- American video and installation artist Doug Aitken (b.1968) exploded onto the International art scene with his multi-screen work electric earth at the Venice and Whitney biennials in 1999 - His videos"--dream-like sequences rearrange the linear flow of narrative into a series of unforgettable, disjointed photographic tableaux - Altken's work creates unexpected yet beautiful imagery that encircles the viewer and creates a suspended, hyper-real portrait of contemporary life

Doug Aitken (Phaidon Contemporary Artists Series)

Arts & Photography

Jörg Heiser

Daniel Birnbaum

Amanda Sharp

Individual Artists

Phaidon Press

According to author Kobena Mercer, "Odenbach's video art insists upon an attitude of openness towards uncertainty about the world. In this respect, his art criss-crosses the structural hybridization of video-based conceptualism with reflection on the lived experience of globalization." Since the mid-1970s, Marcel Odenbach has produced an extensive body of tapes, performances, drawings and installations, and has gained international recognition as one of Germany's most important artists working in video. His works engage in a provocative discourse on the construction of the "self" in relation to historical and cultural representation. Using excerpts from films and newsreels, along with his own footage, the artist explores the ways images of the past shape our perception of the present. With its comprehensive illustrations and essays, including a text by the artist, this book features Odenbach's most important works. Contributors Dan Cameron, J rg Heiser, Kobena Mercer, Vanessa Joan M ller, Marcel Odenbach, Astrid Wege

Marcel Odenbach: Blenden-Blinds (English and German Edition)

Dan Cameron

Marcel Odenbach

Lukas & Sternberg

Since the mid-nineties, contemporary art has been booming like never before. There is more of everything―more artists, more collectors, more galleries, more art fairs, more museums, more biennials, more interest, more industry, more pop, more hype. Some art professionals feel prompted by all this to reach for the revolvers of cultural pessimism: Mass Stupidity Is Killing Great Art! Others―often the same people a short while later―defect with all the greater abandon to the alleged enemy. The entrenched battle between defenders of art's autonomy and champions of its merging with entertainment culture continues. There is more of everything, with one exception: criteria. Criteria with which the art of the moment can be understood, judged, praised and, if need be, damned―without getting bogged down in this eternal trench warfare. 
In All of a Sudden: Things that Matter in Contemporary Art, Jörg Heiser provides a sharp summary of contemporary art since Marcel Duchamp. Using many artworks as example, the author shows that art is more than just a randomly chosen cultural field of activity in which to acquire a little specialist knowledge to show off with. “When it's good,” he claims, “art hits where it hurts, striking at the heart of an ossified status quo by which it itself was brought forth. Perhaps this is something art since Modernism has in common with slapstick. Instead of just aiming to shock and outrage, it shows authority losing its grip. Instead of inflating itself, it deflates the pompous in the name of art.” 
The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung finds the book “astonishingly enlightening.” The Frankfurter Rundschau praises Heiser for finally opening the eyes of his readers―something many of his colleagues have been unable to do. 
Jörg Heiser (*1968) lives in Berlin. He is co-editor of frieze magazine, writes for the national daily Süddeutsche Zeitung, and is a frequent contributor to art catalogues and publications. He curated the exhibitions “Romantic Conceptualism” (2007, Kunsthalle Nürnberg, BAWAG Foundation Vienna) and “Funky Lessons” (2004/2005, BüroFriedrich Berlin, BAWAG Foundation Vienna).

All of a Sudden: Things That Matter in Contemporary Art

History & Criticism

Sternberg Press

Moscow Symposium: Conceptualism Revisited (Sternberg Press / E-Flux Journal)

Terry Smith

sarah-wilson

Keti Chukhrov

Anton Vidokle

Claire Bishop

Ekaterina Degot

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Books by Jörg Heiser