Texte zur Kunst no. 94: Superflex

Texte zur Kunst no. 94 contains my (slightly belated) review of Superflex's retrospective at Kunsthal Charlottenburg.

Mono

The books to which I recently contributed more or less monographic essays on Hito Steyerl and Paul Chan could hardly be more different. Too Much World, edited by Nick Aikens, is a handy and afforbable pocket  - the format of which is based on the current aspect ratio of  wide-screen television and video. Accompanying Hito's brilliant show at the Van Abbemuseum, this book is probably the best publication on her work to date - though it is unfortunately marred by the kind of copy-editing bloopers that come with a crazy production schedule. I contributed the essay "Postcinematic Essays After the Future."

Hito's book is lean and light, and seems perfectly adapted to today's mobile reader; it is the paper book rebooted for the age of the tablet. Paul Chan's behemoth, the New New Testament, seemingly goes in the other direction. It is one of three (!) books to be published in conjunction with his exhibition at Schaulager in Basel. The New New Testament collects the (almost) complete series of Volumes Paintings, each one accompanied by a short scrambled text. This publication's monumentality should not be seen as merely symptomatic or regressive; rather, it is part of Chan's extended exploration of the contemporary contradictions of the book, of publishing, and of writing. This is the focus of my short essay "Paul Chan's Book Club," which is the condensed version of a longer text that will hopefully see the light of day someday.

In other monographic news, I just wrote an essay for the book on Eran Schaerf's 2012-2013 series of fm-scenario exhibitions, which is to be published later this year by Walther Koenig. (The fm-scenario online platform is here.) It was good to finally write at somewhat greater length (and, hopefully, in greater depth) on Eran's practice, which so far has not received the critical and theoretical attention it deserves.

Furthermore, the essay I wrote some time ago on Louise Lawler's A Movie Will be Shown Without the Picture will also see the light of day later this year, in a publication on this project dedicated to the project produced by If I Can't Dance, I Don't Want to Be Part of the Revolution. There are, of course, other texts in the works, non-monographic in nature, but those I'll let sneak up on you when they're ready.