Former West

What has become of the so-called West after the Cold War? Why hasn't the West simply become former, as has its supposed counterpart, the former East? In this book, artists, thinkers, and activists explore the repercussions of the political, cultural, and economic events of 1989 on both art and the contemporary. The culmination of an eight-year curatorial research experiment, Former West imagines a world beyond our immediate condition. The writings, visual essays, and conversations in Former West - more than seventy diverse contributions with global scope - unfold a tangled cartography far more complex than the simplistic dichotomy of East vs. West. In fact, the Cold War was a contest not between two ideological blocs but between two variants of Western modernity. It is this conceptual Westcentrism that a formering of the West seeks to undo.