Bøger om Avantgarde

Christian Lollike er en ener i nyere dansk scenekunst. Den kontroversielle dramatiker går helt tæt på, hvad det vil sige at være menneske i vores tid. Han fletter kunst og virkelighed sammen og konfronterer os med voldsomme temaer som terror, krig og flygtninge.Lollikes værker er unikke, men i deres legesyge trækker de samtidig på historiske formeksperimenter. I hans forestillinger finder man derfor spor fra både den tidlige avantgarde, performancekunsten, dokumentarteatret og ikke mindst det postdramatiske teater.Scenekunst på kanten tager læseren med fra det eksperimenterende teaters rødder til den levende kunst, vi ser på scenen i dag. Og den viser Lollike som kunstner, menneske og teatermanden, der provokerer og inviterer til debat og eftertænksomhed. Dansk teaters enfant terrible er ikke bange for at gå til kanten – og videre endnu.Det er bogen til alle kunst- og teaterinteresserede, der vil vide mere om dansk teaters store provokatør.Birgitte Dam er cand.mag. i dansk og teatervidenskab og har undervist i litteratur ved bl.a. Københavns Universitet. Hun har udgivet adskillige bøger om scenekunst og anmeldt teater ved Dagbladet Information og tidsskriftet Peripeti.

Nu udkommer den første monografi om den danske kunstner Franciska Clausen (1899-1986) i 35 år. Bogen undersøger Clausens liv og værk og præsenterer det hidtil bredeste udvalg af kunstnerens værkproduktion. Blandt andet belyses for første gang hendes omfattende portrætproduktion, som sideløbende med avantgardeværkerne udgjorde kernen i hendes kunstneriske virke, ligesom hun også skabte reklamer og plakater.Bogen fortæller også om Clausens skuffelse over den manglende anerkendelse, hun mødte i Danmark, da hun kom hjem efter at have været en del af den internationale kunstelite i Berlin og Paris i 1920’erne og 1930’erne.Udkommer op til den store retrospektive udstilling om Franciska Clausen på ARoS den 8. oktober.

Sonja Åkesson (1926-1977) var en svensk digter, prosaist, dramatiker og kunstner. Hun var den første til at indføre kvinders hverdagsliv i den svenske lyrik. Hun skrev om de hjemmegående og de arbejdende, mødrene og døtrene, de gifte og de enlige, og var i sin levetid en af de mest læste digtere i Sverige. Jag bor i Sverige udkom i 1966 med en grammofonskive & er det første af Sonja Åkessons værker der udkommer på dansk.

Ernst Jünger (1895-1998) er en af de største og samtidig mest omstridte tyske forfattere i det 20. århundrede. Da Første Verdenskrig brød ud i august 1914, meldte han sig straks under fanerne, og i efteråret 1918 modtog han Tysklands højeste militære udmærkelse, Pour le mérite, for sin krigsindsats.I 1920 debuterede Jünger med den selvbiografiske I stålstormen, der regnes for en af de bedste bøger, der er skrevet om Første Verdenskrig, og har begejstret læsere som André Gide, Jorge Luis Borges og herhjemme Thorkild Bjørnvig.Op gennem 1920'erne markerede Jünger sig som en af sin generations vigtigste forfattere, på samme tid ultrakonservativ og eksperimenterende avantgardist med forbindelser til bl.a. den franske surrealisme.Interessen for Jünger og hans forfatterskab, der omfatter romaner, fortællinger, essayistik, filosofi og dagbøger og strækker sig over det meste af det 20. århundrede, har siden Murens fald været støt stigende både internationalt og i Danmark.Soldat, arbejder, anark. Ernst Jüngers forfatterskab er den første samlede fremstilling af denne fascinerende århundredskikkelse på dansk. Den er skrevet af førende danske og internationale eksperter og følger forfatterskabet fra debuten om soldaterlivet i skyttegravene over mellemkrigstidens interesse for arbejderen frem til alderdomsværkets dyrkelse af den uafhængige anark.Med bidrag af Christian Benne, Karl Heinz Bohrer, Anders Ehlers Dam, Heinrich Detering, Carl-Göran Heidegren, Søren Harnow Klausen, Kathrin Maurer, Daniel Morat, Adam Paulsen, Michael Karlsson Pedersen, Jan Rosiek, Kasper Hedegård Schiølin og Frederik Stjernfelt.

Fortællingen om samtidskunsten må handle om den ekstreme markedsgørelse og instrumentalisering af kunsten, der har fundet sted inden for de seneste årtier. Men den må samtidig også handle om, hvordan samtidskunstinstitutionen har været rum for fremvisning og diskussion af politiske konflikter, der for en stor dels vedkommende ikke har fundet sted andre steder i takt med, at tidligere venstre-politiske offentligheder er blevet afviklet, og politik er blevet reduceret til administration. Det er historien om samtidskunsten som et sted for politisk engagement og systemkritik. Selvom kunstens relative autonomi er under pres og hele tiden muterer, så er det kunstneriske felt og det enkelte kunstværk stadigvæk kendetegnet ved at være delvist uden for den kapitalistiske produktions- og administrationslogik. Og denne partielle adskillelse, den relative autonomi, udstyrer kunsten med et transgressivt potentiale. Som relativ autonom sfære er kunsten på én og samme tid en udfordring og en bekræftelse af det kapitalistiske samfund og værdiformens abstrakte dominans. Som Adorno formulerer det, er vareform- en autonomiens historiske mulighedsbetingelse. Det betyder ikke, at kunsten kun er ideologisk (i en dårlig forstand), den har bevaret sin historiske oprindelses emancipatoriske logik, og om ikke andet negativt afspejler den et løfte om lykke. Der er noget subversivt ved kunsten, den er en art oprør. Det er således ikke nok at udpege aporien – kunsten undergraver og bekræfter samfundet, kultur og barbari hænger sammen – nej, aporien skal på en eller anden måde analyseres og overskrides. Den er netop ikke ahistorisk, en invariant, men historisk og kan derfor ændres. Eller som Debord siger, kunsten er revolutionær (eller den er ikke).

Dette er bagsiden af bogen – og medaljen, fordi her er der intet nyt under sofaen. Nej, det nye er inde i bogen, og hvis DU, kære læser, skal få lyst til at åbne den, og ikke mindst læse i den, bør jeg nok fortælle lidt om den legendariske Kalle Mathiesen, og komme med et uddrag: "Kalle Math’Ismen er troen på, at du skal turde tvivle på det, du er allermest sikker på. Fordi evigheden ligger inde i pauserne imellem tankerne. Det eneste, vi kan være sikre på her i verden, er, at vi ikke kan være sikre på noget som helst, fordi alting forandrer sig hele tiden. Tag alle de største katastrofer i verden: 9/11, ISIS, Hitlers Tyskland, Cirkusrevyen, Nick og Jay, Justin Bieber – ja, jeg kunne blive ved. Alle disse katastrofer har dét til fælles, at de er skabt i hovedet på en mand eller kvinde, der aldrig turde tvivle på deres sikkerhed. Når man lukker sig for den evige, kosmiske forandring, lukker man sig også om sig selv. Som den stortalende sønderjyske misforståelse med storheds-vanvid, jeg er, spørger folk mig tit: "Hvordan kan du holde dig selv ud?" Jeg svarer altid: "Den eneste grund til, at jeg kan holde mig selv ud, er, at det er mig, der betaler for alle mine drinks."

Undersøgende, gennemillustreret bog om nye beskuerinvolverende former for samtidskunst. Bl.a. om Superflex, Das Beckwerk, Christoph Schlingensief m.fl.

På frontlinjen belyser den hidtil marginaliserede danske avantgardekunstnergruppe Linien IIs historie, fra gruppen blev stiftet i 1947 til dens opløsning i 1952 – samt dens videre efterliv helt frem til i dag. Bogen stiller både skarpt på gruppens kunstneriske og politiske arbejde, hvorved gruppen indskrives i et bredere kunst- og kulturhistorisk perspektiv. Som monografi er der tale om den første bog af sin slags, eftersom Linien II, i modsætning til f.eks. Cobra, aldrig tidligere er blevet beskrevet indgående. Dette er et paradoks, eftersom Linien II havde stærke forbindelser til mange fremtrædende kunstnere uden for Danmark, heriblandt Josef Albers, Jean Arp, Le Corbusier, Hans Hartung og Alberto Giacometti, ligesom Linien II både fik etableret udstillinger i USA og England i dens egen epokale samtid, hvilket Cobra f.eks. aldrig opnåede. Med denne monumentale monografi, hvor navnlig kunstens sociale og politiske potentiale udfoldes indgående, er der endelig føjet nye og hidtil ukendte aspekter til såvel Linien IIs historie specifikt, som til den danske efterkrigstidskunst generelt.Bogen er rigt illustreret i farver.

Den første fyldige introduktion til fotografen der i Danmark og internationalt gjorde fotografiet til en kunst.Keld Helmer-Petersen fortsætter med at eksperimentere med fotografiets grænser helt frem til sin død i 2013 og samarbejder karrieren igennem med en lang række arkitekter, billedkunstnere og forfattere.Inger Ellekilde Bonde er kunstfaglig registrator ved Den Frie Udstillingsbygning og har flere års erfaring med formidling af fotografiske udstillinger. I de seneste år har hun forsket i dansk fotografi i efterkrigstiden.

To commemorate the 50th anniversary of Picasso's death, this spectacular volume of the artist's early paintings and sculptures is being reissued. The paintings from his so-called Blue and Rose periods to early Cubism, created between 1901 and 1907, are milestones on Picasso's path to becoming the most famous artist of the twentieth century. In 2019, the Fondation Beyeler presented some 80 masterpieces from renowned museums and private collections in its most prestigious exhibition to this date. They are not only among the most valuable works of art ever to exist, but are widely viewed as some of modernism's most beautiful and emotive artworks. This volume brings the early work of this exceptional artist to life in a unique way.PABLO PICASSO (1881-1973) is regarded as the epitome of the twentieth-century artist. In addition to his paintings and sculptures, his graphic works also enjoy special fame.

The Edizioni Conz of the Italian collector, publisher and photographer Francesco Conz-including portfolios, large silkscreen prints on fabrics and objects-are among the finest and most elaborate art editions of the second half of the 20th century. A friend and patron of Viennese Actionism, Fluxus, Concrete Poetry, and Lettrism, he was an obsessive, knowledgeable enthusiast open to all the arts, for whom hospitality, the magic of community, and respect for the arts were more important than any mercantile aspirations. This publication is the first comprehensive catalogue raisonné of the editions published by Conz between 1972 and 2009. Comprising more than 500 editions, it is both a reflection of his passions and a memorial to the art of the avant-gardes. Texts by contemporaries such as Alison Knowles, Dick Higgins, Milan Knizak, Eugen Gomringer, Emmett Williams, Nicholas Zurbrugg, and others complete the richly illustrated catalogue.FRANCESCO CONZ (1935-2010) grew up in a wealthy family of Austro-Hungarian descent in the Italian Veneto. After coming into contact with the art scene in Berlin and New York in the early 1970s, he traveled to art festivals around the world and invited artists to the Palazzo Baglioni in Asolo for happenings and performances. Since 2016, the Berlin-based Archivio Conz has been working to catalog, research, and restore his extraordinary collection for the public, which includes more than 4,000 works and commissioned editions by over 300 international artists, as well as 30,000 photographs and ephemera.

Dette er en bog om musikværker, som mange har hørt om – men de færreste har hørt. Da Arnold Schönberg i 1918 dannede Selskabet for private opførelser, opstod et brud i musikhistorien. Selskabet var beregnet til, at nye musikværker kunne opføres uden publikum, der efter komponistens opfattelse ikke havde evne til at vurdere ny musik. Bruddet mellem komponist og publikum var derefter en realitet og nåede sit højdepunkt i den amerikanske komponist Milton Babbits herostratisk berømte artikel ”Who Cares if You Listen?” Den tilsyneladende mangel på interesse for publikum kom i 1900-tallet til udtryk i en række værker, som fik mange lyttere til at mene, at moderne komponister helt havde mistet interessen for formidling og dialog med udenforstående. Denne bog handler om en række af de komponister og værker, som i deres mangel på forankring i en traditionel musiktradition vakte furore, skabte vrede og var medvirkende til at fremmedgøre det moderne publikum overfor den europæiske kunstmusik. Bogen behandler fx John Cages stykke med 4 minutter og 33 sekunders tavshed og Karlheinz Stockhausens Helikopter-Quartett, hvor de fire strygere befinder sig adskilt fra hinanden i hver deres helikopter. Undervejs stilles spørgsmålet: Var værker som disse bare pjat og provokation, eller lå der dybere filosofiske og kulturhistoriske overvejelser bag? Om forfatterens seneste udgivelse, Sjostakovitj – en sovjetkunstner, skrev pressen: ”Andet og mere end en komponistbiografi” – Politiken ”En absolut anbefalelsesværdig bog” – Berlingske ”Litterære vitaminer og kalorier i hobetal” – Kristeligt Dagblad ”Selv den mest forslugne læser vil føle sig forkælet af denne bog. Så medrivende et sprog er ikke hverdagskost” – Weekendavisen

György Ligeti is a composer whose stance always extended into a multidimensional field. The old and the new in music, or, more generally, artistic and scientific thinking as a whole, were his closest and most inspiring companions and everything new had to be further developed. Yet for him, nothing could be really new without a deep relationship with the old. And the power of the old had to be woven into every new idea. This necessity to subsume what came before into all things new was also his "torture rack". His students in Hamburg experienced this great seeker, this indeed desperate seeker in a most intense way. And he imbued upon us the extreme necessity of taking the next steps, and challenged us to participate and challenged us as, in a great game, to join in the search.A great many of György Ligeti's students collaborated on this book. The result is a colorful bouquet of articles, some of which provide astonishing insights into the person, the teacher, the composer György Ligeti, and all in all include many aspects that would scarcely be accessible to a musicologist coming from outside this inner circle.

"This book should be seen as a diary filled with writings, poetry, cut-outs, collages, photographs, and drawingsprinted on the stationary papers which keep the memory of my journeys." Marina Abramovic Never before published, this self-curated, intensely personal collection of travel notes and sketches by the world's most revered performance artist offers readers a kind of iconography of Abramovic's daring and utterly original body of work.An artist's notebooks are arguably the most authentic means of understanding her process, techniques, and impulses. And, for a performance artist, a rare, permanent record of how she develops her craft. Compiled over the course of four decades on stationery from various hotels, and other temporary residences, this collection of Marina Abramovic's original drawings, collages, poetry, writings, cut-outs, photographs and doodles offers glimpses of a brilliant mind in constant motion. Beautifully produced and packaged, it takes readers on a journey through Abramovic's thoughts-and traces the evolution of the most fruitful phase of her career. "My home was everywhere I went because my home was my own body." With the archival material elegantly reproduced in their original size on high-quality paper, this collection offers Abramovic's enormous fanbase unprecedented access to her creative process.

From today's perspective, Leon Polk Smith's dynamic, geometric abstractions can be understood as a missing link in art history. His work connects the European avant-garde with the American Abstract Expressionism of the 1940s and 1950s via references to the work of Piet Mondrian. Smith's pioneering role in the hard-edge style with its neat monochromatic fields of color as well as his shaped canvases are in turn developments that transpired from America to Europe. Departing from the rectangular canvas allowed Smith to conceive new interrelations between his sophisticated two-color compositions and the spatial context. Most notably, his unique Constellations series, created between 1967 and 1975, marks the high point of his career, and won him artistic acclaim beyond America's borders. Alongside the early compositions from the 1940s and the multi-part shaped canvases, this book features collages, reliefs and painted objects and proposes a new reception of Smith's decades-spanning oeuvre.LEON POLK SMITH (1906 - 1996) is one of the most important representatives of geometric abstraction. Born in Chickasha in the then called Indian Territory, later to become Oklahoma, his first paintings, created in the 1930s, are rooted in the indigenous culture that surrounded him. Smith moved to New York in 1944, where he came into contact with the works of Mondrian and De Stijl.

Adam Pendleton initiierte diese Gruppenausstellung als eine Erkundung künstlerischer Sprache. Einige Werke enthalten Wörter, aber vor allem geht es um Ideen, Prozesse und Technologien, die in das Konzept der Malerei einfließen.In Zusammenarbeit mit Galerie Max Hetzler

Jakub Julian Ziólkowski's vibrant works are bizarre and alluring. In his wild, surreal cosmos of mutant humans, organic forms and circulatory systems, the Polish painter mixes cultural symbols, the decorative and the fantastical. Juxtaposing the spiritual and the microscopic, he creates a universe bristling with detail and a kaleidoscope of references-from Hiernoymos Bosch visions of heaven and hell and James Ensor's grotesque allegories to Philip Guston.Yet, his paintings show a highly personal world that is populated by a recurring cast of characters. This publication is the first comprehensive overview of his work from 2005 to the present, giving insights into his artistic practice in different media: from painting to sculpture, ceramics as well as drawing. The book includes essays by Olga Tokarczuk, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature and Cecilia Alemani, curator of the 59. Venice Biennale, an in-depth interview with the artist, as well as texts by philosopher Kajetan Mlynarski and psychologist Bartlomiej Dobroczynski.JAKUB JULIAN ZIÓLKOWSKI (*1980, Zamosc, Poland) is one of the most eminent Polish contemporary painters. He trained at the Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków, where he lives and works today. Since 2003, his work has been shown in numerous group and solo exhibitions, including Hauser & Wirth, London (2017), Neues Museum Nürnberg (2017), and the 55. Biennale di Venezia (2013).

From Nutella and Penaten cream, through hygiene products, to a discarded caravan or old refrigerators-products of industrial mass production form the basis for Thomas Rentmeister's sculptural works. His body-related, minimalist sculptures and installations combine the aesthetic and the repulsive in an incongruous way. With this, as well as the use of often absurdly large volumes of material, he playfully articulates a-partly humorous-social commentary that provides visual, as well as thematic, cause to think anew about the things that surround us in everyday life.This catalogue offers a good overview of his work, including new works created since the last major publication in 2011. The texts by Anna Mosemann and Hendrik Bündge, as well as an interview with the artist, open up new perspectives on Rentmeister's work.THOMAS RENTMEISTER (*1964) works in the fields of sculpture and installation. He has been a professor at the HBK Braunschweig since 2007. His works are represented in numerous collections and have been exhibited worldwide, including at Hamburger Bahnhof, Kunstmuseum Bonn, Kunsthalle Nürnberg, Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, and Perth Institute of Contemporary Art.

Als Gründungsmitglied der CoBrA-Gruppe gehörte Karel Appel einer der wichtigsten europäischen Nachkriegs-Avantgarden an, als Maler der Nouvelle École de Paris feierte er in den 1950er Jahren erste Erfolge. Zwischen New York und Paris pendelnd, suchte er zeitlebens die künstlerische Konfrontation mit dem Unbekannten: ein ungewohnter Stil, ein besonderes Motiv, der Wechsel zwischen Skulptur und Malerei. Das Buch dokumentiert drei sehr verschiedene Ausstellungen mit Werken Appels, die in den Galerien Max Hetzler Berlin und London zwischen 2020 und 2022 zu sehen waren. Die jüngste Schau zeigte den Einfluss von Appels erstem Besuch in New York: Hier fand er einerseits zur Aktionsmalerei, als deren Höhepunkt sein wandfüllendes, über Nacht vor Ort gemaltes Bild für die Documenta 1964 vertreten ist, andererseits nahm er das .u.erst akademische Sujet der Aktmalerei auf ganz und gar unakademische Weise auf. Im Zentrum des Buchs steht dann eine retrospektive Auswahl des dreidimensionalen Werks von Bronze und Terracotta-Arbeiten über Objektmalereien bis zu absurd-poetischen Assemblagen karnevalistischer Fundstücke. Zuletzt kehrte Appel in überdimensionalen Zeichnungen und expressionistischen Gemälden der 1980er und '90er Jahrezum Akt-Thema zurück. So folgt das Buch drei Linien mit vielen Verzweigungen durch ein OEuvre von 60 Jahren, in dem es noch viel zu entdecken gibt.In Zusammenarbeit mit Galerie Max Hetzler Berlin | Paris | London

Ihren eigenen Körper als Rohmaterial einsetzend, dekonstruiertdie französische Künstlerin ORLAN die traditionelleIkonografie des Weiblichen. In den 1990er-Jahren erregteORLAN mit den an ihrem Körper vorgenommenen chirurgischenOperations-Performances großes Aufsehen. IhrFrühwerk ist weniger bekannt: Bereits 1964, mit 17 Jahren,gebiert sie ihr künstlerisches Selbst. Seitdem erschafft siesich immer wieder neu. Ihr Körper wird zugleich Subjektund Objekt, ironisch und provokativ spielt sie mit Identität.Diese Publikation fächert die gesamten sechs Jahrzehntevon ORLANs Werk auf und beleuchtet besonders ihrefrühen Performances. Zu ihren jüngsten Neuerschaffungengehört der Roboter ORLAN-OÏDE, und mit Hilfe einerAugmented Reality App steigen gar ORLAN-Avatare ausdem farbenprächtigen Buch heraus und werden lebendig.Dass der Körper politisch ist, zeigt sich in all ihren Arbeiten:1989 verwandelt sie Gustave Courbets Bild L'originedu monde in L'origine de la guerre, indem sie die Vulvadurch den Phallus ersetzt. Das Statement büßt nicht anAktualität ein.Die französische Künstlerin ORLAN (*1947, Saint-Étienne) ist eine der bedeutendsten Vertreterinnen der Feministischen Avantgarde, der Performance-Kunst und Begründerin L'Art Charnel (der Fleischeskunst). ORLAN setzt seit sechs Jahrzehnten ihren eigenen Körper als künstlerisches Material ein. Sie lebt und arbeitet in Paris.

Georg Baselitz enters a dialogue with the Old Masters - invited by Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna, the acclaimed German painter and sculptor engages in a visual conversation. Baselitz himself curated this selection of works, focusing exclusively on nude painting. Both the exhibition and the catalogue revolve around this elemental human state, and its fundamental role in European art.From the beginning of his career, Baselitz's work has been informed by a pronounced awareness of art history, above all he was inspired by Mannerism's break with classical rules. Insights into the history of nude painting, as well into the topicality of painting itself, emerge from this encounter of Baselitz's works with historical paintings of an idealized beauty from Kunsthistorisches Museum. The carefully chosen juxtapositions open up a space in which one can reflect and experience the essence of painting anew.GEORG BASELITZ (*1938, Deutschbaselitz) is without a doubt one of the most influential painters and sculptors of our time. His work eludes easy categorization, but has continuously returned to his search for a new approach to updating classic figurative painting. In a celebrated turning point in 1969, he literally turned his paintings upside down and thereby managed to change the public's viewing habits, and to sharpen their perceptions.

On the occasion of its 60-year anniversary, CIMAM, the International Committee for Museums and Collections of Modern Art, its directors, and curators publish Museums from the Inside. From Suzanne Pagé and Rudi Fuchs, to David Elliott, Toshio Hara, Maria de Corral, Ken Lum to Manolo Borja-Villel and Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, this publication contains more than twenty interviews giving an insider's look at the 60 years in which modern art changed to post-modern art, and the term contemporary art, in turn, began to look almost obsolete.Following a historical introduction, looking back at fierce debates and controversies, a selection of important texts written since 2005 on decolonization, on Arte Útil, and on indigenous art gives insight into more recent fields of research.

Working as a self-taught artist, and employed as an office manager in the former GDR, Ruth Wolf-Rehfeldt used her typewriter to create patterns and abstract compositions with characters and letters at the junction of Concrete Poetry, graphic design and Conceptual Art. Her linguistic explorations, which she further developed into collages later on, are often based on ambiguity.Published on the occasion of the large retrospective at MINSK Kunsthaus in Potsdam, Nichts Neues explores her typewritings, prints, collages, and paintings in thematic episodes. Although Wolf-Rehfeldt discontinued her artistic practice after the fall of the Berlin Wall, her art has lost none of its relevance. In a poetic, idiosyncratic, and often humorous way, this nonconformist artist explored themes such as environmental issues, intellectual freedom, community, and communication. Her sometimes subtle, sometimes more literal play with words, meanings, and forms continue to reveal the unexpected.RUTH WOLF-REHFELDT (*1932, Wurzen, Saxony) arrived in East Berlin in 1950. From the 1960s, she created paintings, pastels, drawings, and, from about 1970, her so-called "Typewritings." She actively participated in the international Mail Art program, sending her works across the globe. Only in recent years has her work been rediscovered. In 2017 she was both a newcomer and a senior star of documenta 14.

How do cultural institutions and artists respond to long-standing states of crises and international emergencies? It is with these questions in mind that Palestinian artist Khalil Rabah's artistic practice investigates the future of visual arts production. Exploring the relationships between historically sanctioned and experimental exhibition settings, fictional and documentary-narratives, and the histories of displacement, his methods not only propose but produce speculative institutions.As the artist's first major monograph, Falling Forward / Works (1995-2025) presents a comprehensive selection of exhibition materials, previously unseen archival documents, and detailed background notes on how Rabah's methods relate to broader themes in his work. The volume also introduces new critical writing from curators, authors, and researchers on the interrelated subjects of anticipatory aesthetics, subterfuge and fugitive acts, mimicry and performativity, knowledge production, archival technologies and, crucially, the politics of humor.KHALIL RABAH (*1961, Jerusalem) studied fine arts and architecture at the University of Texas. The work of this conceptual artist is rooted in issues of identity, displacement and politics. Characteristic of Rabah's working method is the adaptation of institutional means of representation. In 2003, he established the fictional Palestinian Museum of Natural History and Humankind. Designed as an ongoing project, the museum finds new forms of presentation, depending on the exhibition situation and location. He lives and works in Ramallah.Anthony Downey is Professor of Visual Culture in the Middle East and North Africa at Birmingham City University, UK. He is the series editor for Research/Practice and sits on the editorial boards of Third Text, Digital War, and Memory, Mind & Media.

The Fire of Heaven presents the work of world-renowned artist Enrique Martínez Celaya in conversation with the life and work of the influential twentieth-century California poet Robinson Jeffers. Despite existing in different lifetimes, Jeffers's approach to life as art and his reverence for the natural beauty of the California coastline inextricably link the uncompromising poet to Martínez Celaya. The artist's multi-faceted practice explores the map of a territory shaped by self, memory, ideations of home, exile, myth, and identity. His practice presumes art should be an ethical effort that aims to understand better and engage with the world and ourselves. Beyond these threads of commonality, Martínez Celaya draws directly from Jeffers's writings, such as the 1928 poem The Summit Redwood, which serves as the exhibition's namesake and describes "the fire from heaven" as a force untamed and ignited at whim. Martínez Celaya's work created during his stay at the poet's landmark home in Carmel-by-the-Sea is complemented by Jeffers's handwritten poems, notes, and photographs.ENRIQUE MARTINEZ CELAYA (*1964) was born in Cuba and raised in Spain and Puerto Rico. He has realized exhibitions, interventions, and social and intellectual interactions worldwide with major museums, galleries, and institutions, including the Berliner Philharmonie, The State Hermitage Museum, and The Phillips Collection. A painter, sculptor, and writer, he lives in Los Angeles.

The history of the VanhaerentsArtCollection began in the 1970s, when a young Walter Vanhaerents laid the foundation of his now famous collection with works by Andy Warhol. Much has happened since then, but the focus on new and provocative art, often considered radical at the time, remained. From Bruce Nauman, Yoshitomo Nara, and Bill Viola to Cindy Sherman, Jeff Koons, Katharina Fritsch, or Tom Sachs-across different genres and media, the Brussel-based collection reflects a keen sense of the latest developments in current art practices as well as a prescient intuition for emerging artists. The publication Looking Ahead celebrates the 50th anniversary of this unique collection and provides an overview of the exhibitions of the past 15 years.

The First Russian Art Exhibition (Erste Russische Kunstausstellung), which opened at the Galerie van Diemen in Berlin on October 15, 1922, and later travelled to Amsterdam, introduced a broad Western audience to the most recent artistic developments in Russia. The extensive show - more than a thousand works, including paintings, graphic works, sculptures, stage designs, architectural models, and works of porcelain - was remarkably inclusive in its scope, which ranged from traditional figurative painting to the latest constructions of the Russian avant-garde. Coming on the heels of the Treaty of Rapallo, the exhibition was a first cultural step towards bilateral relations between two young and yet internationally isolated new states - the Weimar Republic and the Russian Soviet Republic. Moving away from the narrow focus on the avant-garde, the volume presents new research that examines the exhibition's broader historical scope and cultural implications. The reception of the exhibition within artistic circles in Germany, Europe, the United States, and Japan in the 1920s is addressed, as well as the disposition of many of the works exhibited. The combination of longer, thematic essays and short features, along with reproductions of newly identified works and a selection of unpublished archival materials make this book valuable to both a scholarly and a general readership.

Even though we often hardly give it a second thought, we spend virtually every moment of our lives in two worlds: the analog world and the world of digital information, signals, and networks. Whether visualizing invisible data streams or tracking down cell phone towers disguised as palm trees, Peter Jellitsch's works constantly revolve around the connections between real and artificially produced reality. Using means of repetition, fragmentation, maximization, and minimization, he creates images that are filled with abstract-looking textures and have a cartoon-like style. The publication Artifacts of the Future provides a broad insight into Jellitsch's eponymously titled current series of works. PETER JELLITSCH (*1982 in Villach, Austria) studied at the Academy of Fine Arts and the University of Applied Arts in Vienna after completing a carpentry apprenticeship. His works have been shown in numerous exhibitions in Europe and the USA and are in collections such as the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Austrian Museum of Applied Arts, the Museum Moderner Kunst Kärnten and the Kupferstichkabinett of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. Peter Jellitsch has been a lecturer at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna since 2011.

Proprietary algorithms, secret data troves, and inscrutable systems rule the day. How is this registered in art? In Poetics of Encryption Nadim Samman explores works that highlight the hidden dimensions of our technological landscape. Running counter to erroneous claims regarding a new culture of transparency and openness, such artworks address black sites, black boxes, and black holes-all the while, toggling between enlightened concern and occult dreaming.NADIM SAMMAN is Curator for the Digital Sphere at KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin. He read Philosophy at University College London before receiving his PhD from the Courtauld Institute of Art. Widely published, in 2019 he was First Prize recipient of the International Award for Art Criticism (IAAC). Major curatorial projects included the 4th Marrakech Biennale (2012), the 5th Moscow Biennale for Young Art (2015) and the 1st Antarctic Biennale (2017).