Between the Material and the Possible
Bassam El Baroni
Sternberg Press
Softcover
280 pages
150 x 230 mm
2022
ISBN 9783956796005
Over the past decade, a growing number of artists, theorists, curators, and researchers have moved from institutional critique to infrastructural critique, or infrastructural speculation, in which they explore the potential of creative visions and scenarios. In attempts to counter various impasses, art has immersed itself in systemic critiques and propositional thinking, addressing major challenges such as the rampant financialisation of the economy and runaway climate change.
From questions around space settlements to the possibility of repurposing blockchain and financial instruments for redistributive purposes, from the diagrammatic potential of infrastructural thinking in artistic practices to scenario planning and economic strategising, this collection of new essays brings together critical analysis from a broad group of contributors. Their interrogations span local and global relationalities, historical and political legacies, as well as future-oriented infrastructural hypotheses.
(source: https://www.thelibraryproject.ie/collections/critical-theory/products/between-the-material-and-the-possible-bassam-el-baroni-ed)
About the Author
Bassam El Baroni is Assistant Professor in Curating and Mediating art at the School of Arts, Design and Architecture, Aalto University, Helsinki, Finland. He was founding director of the Alexandria Contemporary Arts Forum (ACAF) a now closed non-profit art center in Alexandria, Egypt from 2005 – 2012 and co-curator of the 8th edition of Manifesta – the European Biennial of Contemporary Art – in Murcia, Spain, 2010. Other notable projects include curating the 36th edition of Eva International – Ireland’s Biennial, Limerick, 2014 and ‘What Hope Looks like after Hope (On Constructive Alienation)’ at HOME WORKS 7, Beirut, 2015.
(source: https://dutchartinstitute.eu/page/4451/bassam-el-baroni)
About the Publisher
Sternberg Press grew out of the small publishing house known as Lukas & Sternberg, founded in 1999 by Caroline Schneider. With a focus on art criticism, theory, fiction, and artists’ books, the Berlin-New York based publishing endeavor was set in motion with a pocket book series—edited in part with Nicolaus Schafhausen. Dedicated to an expanded notion of writing on art, Sternberg Press has created a formidable platform in which practitioners from the fields of art and culture (architecture, design, film, politics, literature, and philosophy) can engage in a critical discourse. Each book is a special object celebrating creative publishing at its best, based on both meticulous editorial decisions and distinctive design. Through both commissioned and translated works, Sternberg Press seeks out the blind spots within contemporary discourse and offers a timely response to the related debates.
sternberg-press.com
(source: https://www.sternberg-press.com/about/)
