmail typical for this self-acclaimed age of the End of History. On the one hand, the artist is elevated into ‘the One’ who relentlessly confronts society with its shortcomings and uses his creative intelligence to dream up new ideals. At the same time however, s/he is constantly reminded that this critical and utopian activity should remain ‘constructive’ – a coded way of saying that it should not fundamentally question the triumphant onward march of representative democracy and the free market. No wonder that art today threatens to be reduced to a purely empty exercise that, as Fukuyama claims, offers the last men an escape from their petty bourgeois existence.

The central question of Cultural Activism Today. The Art of Over-Identification is whether, and how, art can escape this suffocating situation. This volume argues that the key to a way out of the trap of the End of History lies in the strategy of over-identification. Instead of succumbing to society’s pathetic demand for small creative acts, artists should over-identify with the ruling, post-historical order and take the latter’s immanent laws to their most extreme, dystopian consequences.

By ruthlessly closing off any space for creative, utopian thinking – which today is nothing but a farce anyway – it should confront society with its own closure. This strategy of over-identification is assessed in essays by Boris Groys, Alexei Monroe, Dieter Lesage, Benda Hofmeyr and BAVO.”

Publisher episode publishers, Rotterdam, 2007
ISBN 9059730615, 9789059730618
119 pages

Review (Eva Fotiadi, OPEN)

Editors
Publisher

PDF (no OCR, updated on 2024-2-19)

Umělec (1997–) [CZ, EN, DE, ES]

“Since its inception Umelec has remained the only international art magazine in English about contemporary visual culture in Central Europe and beyond. Umelec is dedicated to more focused regional or national issues, and always tries to bring to life the current social-cultural situation, including its more marginal aspects. We do not consider culture as a decoration of the state body, but as one of the most important inspiring values of life, even if it is radical or strange.” (from the publisher)

Publisher: Divus (Ivan Mečl), Prague/London/Berlin
Editor-in-chief: Palo Fabuš; formerly: Lenka Lindaurová and Vladan Šír, Jiří Ptáček, Alena Boika
Graphic design: Dita Lamačová; formerly: Dan Vlček, Ondřej Strnad, Jakub Němeček, Ivan Mečl

Issue 1/2012 (English, HTML), also in German, Czech.
Issue 2/2011 (English, HTML), also in German, Czech.
Issue 1/2011 (English, HTML), also in German, Czech.
Other issues (HTML), incl. Special issues: “Austrian” (2009–1, EN/CZ/DE), “Mexican” (2007–2, EN/CZ/DE/ES), “German” (2005–2, EN/CZ/DE), “Swiss” (2006–2, EN/CZ), “French” (2002–1, EN/CZ). The issues from 2005–3 up to 2009–1 were also published in Spanish.

Paper Monument: A Journal of Contemporary Art (2007–)

Paper Monument is a print journal of contemporary art published by n+1 and designed by Project Projects.

Edited by Dushko Petrovich and Roger White
Publisher n+1 Foundation, Brooklyn, New York
ISSN 1938-8918
84 pages each

Issue 1 (Fall 2007, HTML, updated on 2017-12-28)
Issue 2 (Fall 2008, HTML, updated on 2017-12-28)
Issue 3 (Spring 2010, HTML, added on 2014-2-10, updated on 2017-12-28)
Issue 4 (Summer 2013, HTML, added on 2017-12-28)