How did art escape the deadlock of the Situationists' anti-art refusal? Did the relational artists, with their repetitions of Situationist slogans and techniques, outline a sustainable, micro-political alternative to Guy Debord's dream of surpassing art and realizing philosophy? Looking back at some of the Situationists' confrontations with the museum, this book traces a path beyond the tragedy of negativity and the litany of recuperation. At the center is the concept of
play; originally adopted as the principle of reconciled life, it returns as the lever of instrumentalization. But in the extraterrestial wasteland of the present, spaces of ludic coexistence and experimentation may remain possible, provided that pessimism can be adequately organized.
Published with Moderna Museet, Stockholm, this book is part of “All the King's Horses” series, Stockholm, exploring the situationists, the last and most influential avant-garde movement of the European post-war era.
Curator, art critic and philosopher, director of the Städelschule in Frankfurt am Main and director of its
Portikus Gallery until 2010, currently director of the Moderna Museet in Stockholm, Daniel Birnbaum is is also a member of the board of the Institut für Sozialforschung. A contributing editor of
Artforum, he is the author of numerous texts on art and
philosophy.
Kim West is a Swedish independent writer and scholar.
Graphic design: Studio Christopher West.
published in March 2017
English edition
9,5 x 14,8 cm (softcover)
72 pages (14 b/w ill.)
ISBN : 978-3-95679-198-7
EAN : 9783956791987
sold out
