Diedrich Diederichsen – författare

The first-ever monograph on Reynaud-Dewar, one of today’s most celebrated multimedia artistsFrench artist Lili Reynaud-Dewar creates environments and situations in which she uses her own body to examine the dual experience of vulnerability and empowerment that results from acts of exposing oneself to the world. Evolving through a range of media such as performance, video, installation, sound, and literature, her work considers the fluid border between public and private space, challenging conventions related to the body, sexuality, power relations, and institutional spaces. This is the first book to document her remarkable career.

In this short book, the leading German cultural critic Diedrich Diederichsen puts forward a fresh and original account of pop music. He argues that pop music is not so much a form of music as a constellation of different media channels, social spaces and behavioural systems, of which music is only a part. Its own logic of attraction is based less on compositions and the expression of subjectivity and more on indexicality, real or pseudo-involuntary effects as recorded by sound technologies, and on studio discipline and staging, and hence on performance.By elaborating his innovative account of pop music as a constellation, Diederichsen develops a theory that distinguishes itself from sociology, cultural studies, media studies and ethnography, while at the same time drawing on and encompassing them all.

In this short book, the leading German cultural critic Diedrich Diederichsen puts forward a fresh and original account of pop music. He argues that pop music is not so much a form of music as a constellation of different media channels, social spaces and behavioural systems, of which music is only a part. Its own logic of attraction is based less on compositions and the expression of subjectivity and more on indexicality, real or pseudo-involuntary effects as recorded by sound technologies, and on studio discipline and staging, and hence on performance.By elaborating his innovative account of pop music as a constellation, Diederichsen develops a theory that distinguishes itself from sociology, cultural studies, media studies and ethnography, while at the same time drawing on and encompassing them all.

In this short book, the leading German cultural critic Diedrich Diederichsen puts forward a fresh and original account of pop music. He argues that pop music is not so much a form of music as a constellation of different media channels, social spaces and behavioural systems, of which music is only a part. Its own logic of attraction is based less on compositions and the expression of subjectivity and more on indexicality, real or pseudo-involuntary effects as recorded by sound technologies, and on studio discipline and staging, and hence on performance.

By elaborating his innovative account of pop music as a constellation, Diederichsen develops a theory that distinguishes itself from sociology, cultural studies, media studies and ethnography, while at the same time drawing on and encompassing them all.

In the words of Peter Schjeldahl, writing in The New Yorker about the exhibition No Problem: Cologne/New York 1984–1989 at David Zwirner in New York, “the show’s cast of artists amounts to a retrospective shopping list of what would matter and endure in art of the era.”With an eye to canonizing that moment, this seminal publication examines the latter half of the 1980s through the lens of international art scenes that were based in Cologne—arguably the European center of the contemporary art world at that time—and New York.While a number of established Cologne-based gallerists, including Karsten Greve, Paul Maenz, Rolf Ricke, Michael Werner, and Rudolf Zwirner, had already begun shaping the European reception of American art in the previous decade, the 1980s marked a period during which art being produced in and around Cologne gained international attention. A burgeoning gallery scene supported the emerging work of artists based in the region, with gallerists such as Gisela Capitain, Rafael Jablonka, Max Hetzler, and Monika Sprüth showing artists such as Walter Dahn, Martin Kippenberger, Albert Oehlen, Rosemarie Trockel, and others. The works of these German artists were exhibited along with the latest contemporary art from the US by artists like Robert Gober, Jeff Koons, Richard Prince, Cindy Sherman, and Christopher Wool. Conversely, the works of German artists were presented in New York, with breakout exhibitions at galleries such as Barbara Gladstone, Metro Pictures, Luhring, Augustine & Hodes, and other significant venues. Important museum exhibitions that explored work being produced and exhibited on both sides of the Atlantic also set the tone for this ongoing dialogue, among them Europa / Amerika (Museum Ludwig, Cologne, 1986) and A Distanced View: One Aspect of Recent Art from Belgium, France, Germany, and Holland (New Museum, New York, 1986).Big, bold, and vibrant, this Pentagram-designed publication revives the conversation, reproducing in full color over one hundred immensely varied artworks by the twenty-two international artists included in this massive exhibition—one of the largest in David Zwirner’s history. Beyond its stunning visual components, the book features crucial new scholarship by Diedrich Diederichsen and Bob Nickas, and an illustrated chronology of the decade by Kara Carmack. The book also includes an arsenal of compelling archival material, from documentary photographs from the period to reproductions of Cologne’s culture magazine Spex. Taken as a whole, this ambitious exhibition catalogue encapsulates the energy, heart, and “dissonance of styles”—in the words of Schjeldahl—embodied by this fascinating and fecund moment in global art history.Artists featured in the book include Werner Büttner, George Condo, Walter Dahn, Jiri Georg Dokoupil, Peter Fischli/David Weiss, Günther Förg, Robert Gober, Georg Herold, Jenny Holzer, Mike Kelley, Martin Kippenberger, Jeff Koons, Barbara Kruger, Sherrie Levine, Albert Oehlen, Raymond Pettibon, Richard Prince, Cindy Sherman, Rosemarie Trockel, Franz West, and Christopher Wool.

Diedrich Diederichsen über Pop-Musik: das Opus magnumGanze Generationskohorten von Pop-Fans hat er angeregt und aufgestört: Diedrich Diederichsen. Nun erscheint mit Über Pop-Musik das Ergebnis seines lebenslangen Nachdenkens über Pop.Über Pop-Musik ist ein kluges, ein kontroverses Buch, dessen Thesen ganze Gebäude eilig zusammengezimmerter Übereinkünfte zum Einsturz bringen werden. Pop-Musik, sagt Diederichsen, ist gar keine Musik. Musik ist bloß der Hintergrund für die viel tiefer liegenden, viel weiter ausstrahlenden Signale des Pop. Pop ist ein Hybrid aus Vorstellungen, Wünschen, Versprechungen. Er ist ein Feld für Posen und Pakte, für Totems und Tabubrüche. Der Autor bezieht seine Argumente aus Semiotik und Soziologie ebenso wie aus der Geschichte und Gegenwart der Pop-Kultur und aus den angrenzenden Gebieten Jazz, Kino, Oper. Es dürfte das erste Buch sein, das der ganzen Vielgestaltigkeit des Phänomens Rechnung trägt, und das einzige, in dem gleichzeitig Theodor W. Adorno und Congo Ashanti Roy auftreten. Und es ist ein sehr persönliches Buch. Diederichsen greift immer wieder auf die eigenen Erfahrungen zurück, sein Initiationserlebnis war ausgerechnet ein Konzert des bleichen Bluesrockers Johnny Winter. Was er über dessen Auftritt schreibt, gilt für viele, die nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg aufgewachsen sind: Pop hat »eingelöst, was wir alle immer schon geahnt hatten, aber als Kinder nie ganz genau wussten: dass es etwas gibt. Nicht, wovon Winter heulte, war wichtig, sondern dass in komischen Geräuschen ein Weg zur Welt war.«

Kaum war das 21. Jahrhundert angebrochen, wartete es auch schon mit neuen Schrecken, Idiotien und gelegentlichen Glücksmomenten auf. Zu den wenigen, die es noch wagen, in diesem von den Medien verdickten und beschleunigten Wirrwarr Zusammenhänge herzustellen und dabei an einem anspruchsvollen Begriff von Kritik festzuhalten, gehört Diedrich Diederichsen.In dieser Wundertüte von einem Reader mit Aufsätzen und Kommentaren, wenn auch erst aus den ersten dreiundzwanzig Jahren des Jahrhunderts, zeigt er sein stupendes Wissen über sämtliche Trends in Kunst, Kino, Fernsehen, Literatur, Musik, Theater, Theorie und Politik, das bis in die feinsten Verästelungen der Gegenkultur reicht. Er ist in der Lage, aus Erkenntnistheorie ebenso Funken zu schlagen wie aus den »Simpsons«, den Inszenierungen von René Pollesch oder Serien wie »Underground Railroad«. Vor allem vermag er es wie kein anderer, das eine mit dem anderen zu verknüpfen und von Theodor W. Adorno zur Familie Duck oder von einer Hamburger Baustelle zu einer feministischen Kunstinstallation (und zurück) zu springen. Was Zeitgenossenschaft bedeuten kann, ist seit Walter Benjamin nicht mehr so eindrucksvoll unter Beweis gestellt worden.

Auf der Suche nach dem Verhältnis von Pop-Musik und Religion entwickelt der Kulturwissenschaftler und Journalist Diedrich Diederichsen die These, dass das religiös-ekstatische Potenzial der Pop-Musik darin liege, die Distanz von Intimsphäre und öffentlicher Sichtbarkeit überwinden zu können. Die Rezeption von Pop-Musik lebe davon, dass Bilder, körperliche Erfahrung und musikalische Praxis durch die technische Visibilisierung und ständige Wiederholung zu so etwas wie Offenbarungserfahrungen führten. Die technische Aufzeichnung erweist sich so als Träger religiöser Erfahrung.

The story of ELASTE is the story of a movement – that of the New Wave generation in West Germany. Founded in 1980 in Hanover, the magazine was a beacon of cultural revolt and the first glossy indie magazine of the Federal Republic: self-published, a statement somewhere between pop avant-garde, subversion, and a sharp sense of style. Among those who shaped the look and spirit of the magazine were Jon Savage, Ellen von Unwerth, and Diedrich Diederichsen.No other magazine operated at the intersection of music, fashion, and society quite like ELASTE - with headliners such as Warhol, The Rolling Stones, and Kraftwerk. This book by the magazine’s editors Thomas Elsner and Michael Reinboth, looks back - at the pioneering spirit, the minds, and the stories behind the magazine.