Presence

More about the book

The politicization of the arts today is the subject of this important and timely publication examining three exhibitions that explore how a resistive art might be imagined, despite being enmeshed in the economic structures it counters; what other knowledge and communities art can foster; and what tools and weapons art can supply. Each projectUnrest of Form: Imagining the Political Subject from the Wiener Festwochen in Vienna; Monday Begins on Saturday, part of the Bergen Assembly; and Giving Form to the Impatience of Liberty at the Wu'rttembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgartprobes the relations between art, politics and the knowledge generation. Extensive photographic documentation of each exhibition and related essays together make for a blunt discussion about the social role art should play in the 21st century to be effective in creating change rather than being merely elitist and market driven. Featured artists include Alice Creischer, Carlfriedrich Claus, Jimmie Durham, Tim Etchells, Dora GarciLa, Francis Hunger, Ilya and Emilia Kabakov, Kathrin RoNggla and Clemens von Wedemeyer.