Maybe one of the most recited mantras of the last few years – at least in my perception – has been “we need to take care of each other.” This has been so, at least since Brexit, the election of the 45th president of the United States, the march of the alt-right with chants like […]
As a library-ghost, I spend a considerable amount of time in my afterlife reflecting on life and death, not only my own, but also as part of the relationship between the books on these shelves I haunt. For example, and I can understand if you don’t believe me, but I feel a distinct shift from […]
While in the cradle, every parent, grandparent and god-fearing aunt wants the best for the new baby, hoping to keep the Evil Eye at bay. Over the years, their prayers for safety turn into dreams of success as the child grows and starts on the path through school to college. Now, bursting with pride at […]
How can we hold onto the tragedy of Soweto? The sacrifice of these children who carry an ideal for us? So asks Dakar-born Beninese artist Pélagie Gbaguidi in her interview for the special education issue of the magazine Contemporary And (C&) titled: “If you’re running from history, it will eventually catch up with you”. She […]
Five years ago, in the rotunda of the Fridericianum, where I sat with the other participants in The Parliament of Bodies for last night’s talk by Georges Didi-Huberman, there stood what artistic director Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev called ‘the brain’ of dOCUMENTA (13). A few posts ago I mentioned this area as encountered by Enrique Vila-Matas in […]