Up to twenty years ago, galleries and museum, art magazines and schools had no websites; viewing a show would mean, quite simply, visiting it. A great number of seminal shows—from small but consequential artists' debuts in private galleries, to the innovative biennial iterations in new territories and continents, to thematic and now historicized institutional exhibitions—were richly studied, avidly discussed, but poorly photographed, if at all. This issue is an album of recommendations, for which we are very grateful to all the writers, artists, curators, dealers, and friends who accepted to share with us their favorite shows.
Additionally, this is the last installment of THE ARTIST AS CURATOR, a serial publication examining the fundamental role artists have played as curators, from the postwar period to the present, edited by Elena Filipovic, that appeared as a special insert in Mousse over the past two years. In this issue, Natalie Musteate discusses Womanhouse (1972) by
Judy Chicago, Miriam Schapiro, and the CalArts Feminist Art Program, while Ekaterina Degot addresses Avdey Ter-Oganyan's Toward the Object, from 1992. This installment is realized in partnership with the
Centre d'Art Contemporain Genève and Museo Marino Marini, Florence.
Mousse is a bimonthly contemporary art magazine. Established in 2006,
Mousse contains interviews, conversations, and essays by some of the most important figures in international criticism, visual arts, and curating today, alternated with a series of distinctive articles in a unique tabloid format.
Mousse (Mousse Publishing) also publishes numerous catalogues, essays and curatorial projects, artist books and editions (see the corresponding
publisher's page).