To consider whether tragedy is fully developed by now in all its various species or not, and to criticize it both in itself and in relation to the stage, that is another question. At any rate it originated in improvisation—both tragedy itself and comedy. The one came from the prelude to the dithyramb and the […]
Dear All, It is hard to believe we were all together less than two weeks ago! I miss you all, our conversations, debates and exchanges, as well as the beautiful light, the heat and buzz of the city. When we were together, everything felt more immediate, more alive, more real somehow. Of course, it must […]
On discovering, almost too late, that Jacques Rancière will be speaking at Ohio State today, I reread the first published version of his essay “The Emancipated Spectator”. Rancière delivered the lecture, in English, on August 20th, 2004 at SommerAkademie in Frankfurt and it would later be published in Artforum in 2007 and then in the […]
Over the past few days, several things have occurred that have set me to worrying (somewhat more than usual) about the future of the university. I am not only thinking about some immediate and disturbing developments at my own specific institution (Ohio State University), but also about the very survival of the university as an […]
Any visitor to documenta 14, in either Athens, Kassel or both, who saw the work of Chilean artist Cecilia Vicuña would immediately think of the color red. Red is also the color faced by the reader of her recent book About to Happen, published by siglio press. Yet just over half-way through the book, the […]
Ahead of his talk today at the Wexner Center for the Arts, I have been reading James Voorhies’ book Beyond Objecthood: The Exhibition as a Critical Form since 1968. As part of his fourth chapter on ‘The Industrial Art Complex’, Voorhies discusses how cancellation of Manifesta 6 in 2006 in the Cypriot capital of Nicosia […]
Today is the last day of documenta 14 and rather than retracing my steps over what happened between Athens and Kassel since April, instead I want to look to the future, specifically to an ongoing project that I first encountered in the Athens School of Fine Arts (ASFA) and then again in an exhibition organized […]
Tomorrow is the last day of documenta 14, the exhibition that split itself between Athens and Kassel. To mark the closure of this unique experiment, e-flux has published a joint statement by many of the artists who participated. What struck me about this statement was the way in which the living artists emphasized the significance […]
Dear Joyce, I know it has been a long time (some three years) and I hope this finds you well, if indeed it finds you. Even though I know that you engage with antiquity in your work, from The Epitaph Project to the Iliad piece you once showed me in your apartment, I realize that […]
I didn’t go to Venice this year and so I missed Mark Bradford’s Tomorrow is Another Day at the US Pavilion. This means that these reflections are limited to the accounts of those people who I have spoken to who did see Bradford’s work in the flesh, as well as images and written accounts online […]