Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev – författare

The definitive overview and anthology of the artworks and writings associated with Arte Povera, the influential art movement that explored the relation between art and life, made manifest through natural materials and human artifacts, and experienced through the body

The first book to explore the fascinating career and fantasy-driven worlds created by the acclaimed Argentinean artistAdrián Villar Rojas's works concoct imaginary realms. Usually made from clay, his colossal installations are transitory and so cannot be collected, as they disappear or decay over time. His practice confronts the public with ideas of obsolescence and extinction, but also with the possibilities of humankind and its endless imagination. This is the first book to include all of Villar Rojas' most significant projects, featured in international biennials such as Venice, Documenta, Shanghai, and others.

Free-spirited, utterly unconventional and nondogmatic, Arte Povera radically transformed the language of contemporary artIn the mid-1960s, various Italian artists began to exhibit together under the banner “Arte Povera,” or “poor art,” a term invented in 1967 by the art critic and curator Germano Celant. The 13 principal artists associated with this movement—Giovanni Anselmo, Alighiero Boetti, Pier Paolo Calzolari, Luciano Fabro, Jannis Kounellis, Mario and Marisa Merz, Giulio Paolini, Pino Pascali, Giuseppe Penone, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Emilio Prini and Gilberto Zorio—were mainly interested in the intersections of art and life, of nature and culture. They expanded the fields of painting, sculpture, drawing and photography, and created the first “installations” in the history of art, as well as performance works and actions. Arte Povera retraces the history of this movement, from its birth in Italy to its spread across the world, through a large selection of major works by the 13 main protagonists.

In her Letter to a Friend, dOCUMENTA (13)''s artistic director Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev gives an insight into her working process, outlining some of the key issues around the 2012 exhibition. In shifting voices, such as storytelling, theoretical speculation, travel diary, press release, or critical reflection, she describes dOCUMENTA (13) as something more than an exhibition—for her it is a state of mind. It is a constellation of artistic acts and gestures that are already taking place as well as an exhibition that will open on June 6, 2012, and that will run for 100 days. Given the heterogeneity of the audience it addresses and the historical development of group exhibitions as "a non-commercial place to intensely aggregate," what can this exhibition be today? Opening the boundaries of disciplines and fields of knowledge and emphasizing the procedural questions, dOCUMENTA (13) is coming together by thinking through a number of composite entangled ontologies instead of following a defined curatorial concept. Language: German/English

Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev reflects on the historical as well as personal notion of destruction and art, as well as on the potential healing power that art can have. Guiding us through a web of etymological, historical, philosophical, personal, and art historical references, she takes the reader from Melanie Klein''s thinking about the dyadic relationship between mother and child and Walter Benjamin''s reflection on Klee''s Angelus Novus, to object studies starting with Man Ray''s metronomes, his Objects of Destruction, and Lee Miller''s photographs from the end of World War II, to Gustav Metzger''s "Manifesto of Auto-Destruction," to melted objects from the Beirut National Museum and the blown-up Bamiyan Buddhas, which are accompanied by Michael Petzet''s report of ICOMOS''s response to the destroyed monuments, followed by artworks by Michael Rakowitz and drawings with poems by Anna Boghiguian, in addition to a postscript by art historian Dario Gamboni on the destruction of art, the concept of "world heritage," and the legislation around it. For Christov-Bakargiev, "the sphere of art is poised on the edge of the private and of history, and becomes the location where one can experiment the possibilities of being on the edge of the anthropocentric, where the rubble lies."Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev (*1957) is Artistic Director of dOCUMENTA (13). Language: English/German

Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev reflektiert aus persönlicher wie historischer Sicht über Zerstörung und über Kunst sowie über die heilende Kraft, die Kunst potenziell haben kann. Sie führt uns durch eine Matrix von etymologischen, historischen, philosophischen, persönlichen und kunstgeschichtlichen Bezugspunkten und leitet den Leser von Melanie Kleins Gedanken über die dyadische Beziehung zwischen Mutter und Kind und Walter Benjamins Betrachtungen zu Klees Angelus Novus zu Objektstudien, beginnend bei Man Rays Metronomen, seinen Objects of Destruction, und Lee Millers Fotografien vom Ende des Zweiten Weltkrieges. Weiter geht es mit Gustav Metzgers "Auto-destructive Art"-Manifest, verbrannten Objekten aus dem Beirut National Museum und den gesprengten Buddhas von Bamiyan, denen der Bericht von Michael Petzet mit der Reaktion des ICOMOS auf die Zerstörung der Denkmäler folgt, zu Kunstwerken von Michael Rakowitz und Zeichnungen mit Gedichten von Anna Boghiguian. In einer Nachschrift widmet sich der Kunsthistoriker Dario Gamboni der Zerstörung von Kunstobjekten, dem Konzept des »Welterbes« sowie den rechtlichen Implikationen. Für Christov-Bakargiev ist »der Bereich der Kunst, der am Rand des Privaten und der Geschichte balanciert, zu einem Ort  geworden , an dem man mit Erfahrungen am Rand des Anthropozentrischen, wo die Trümmer liegen, experimentieren […] kann«.  Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev (*1957) ist künstlerische Leiterin der dOCUMENTA (13).   Sprache: Deutsch/Englisch

In ihrem »Brief an einen Freund« gibt die künstlerische Leiterin der dOCUMENTA (13), Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, einen Einblick in ihren Arbeitsprozess und umreißt dabei einige Schlüsselfragen der 2012 stattfindenden Ausstellung. In unterschiedlichen Stimmen – in Form von Geschichten, theoretischer Spekulation, Reisetagebuch, Pressemitteilung oder kritischer Reflexion – beschreibt sie die dOCUMENTA (13) als etwas, das über eine Ausstellung hinausgeht: Für sie ist es ein Geisteszustand. Es handelt sich sowohl um eine Konstellation aus künstlerischen Handlungen und Gesten, die bereits jetzt stattfinden, als auch um eine Ausstellung, die am 6. Juni 2010 eröffnen und für 100 Tage laufen wird. Was kann diese Ausstellung heute sein, angesichts der Heterogenität des von ihr angesprochenen Publikums und der historischen Entwicklung von Gruppenausstellungen zu »einem nichtkommerziellen Ort der intensiven Versammlung«? Mit der Öffnung der Grenzen zwischen den Disziplinen und Wissensfeldern und der Betonung von prozessualen Fragen entsteht die dOCUMENTA (13) aus einem Denken in miteinander verschränkten Ontologien anstatt aus der Verfolgung eines definierten kuratorischen Konzepts.     Sprache: Deutsch/Englisch

This expanded second edition of Reclaiming Artistic Research explores artistic research in dialogue with 24 artists worldwide, reclaiming it from academic associations of the term. Embracing artists'' dynamic engagement with other fields, it foregrounds the material, spatial, embodied, organizational, choreographic, and technological ways of knowing and unknowing specific to contemporary artistic inquiry. The second edition features a new text by the author and four new artist dialogues to reflect on the changing stakes of artistic research in the wake of the global pandemic, a widespread reckoning with social justice, the growing role of artificial intelligence, and the urgent reality of climate change.LUCY COTTER (*1973, Ireland) is a writer, curator, and artist. She was Curator of the Dutch Pavilion, 57th Venice Biennale, 2017, and Curator in Residence at Oregon Center for Contemporary Art 2021–22. The inaugural director of the Master Artistic Research, Royal Academy of Art, The Hague, Cotter has lectured internationally, most recently at Portland State University. She holds a project residency at Stelo Arts and Culture Foundation 2023-24.

This expanded second edition of Reclaiming Artistic Research explores artistic research in dialogue with 24 artists worldwide, reclaiming it from academic associations of the term. Embracing artists'' dynamic engagement with other fields, it foregrounds the material, spatial, embodied, organizational, choreographic, and technological ways of knowing and unknowing specific to contemporary artistic inquiry. The second edition features a new text by the author and four new artist dialogues to reflect on the changing stakes of artistic research in the wake of the global pandemic, a widespread reckoning with social justice, the growing role of artificial intelligence, and the urgent reality of climate change.LUCY COTTER (*1973, Ireland) is a writer, curator, and artist. She was Curator of the Dutch Pavilion, 57th Venice Biennale, 2017, and Curator in Residence at Oregon Center for Contemporary Art 2021–22. The inaugural director of the Master Artistic Research, Royal Academy of Art, The Hague, Cotter has lectured internationally, most recently at Portland State University. She holds a project residency at Stelo Arts and Culture Foundation 2023-24.

This catalogue raisonné of works by Italian artist Fabio Mauri (Rome, 1926–2009) is edited by Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev. Comprising an introductory essay by the author and images of over 3,600 works accompanied by extended captions, it constitutes the most comprehensive study of the artist’s oeuvre to date.One of the leading figures of the post-war Italian avant-garde, Mauri was a multifaceted figure—visual artist, writer, educator, publisher, and overall intellectual— whose work is distinguished by his prophetic insights into the power of the screen in contemporary society and his research into ideology, memory and manipulation.

By analysing the different colour theories that gradually took shape in the turbulent socio-political context that characterised the 20th century, Emotions of Color in Art reflects on a perspective that considers light, its vibrations and the world of emotions, while challenging the standardisation of the use of colour in the modern age (synthetic colours) and the digital era (RGB colours offered by various online palettes), a levelling that considerably reduces our ability to distinguish colours in the real world.