David Riff – författare

Mikhail Lifshitz is a major forgotten figure in the tradition of Marxist philosophy and art history. A significant influence on Lukács, and the dedicatee of his The Young Hegel, as well as an unsurpassed scholar of Marx and Engels’s writings on art and a lifelong controversialist, Lifshitz’s work dealt with topics as various as the philosophy of Marx and the pop aesthetics of Andy Warhol. The Crisis of Ugliness (originally published in Russian by Iskusstvo, 1968), published here in English for the first time, presented with a detailed introduction by its translator David Riff, is a compact broadside against modernism in the visual arts that resists the dogmatic complacencies of Stalinist aesthetics. Its reentry into English debates on the history of Soviet aesthetics promises to re-orient our sense of the basic coordinates of a Marxist art theory.

Steirischer herbst ’24 explored nationalism, identity, and origins through exhibitions, performances, and essays, exposing the fictions and horrors of fatherland narratives. At a time of resurgent nationalism, steirischer herbst ’24 raised questions about nations, identities, and origins, playfully shedding light on fatherland narratives as well as the horrors that (re)emerge from these fictions. This richly illustrated publication showcases the festival’s central exhibition, which transformed Neue Galerie Graz into an imaginary museum of national complexes and dark fantasies. It also documents the other projects of the 57th edition—including performances and cabaret shows—and features essays on the subjects broached.

Horror Patriae, the 2024 edition of steirischer herbst, tackled nostalgic and imaginary constructions of nationhood, juxtaposing them with neglected and silenced stories of strange encounters, hybrids, and happy miscegenation Nationalism has made a spectacular comeback, with tribalism, particularism, and local pride embraced across the political spectrum. As the post–Cold War order erodes, the nation appears as a refuge, yet it remains an illusory one, an “imagined community,” as Benedict Anderson put it. Combining essays and conversations, the festival's reader further examines the new nationalisms and how to resist them.

Inspired by Ernst Toller's prophetic satire Nie wieder Friede! (1936), steirischer herbst '25 confronted the rise (and return) of authoritarianism and the never-ending wars in the world. Recalling its antifascist roots, the festival's fifty-eighth edition invited artists to respond to a present in which the lessons of World War II appear to have been forgotten, if not perverted. This richly illustrated publication showcases the central exhibition in an abandoned industrial site in the city of Graz. It also documents the other projects of Never Again Peace-including performances and cabaret shows-and features essays on the subjects broached.