John Albert Walker: Left Shift: Radical Art in 1970s Britain (2001)

Compared to the 1960s, the 1970s is a neglected decade. This is a history of radical political art in Britain during the 1970s, art that sought to re-establish a social purpose. It argues that what was unique about the visual fine art of the decade was the impact of left-wing politics, women’s liberation and the gay movement. Artists discussed include: Rashid Araeen, Conrad and Terry Atkinson, Joseph Beuys, Derek Boshier, Stuart Brisley, Victor Burgin, John Drugger, Gilbert and George, Margaret Harrison, Derek Jarman, John Latham, Mary Kelly, Bruce McLean, David Madalla, Jamie Reid, Jo Spence, John Stezaker and Stephen Willats who responded to the historical events of a period marked by economic and political crises. A wide variety of art forms is covered: banners, drawing, film, community murals, painting, performance, photography, photomontage, posters, sculpture and video. Many radical artists challenged prevailing art institutions, such as the Arts Council, often establishing alternatives, like the Artist’s Union.

The book, which is set out on a year-by-year basis, also examines key conferences, exhibitions, galleries, magazines, organizations and critics; art theory and the various views of artists and critics meant that the 1970s was a decade of intellectual ferment.

Publisher I.B.Tauris, December 2001
ISBN: 9781860647666
304 pages

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Radical Education Collective (eds.): New Public Spaces: Dissensual Political and Artistic Practices in the Post-Yugoslav Context (2009)

New public spaces: dissensual political and aesthetical practices in the post-Yugoslav context is a reader edited by a Radical Education Collective from Ljubljana (Gal Kirn, Gasper Kralj and Bojana Piskur). It drew its inspiration from encounters and conversations with activists, artists, critical thinkers, curators, militant researchers and writers from Belgrade, Helsinki, Istanbul, Ljubljana, London, Pristina and Prizren in April and May 2008 at the social centre ROG and the AKC Metelkova mesto in Ljubljana. Those encounters challenged not only the distinction between ‘serious’ discussions and ‘informal’ debates – that instantly reproduce linear time and hierarchical space – but also our mutual ability to listen, talk and share experiences (instead of consume information). Contributions were subsequently elaborated into the reader, which consists of two parts. In the first part, engaged collectives reflect on the organisation of different political issues: from anti-capitalist and student struggles, to immigrant workers and the re-appropriation of public spaces in the region. The second part focuses on specific art collectives from Kosovo and Ljubljana, which are occupied with the question of space: why was space so important when rethinking the relation between art and politics, and also what can one do with the space? Here, a set of political practices enabled art collective to undermine the presupposed liberal border between public and private. The reader concludes with a presentation of some art projects that intervened and articulated spatial and visual transformations in the post-Yugoslav context.

Authors and contributors: Barbara Beznec, Sezgin Boynik, Ibrahim Ćurić, Cornelia Durka, Janna Graham, Minna Henriksson, Gal Kirn, Gašper Kralj, Andreja Kulunčić, Andrej Kurnik, Polona Mozetič, Said Mujić, Osman Pezić, Bojana Piškur, Marjetica Potrč, Tjaša Pureber, Radical Education Collective, TEMP, Darij Zadnikar, Antonios Vradis

Edited and compiled by: Gal Kirn, Gašper Kralj, Bojana Piškur
Published by Jan van Eyck Academie, Maastricht (NL), Modern Galerija, Ljubljana / Museum of Modern Art, July 2009
ISBN 978–90–72076–87–8

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The Red Specter. Journal of Agitation and Enlightenment 1 (2010) [English/Spanish]

Published on the occassion of exhibition Critical Fetishes. Residues of General Economy at CA2M Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo in Madrid, May – August 2010, curated by The Red Specter (Through its Commissariat of Public Enlightenment: Mariana Botey, Helena Chávez Mac Gregor and Cuauhtémoc Medina).

Editors of issue 1: Ekaterina Álvarez Romero and Cuauhtémoc Medina
English translations: Christopher Fraga, Lorna Scott Fox
Spanish translations: Manuel Hernández, Jaime Soler Frost

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PDF, HTML, Issuu (Spanish)