Editors: Marta Kuzma and Peter Osborne
Introduction by Marta Kuzma and Peter Osborne, with essays by Peter Osborne, Hito Steyerl, Marius Wulfsberg, Éric Alliez, Stewart Martin, David Cunningham, Ina Blom.
The book reflects the seminar, ISMS 1. which, organized by OCA, took place at the School of Architecture and Design in Oslo in April, 2006. The seminar addressed the complex and problematic relationships between artistic movements, political movements, and individual works. Specific focus was placed on current dilemmas facing art production, how it is for a work to function "critically" today, and how this relates to or, in fact, neglects politics.
The essays in Constructing the Political in Contemporary Art take a step back from the immediate institutional context of recent attempts to reconnect contemporary art to the politics of 1960s and 1970s, in order to reflect upon some of the theoretical issues at stake: the critical structure of the artwork as a site of a dialectic of individuality and collectivity (Peter Osborne), the power of its indexical or "documentary" aspects (Hito Steyerl and Marius Wulfsberg), its use-value as an archive of "intensive life" (Eric Alliez), its "seam with the economic" (David Cunningham), the limits of its "relational possibilities" (Stewart Martin), and its role in making visible the "immaterial" labour of "cognitive capitalism" (Ina Blom).
ISBN: 82-92495-08-8
ISSN: 1503-8467
189 pages
Price: NOK 100 / €12 + postage
The book can be ordered from info@oca.no.