The Architecture of Taste

Pierre Hermé

On November 27, 2012, world-renowned pastry chef Pierre Hermé arrived at Harvard University from Paris. He brought five chefs, two assistants, 600 sheets of gelatin, 150 eggs, 68 pounds of caster sugar, 40 pounds of unsalted butter, 32 pounds of cream, 25 pounds of milk chocolate couverture, 11 pounds of grated wasabi, and the alchemic techniques to transform these ingredients into an elaborate “lecture de pâtisserie.” Together with Savinien Caracostea and Sanford Kwinter, he methodically deconstructed four conceptual desserts for 400 spectator-diners. The Architecture of Taste recaptures this night and the physiological effects of Hermé’s pastry visions.

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THE ARCHIVE AS A PRODUCTIVE SPACE OF CONFLICT

Markus Miessen & Yann Chateigné (Eds.)

The applied research project from University of Arts and Design, Karlsruhe, and resulting publication, The Archive as a Productive Space of Conflict examines archival practice and its spatial repercussions in an open conversation among over 80 artists, architects, writers, theorists, educators, designers and others. What are the spaces involved in making archives productive? Conventional archives tend to define themselves through content-specific accumulation of matter, subscribing to an existing order. The structure of archives has not evolved in response to its cumulative model. A productive archive would offer an open framework which actively transforms itself, thus allowing for the constant production of new and surprising relationships and new perspectives on archival practice. Contributions by Stuart Bailey, Bless, Beatriz Colomina, Céline Condorelli, Armin Linke, Dexter Sinister, Nav Haq, Nikolaus Hirsch, Christoph Keller, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Walid Raad and Alice Rawsthorn.

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Arshile Gorky, Goats On The Roof

A Life In Letters and Documents

Matthew Spender

This massive biography accompanies a major new exhibition of the work of Armenian-born painter Arshile Gorky (1904-1948), who is increasingly considered an important influence on the development of abstract expressionism. The book tells his story through many voices: his letters, sent and received; the correspondence of family and friends; pivotal reviews and criticism; newspaper articles and other essential documents. From Gorky’s turbulent childhood fleeing the Armenian genocide in Turkey, to his adulthood in the United States, to his suicide in his forties after a traumatic series of physical and emotional setbacks, this biography offers an intimate window into the artist’s life.

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ART AS THINKING PROCESS

Visual Forms of Knowledge Production

Mara Ambrožic & Angela Vettese (Eds.)

What is the contemporary relationship between art and thought, and how do we teach art today? This book compiles papers from an eponymous symposium at IUAV University of Venice in June 2011 by theoreticians, curators, scientists, writers and artists variously involved in the teaching of art. The contributions follow the increasing interest in art schools and the prominence gained by their joint exhibition spaces, the evidence of art practices and, accordingly, the diffusion of an extensive literature discussing art schools as a resource and potential alternative to commercial dynamics now shaping the system of contemporary art. Featuring texts from Ute Meta Buaer, Franco “Bifo” Berardi, Mary Jane Jacob, Sarat Maharaj, Henk Slager, Hito Steyerl, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Chiara Vecchiarelli and Mick Wilson, among others.

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ART ALWAYS HAS ITS CONSEQUENCES

Artists’ Texts from Croatia, Hungary, Poland, Serbia 1947 – 2009

Tranzit.hu

The countries of the former Eastern Bloc have always been great centers for interesting thinking about art. Art Always Has Its Consequences: Artists’ Texts is a collection of manifestos, critical texts, and writings addressing public issues in art, written by artists and artist groups from Eastern Europe. The time period spans the lowering of the Iron Curtain in 1947, the fall of Communism in the late 20th century, and the first decade of the 21st century. The reader is the result of an international curatorial research collaboration of four organizations: What, How and for Whom/WHW, Croatia; New Media Center_kuda.org, Serbia; Museum Sztuki in Łódz, Poland; and tranzit.hu in Hungary.

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ART AND SUBJECTHOOD

The Return of the Human Figure in Semiocapitalism

Isabelle Graw, Daniel Birnbaum and Nikolaus Hirsch

Many contemporary artworks evoke the human figure: consider the omnipresence of the mannequin in the work of artists like John Miller, Thomas Hirschhorn, Heimo Zobernig, or David Lieske. Or the revival of a minimalist vocabulary embracing anthropomorphism, as in the works of Isa Genzken and Rachel Harrison. This book brings together contributions from the Institut für Kunstkritik conference speculating on the reasons why, since the turn of the millennium, we have encountered so many artworks attempting to reconcile Minimalism with suggestions of the human figure. Contributions by internationally renowned scholars and critics look at the question in the light of Franco Berardi’s theory of semiocapitalism—a power technology that aims squarely at our human resources. Featured essays by Ina Blom, Oliver Brokel, Caroline Busta, Stefan Deines, Hal Foster, Stefanie Heraeus, Jutta Koether, Magdalena Nieslony, Michael Sanchez.

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ART AND THE F WORD

Reflections on the Browning of Europe

Maria Lind & What, How & for Whom/WHW (Eds.)

Timely and provocative, this publication edited by curator Maria Lind and the collective WHW (What, How & for Whom) continues the debate on the startling increase of nationalism across Europe. Commenced in 2012 with the project “Beginning as Well as We Can (How Do We Talk about Fascism?),” Art and the F Word features several social and artistic projects by cultural critics, curators and artists from Scandinavia, Eastern Europe, Jordan and Germany investigating the language of politics and philosophy, popular vocabularies, social contexts, media, science, aesthetics and the potential of aesthetic experience to question reality and upset the political and ideological resignation that too often results in the loss of control over the direction of social transformation. Compelling essays by Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Petra Bauer & Sofia Wiberg, Barnabás Bencsik, Boris Buden, Maria Lind and Tensta konsthall, Jelena Vesi´c and WHW, augmented with black-and-white photographs of projects and installations.

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ART IN THE PERIPHERY OF THE CENTER

Christoph Behnke, Cornelia Kastelan, Valerie Knoll & Ulf Wuggenig (Eds.)

The result of four years of collaborative work out of the Leuphana University, Lüneburg, Germany, this dense and fascinating reader employs complexity and network theory and analysis to visualize the structure and dynamics of 2,000 years of cultural fields and markets (600 BC–2011). By dividing it into four sections— Affect, Attachment & Passion; The Return of History; Art, Ecology & Sustainability; and Art, Values & Markets—the four editors, Christoph Behnke, Cornelia Kastelan, Valérie Knoll and Ulf Wuggenig, have assembled an extraordinary series of essays and in-depth conversations exploring the various effects of culturally fertile and dynamic urban centers and peripheries created by the migration patterns of artists and intel- lectuals over time throughout Europe and North America. Over 70 contributors, including critics, artists, scientists, curators and theorists along with visual documents from related exhibitions make up this massive study. Featured artists include Jose- phine Meckseper, Karl Holmqvist, Angela Bulloch along with many more.

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THE ARTIST INTERVIEW

For Conservation and Presentation of
Contemporary Art, Guidelines and Practices

Lydia Beerkens (et al.)

The key to conserving and preserving modern and contemporary works of art lies in the gathering of specific content-related and technical information. This must-have publication is the first comprehensive handbook of guidelines and good practices with easy-to-follow tips, checklists and sample interviews that provide the tools needed to retrieve accurate information from the artists who created the works. For curators, conservators, scientists, artists, lawyers and art historians, this unprecedented book is a collaboration between SBMK (Foundation for the Conservation of Contemporary Art) and the RCE (Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands). Featured essays by Lydia Beerkens, Tatja Scholte and Sanneke Stigter, among many others.

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THE ARTIST’S HOUSE

From Workplace to Artwork

Kirsty Bell

The artist’s house is a prism through which to view not only the artistic practice of its inhabitant but also to apprehend broader developments in sculpture and contemporary art in relation to domestic architecture and interior space. Based on a series of interviews and site visits with living artists about the role of their home in relation to their work, Cambridge-trained art historian Kirsty Bell looks at the house as receptacle, vehicle, model, theater or dream space. In-depth analyses of these contemporary examples—including Jorge Pardo, Mirosław Bałka, Danh Vo, Gregor Schneider, Frances Stark, Marc Camille Chaimowicz, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Mark Leckey, Monika Sosnowska, Gabriel Orozco and Andrea Zittel—are contextualized by key artists of the 20th century such as Kurt Schwitters, Alice Neel, Edward Krasin’ ski, Carlo Mollino and Louise Bourgeois.

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