“There is no such thing as society,” Margaret Thatcher said in 1987. The dismantling of the welfare state, careerism, selfishness and lobby renovations. A rabid free-for-all for those with something; a big betrayal for those who would be left with nothing. It ushered in the political predicament we are still mired in today. But there was also a growing sense of community. In England workers took to the streets, in New York there were protests against the cynicism of the government's response to the
AIDS crisis. And for part of the art world, political collective engagement was more important than the market. This issue is about the 80s.
This issue is about the last great era of low self-esteem, about protest and survive, about 80s New York, London and Vienna, and a universe with no fixed beginning and more ends for ever night. With Liam Gillick, Bob Nickas, Gran Fury, Pippa Garner, Philippe Thomas,
Sarah Morris & Thaddaeus Ropac, Peter Pakesch, Tariq Goddard, Natasha Stagg, Mathieu Copeland, Helene Winer, Ella Plevin and many more.
