Man Is The Media.
In over my head: Guattari, Beck, Ferro-Thomsen et al
September 5th, 2007 by Martin
One of my semi-academic articles has just been reprinted and translated in a theoretical reader, ‘Art-E-Conomy’, edited by a fine man, Marko Stamenkovic (based in Belgrade). With the subtitle ‘Transitional economics and art: Theory and practice of contemporary global production’ the reader seeks to:
” [...] open up a new productive space for artistic and cultural analysis related to the economic transformation in the post-socialists societies, to foster the theoretical and methodological re-thinking of the subject at hand [...] with various current theoretical viewpoints dealing with the intersection between contemporary visual arts and economics.”
This is all very admirable and needed and it seems a great book that I will have to dive into later. What scares me a bit, though, is that among the 30 writers, names such as Felix Guattari and Ulrich Beck appear (making it obvious that someone out there will expose me as the dilettante I really am).
My contribution is basically a briefly edited version of ‘Change Through Exchange: Organisational Art and Learning‘ or as we say in Serbian: “PROMENA PUTEM RAZMENE: Organizaciona umetnost i učenje”. The reader, which is English, French, German, and Croatian has been translated to Serbian for local use (as I understand it, at least my text has). Ask me for a copy.
I haven’t found much info on where to buy this fine book, but ISBN is 978-86-910467-0-5 and below is the press release pitch along with a list of authors. Will post an update when I find a link:
Why is it important to think about economy in relation to art? Why is it important to think about the transitional economy in relation to the (post-) socialist (eastern) european art? Is it possible to talk about the ways in which contemporary art represents economic processes, and (if the answer is positive) what kind of meaning this artistic discourse brings to light? How this art can be read and how this discourse can be interpreted as a source of knowledge about contemporary economy? Is it possible to offer an alternative for the one-sided, neo-liberal discourse in the world of economics and in the media, through analyses of economic mechanisms in the contemporary art projects and art-works? How is post-socialism positioned with regard to contemporary global capitalism?Contributors:
Felix Guattari, Ulrich Beck, Tatjana Djuric Kuzmanovic, Arun Kumar (Angelika Fitz & Michael Worgotter), Nick Dyer-Witheford, Marion von Osten, Brett Neilson & Ned Rossiter, Jacek Tomkiewicz, Kiss Endre, Sanjin Dragojevic, Jim McGuigan, Sandra Braman, Wolfgang Ullrich, Saskia Sassen, Julian Stallabrass, Martin Ferro-Thomsen, Julie Vandenbroucke & Michel Espeel, Elena Filipovic, Nina Montmann, Pier Luigi Sacco & Marco Senaldi, Zarko Paic, Marina Grzinic, Susanne Altmann, Walter Seidl, Suzana Milevska, Marina Sorbello, Doris Rothauer
