An examination of various forms of aesthetic practice seen through the lens of the neoliberal cultural revolution.
In this collection of essays, art historian and critic Sven Luütticken focuses on aesthetic practice in a rapidly expanding cultural sphere. He analyzes its transformation by the capitalist cultural revolution, whose reshaping of art's autonomy has wrought a field of afters and posts. In a present moment teeming with erosions—where even history and the human are called into question—
Cultural Revolution: Aesthetic Practice after Autonomy reconsiders these changing values, for relegating such notions safely to the past betrays their possibilities for potential today.
Luütticken discusses practices that range from Black Mask to Subversive Aktion, from Krautonomy to Occupy, from the Wet Dream Film Festival in the early 1970s to Jonas Staal's recently established New World Academy. Within these pages Scarlett Johansson meets Paul Chan, Walid Raad, and
Hito Steyerl, and Dr. Zira from
Planet of the Apes mingles with the likes of Paul Lafargue and Alexandre Kojève.
Art critic and historian, teacher at VU University, Amsterdam, Sven Lütticken contributes regularly to catalogues (
Citizens and Subjects: The Netherlands,
The Question of the Day,
De Rijke & De Rooij...) and art magazines such as
Artforum,
New Left Review,
Afterimage, and
Texte zur Kunst.
He is the
author of
Secret Publicity: Essays on Contemporary Art (NAi publishers,
Rotterdam, 2006) and the curator of
Life, Once More: Forms of Reenactment
in Contemporary Art (Witte de With, Rotterdam, 2005) and
The Art of
Iconoclasm (BAK, basis voor actuele kunst, Utrecht, 2009).
