BAK

new releases: Return of Religion Reader and Mona Vatamanu and Florin Tudor

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New Release:

The Return of Religion and Other Myths: A Critical Reader in Contemporary Art

The Return of Religion and Other Myths: A Critical Reader in Contemporary Art is the latest publication in BAK, basis voor actuele kunst’s Critical Reader Series and the final part of a three-fold project organized by BAK under same title, in which the popular assumption of the return of religion to the field of artistic practice and its discourses, the public sphere, contemporary politics, and media in the West is interrogated as a constitutive “myth” of our current condition. Through a wide-ranging selection of texts, a remarkable group of artists, art historians and theorists, scholars of religion, and sociologists unpack the historical underpinnings of religion’s so-called “return,” art’s long-standing relationship with iconoclasm and connection to religious representation, the manipulation of certain religious imagery in the mass media, and contemporary art’s potential to complicate and problematize commonly-held beliefs about the role and potential of the image in today’s world. The reader contains newly commissioned texts, a number of new translations, and adapted contributions from On Post-Secularism, a series of lectures and conversations that took place within the framework of The Return of Religion project in late 2008 and early 2009. With contributions by Jan Assmann, Christina von Braun, Paul Chan, Boris Groys & Maria Hlavajova, Arnoud Holleman, Marc de Kesel, Kenan Malik, Maria Pask, Dieter Roelstraete, and Jorinde Seijdel.

The Return of Religion and Other Myths: A Critical Reader in Contemporary Art

Edited by Maria Hlavajova, Sven Lütticken, and Jill Winder
Language: English

Published by: BAK, basis voor actuele kunst, Utrecht and post editions, Rotterdam
Design: Kummer & Herrman, Utrecht
Price: € 23

ISBN: 978-94-6083-007-5

Release date: mid-November 2009
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Mona Vatamanu and Florin Tudor

The first monograph on the work of Mona Vatamanu and Florin Tudor is published by BAK and post editions, Rotterdam on the occasion of the exhibition Surplus Value (06.09.–09.11.09). The publication provides the most comprehensive overview of Vatamanu and Tudor’s artistic production to date, including extensive images of their work since 2000 covering a range of media including film, photography, painting, performance, and site-specific projects. These images are put into dialogue with four major newly commissioned texts by Cosmin Costinas (writer and curator BAK, Utrecht), Vivian Rehberg (art historian and art critic, Paris), David Riff (art critic and artist, Moscow), and Georg Schoellhammer (curator and editor-in-chief of Springerin, Vienna). Each of these authors critically analyze and consider Vatamanu and Tudor’s work from diverse perspectives, all of which are grounded in certain modes of thinking about history and its relationship to contemporary art today. In addition, Bucharest-based independent curator and writer Mihnea Mircan’s in-depth interview with the artists sheds light on the genesis of the new projects developed especially for the Surplus Value exhibition at BAK. They also discuss Vatamanu and Tudor’s use of the city of Bucharest as raw material for many of their pieces, their views on the fledgling democratic sphere in Romania, and the problematic of value in the current state of globalized neoliberal capitalism.

Editors: Cosmin Costinas, Jill Winder

Managing Editor: Jill Winder

Texts: Cosmin Costinas, Maria Hlavajova, Mihnea Mircan, Vivian Rehberg, David Riff, Georg Schoellhammer

Language: English

Number of pages: 112

Design: Kummer & Herrman, Utrecht

Published by: BAK, basis voor actuele kunst, Utrecht & post editions, Rotterdam

ISBN: 978-94-6083-003-7

Price: €25
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Sanja Iveković Urgent Matters

This handbook with images and text accompanies the exhibition of Sanja Iveković, Urgent Matters, a two-part solo exhibition on view at BAK, basis voor actuele kunst, Utrecht and the Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven. The handbook includes a foreword by Charles Esche and Maria Hlavajova, a text by exhibition curator Maria Hlavajova, images and descriptions of the works in the exhibition, as well as a biography and bibliography of the artist.

Concept and editor: Maria Hlavajova
Texts: Charles Esche and Maria Hlavajova

Language: Dutch and English

Number of pages: 83

Design: Kummer & Herrman, Utrecht

ISBN: 978-90-77288-14-6 (paperback)

Price: €5

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The Return of Religion and Other Myths

This handbook is part of The Return of Religion and Other Myths, a large-scale multifaceted project, consisting of the exhibition The Art of Iconoclasm curated by Sven Lütticken, a discourse program taking place in early 2009 titled On Post-Secularism, and the publication of a BAK Critical Reader on the subject in 2009. The project explores the popular assumption of the return of religion to the public sphere, contemporary politics, and the media in the West as a constitutive “myth.” The handbook contains texts by Maria Hlavajova and Sven Lütticken as well as images, descriptions of works, and biographies for participating artists Carl Andre, Carel Blotkamp, Guy Debord/Jean-Léon Gérôme, Rod Dickinson & Tom McCarthy, Hans Haacke, Arnoud Holleman, Imi Knoebel, Gert Jan Kocken, Krijn de Koning, Willem Oorebeek, Natascha Sadr Haghighian, Haim Steinbach, Rosemarie Trockel, and Lidwien van de Ven. Also included is an overview of the lectures that took place within the framework of On Post-Secularism.

Concept and editor: Maria Hlavajova

Texts: Maria Hlavajova, Sven Lütticken, Marlies van Hak, and Jill Winder
Language: Dutch and English

Number of pages: 95

Design: Kummer & Herrman, Utrecht

ISBN: 978-90-77288-15-3 (paperback)

Price: €5

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On Knowledge Production: A Critical Reader in Contemporary Art

On Knowledge Production: A Critical Reader in Contemporary Art, edited by Maria Hlavajova, Jill Winder, and Binna Choi, presents a selection of newly commissioned and anthologized texts by a diverse group of artists, art historians, philosophers, and theorists who have engaged with thinking critically about the field of art as a site for the production of knowledge. The body of contributions to this reader comprise a series of critical inquires, thought experiments, documents of practice, and tentative propositions about the status of producing knowledge in contemporary art, which vary widely in perspective, approach, and form. This selection unfolds different entry points and layers, unwrapping the (often) uncritically adopted notion of “art producing knowledge” and casting diverse views on the context, meaning, and potential of this understanding of art practices today. With contributions by: Matthew Buckingham, Copenhagen Free University, Critical Art Ensemble, Clémentine Deliss, Joachim Koester, Sven Lütticken, Eva Meyer & Eran Schaerf, Marion von Osten, Alejandro del Pino Velasco/Sarat Maharaj, Irit Rogoff, Natascha Sadr Haghighian & Ashley Hunt, and Simon Sheikh.

Edited by Maria Hlavajova, Jill Winder, and Binna Choi
Language: English
Number of pages: 223
Number of images: 28 (b & w)
Published by: BAK, basis voor actuele kunst and Revolver, Archiv für aktuelle Kunst (Utrecht/Frankfurt am Main)
Design: Kummer & Herrman, Utrecht
ISBN (BAK): 978-90-77288-11-5
ISBN (Revolver): 978-3-86588-466-4
Price € 20
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