Parkett Vol. 88 - 2011 | Kerstin Brätsch, Paul Chan, Sturtevant, Andro Wekua

Editorial

One might say that the current cover of Parkett flaunts vitality—but of what kind? What is intended? On one hand, movement, pulsating activity, the inability to hang on, and the impact of coming to a sudden halt; on the other, counterfeit movement and hyperactivity: these all play a crucial role in the work of the artists presented in this issue.

Kerstin Brätsch—it is her work, done in collaboration with Adele Röder, that is seen on the cover—produces pictures and products that mimic the excitement and colorful excesses of consumerism and yet clearly take their cue from art history, while Sturtevant, our second collaboration artist, declares that “My pieces reflect our CyberWorld of excess, of fetters, transgression, and dilapidation.

In his cycle THE 7 LIGHTS, Paul Chan shows the things of this world gently floating overhead, which leads Boris Groys to draw an illuminating conclusion: he contrasts their vertical escape with the horizontal movement of progress in the history of humankind.

The main protagonist in Andro Wekua’s universe is memory; it is aglow in colors all its own. But the poisonous, cloying presence of an irrevocable past is rudely arrested—between dream and trauma, repulsion and longing. Speaking about Wekua’s recent work, Douglas Fogle trenchantly notes that “what’s unveiled is a crime scene of sorts” like “an empty stage where everybody is waiting for something to happen.”

In her insert, Silke Otto-Knapp literally “parades” movement. The same motive of a group of dancers, its repetition underscored by minimal modifications in color, is multiplied and paradoxically generates motion.


Table of Content

Chatter About Art is Almost Always Useless by Suzan Frecon & Macella Durand

Kerstin Brätsch
Notes on Abstraction by Massimiliano Gioni
Alluring Appearance, Complex Core by Beatrix Ruf
See Reverse for Care by Fionn Meade

Paul Chan
Liberation in the Loop, Paul Chan: The 7 Lights by Boris Groys
Essentially Alien: Notes from Outside Paul Chan’s Godot by Carrie Lambert-Beatty
Remember the Bourgeoisie? by Paul Chan
The Body Inscribed: Paul Chan’s Sade Project by Alan Gilbert

Sturtevant
The Power of Art by Stéphanie Moisdon
Recreated Reaction Recreate by Paul McCarthy
Elan: The Joy of Sturtevant’s Spinoza by Roger Cook

Andro Wekua
Homesickness is Where the Heart is by Douglas Fogle
It Defies Common Sense in Spectacular Style, Aston Marin Lagonda by Daniel Baumann
Nothing and Everything at Once by Negar Azimi

Silke Otto-Knapp, Insert

Staging an Opera of Knowledge by Herbert Lachmayer & Jacqueline Burckhardt

Reflections, Action, and Production in the Zentrum Paul Klee’s Summer Academy by Juri Steiner