Research Catalog

Title

Traction : an applied and polemical attempt to locate contemporary art / Tirdad Zolghadr ; editor: Matthew Poole.

Author

Zolghadr, Tirdad

Publication

• Berlin : Sternberg Press, [2016]
• ©2016

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

Poole, Matthew

Description

263 pages : illustrations (chiefly color); 21 cm

Summary

Traction argues that contemporary art is defined by a moral economy of indeterminacy that allows curators and artists to imagine themselves on the other side of power. This self-positioning, in turn, leaves us politically bankrupt, intellectually stagnant, and aesthetically predictable. In his memoir-polemic, curator and writer Tirdad Zolghadr candidly reflects on his own experiences and the work of others. He also drafts possibilities for a logic and a support structure that can offer some purchase of their own, beyond the gravitational pull of business as usual. Ultimately, Traction calls for a renewed sense of profession, somewhere within the corridors of power where, for better or worse, contemporary art has long arrived.

Subject

• 2000-2099
• Curatorship
• Art, Modern > 21st century
• Art, Modern
• preservation (function)
• conservation (discipline)
• curating
• preserving
• conservation (process)
• Kunst

Note

• "Parts of this book are heavily reworked, expanded versions of essays previously published, over the years, in..."--Colophon.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references.

Contents

Preamble Such is monarchy -- The working example of the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art -- 1 A moral economy -- Looking forward -- Chapter overview -- Caveat on curatorial writing -- Working example: curatorial discourse -- 2 Statecraft -- Working example: human rights -- Beyond show and tell: tear catchers -- The post-critical era -- 3 The effect on artists -- The benefit of clergy -- Artist talk -- Five unsolicited suggestions -- 4 Transparency -- On being irrelevant and/or naive -- On being partisan and/or didactic (Feel the fear. Do it anyway) -- Doing laundry in public -- Working example : "The human snapshot" -- 5 Working examples: Three biennials -- The 7th Sharjah Biennial -- The 2010 Taipei Biennial -- The 5th Riwaq Biennale, Palestine -- 6 Location, location, location -- Working example: ethnic marketing -- Refugee camps of the mind -- Spite specificity -- Boycotts -- 7 Elite formation: two takes -- A middle-class sense of entitlement (Beverly Skeggs) -- Less access is more access (Hans Abbing) -- 8 Bodies in space: plotting the exhibition experience -- Note 1: solo solo (a moratorium on thematic group shows) -- Note 2: period rooms on mute -- Note 3: Territorialization -- Note 4: Game plans and muscle memory -- Note 5: Link rot (documentation decelerated) -- Working example: "Monogamy" -- Working example: "It's not you, it's me," the 1st UAE Pavilion, 53rd Venice Biennale -- 9 Schooling -- Working example: student shows -- Working example: unitednationsplaza -- The presumptuous schoolmaster -- Disruption -- Mission statements -- 10 Conclusion -- Denon -- Realism -- Really-ism.

ISBN

• 9783956792038
• 3956792033

LCCN

9783956792038

OCLC

• ocn959227174
• 959227174
• SCSB-1875887

Owning Institutions

Princeton University Library