Raphael Gygax – författare

Igor Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring was premiered in 1913 by Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes under the choreography of Vaslav Nijinsky, in the Théâtre des Champs Élysées in Paris. To this day it is considered the biggest theater scandal of the twentieth century. With its revolutionary score and choreography, The Rite of Spring can be seen as one of modernism's great breakthrough events, and it is the most choreographed ballet in the world. Addressing the ballet's context and history, this anthology includes a selection of archival documentation alongside contributions by artists and performers Eleanor Antin, Marc Bauer, Dara Friedman, Millicent Hodson and Kenneth Archer, Karen Kilimnik, Sara Masüger, Vaslav Nijinksy, Silke Otto-Knapp, Yvonne Rainer and Babette Mangolte, Lucy Stein, Alexis Marguerite Teplin, Julie Verhoeven and Mary Wigman, among others.

In his lifetime, "Xanti" (Alexander) Schawinsky (1904-79) was best known for his work in the theater department at the Bauhaus. Fleeing Germany before the beginning of the Second World War, he landed at Black Mountain College in North Carolina, where in the 1930s he developed his theory of the "Spectodrama." Involving multimedia productions examining elementary phenomena such as space, motion, light, sound or color from scientific, technical and performance-based perspectives, the Spectodrama represents an early form of the "happening." Beyond the avant-garde utopias of the Bauhaus and his proto-happening art, Schawinsky also worked as a painter and graphic designer.Protracted legal disputes over the artist's estate meant that Schawinsky's work was until recently almost inaccessible; Xanti Schawinsky is the first survey of Schawinsky's extraordinarily prolific output over the course of five decades, and a long-overdue resource on the work of this key figure.

Gathering works by Cory Arcangel, Alex Bag & Patterson Beckwith, Judith Bernstein, Vittorio Brodmann, Marvin Gaye Chetwynd, Simon Denny, Harun Farocki, Tabor Robak and many others, this publication brings together artists who use pop-culture formats and imagery usually addressed to children or teenagers. This adoption of such motifs should not be seen merely as a reference to (or appropriation of) popular culture: rather, it becomes an implicit (or explicit) critique of a kind of capitalist production of consumer worlds that have also infiltrated the field of art. These playful children's or fantasy worlds, with their pop aesthetic and inherent promise of "innocence," contrast with the reality of these neoliberal advertising and market strategies. The publication includes essays by critic Esther Buss, professor Alexander R. Galloway, and art historian and philosopher Hans Ulrich Reck, among others, as well as interviews with the artists.

The Korean artists Moon Kyungwon and Jeon Joonho (both born 1969) make work that addresses elemental questions concerning contemporary civilization in light of political, socioeconomic and ecological changes. The exhibition project News from Nowhere that they initiated jointly in 2012 is premised on a postapocalyptic scenario: humanity has been almost entirely wiped out and is forced to reconsider long-held convictions that may no longer be tenable. The project premiered at Documenta 13 and is designed as a steadily evolving ensemble. Moon and Jeon have established an interdisciplinary and participatory platform where renowned experts from the fields of product and fashion design, architecture, urban planning, and medical and biotechnology research discuss the urgent issues of our time with the audience. The thematic focus is on the constitution and construction of communities.This monographic publication accompanies an exhibition and delivers an in-depth exploration of Moon and Jeon’s project News from Nowhere. The book presents a comprehensive overview of the former exhibition stations in Kassel and Chicago alongside documentation of the project’s realization in Zurich. In addition the book contains discussions about the role and function of art in our contemporary world, ranging from cultural to economical questions.

This publication on the French-Bosnian artist Maja Bajevic accompanies her comprehensive exhibition at the Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst and focuses on her most recent bodies of works. Since the mid-1990s she has explored a wide variety of issues related to globalization and migration, inclusion and exclusion, exploitation, neoliberalism and the interactions between these notions. Bajevic also consistently investigates her own identity, and the meaning of “home” and what this constitutes. Her oeuvre is part of a tradition in art that deals with social and educational issues, that aims to shake up the prevailing social consciousness. In this respect, Bajevic’s approach is all-encompassing; for example, when she compiles an archive of political slogans, she focuses on the entire political spectrum.By bringing together the core of Bajevic’s oeuvre with specially commissioned essays by art historians and curators, this publication reflects on her main artistic strategies and themes, standing as a reference monograph covering the last ten years of her work. The book is divided into three chapters: “Power,” “Governance” and “Labor,” and includes essays by Barbara Biedermann, Manuel Borja-Villel, Boris Buden, Raphael Gygax, and Ana Janevski.Maja Bajevic (born 1967) lives and works in Paris and Sarajevo. In recent years her work has been shown in a number of solo exhibitions in European institutions, e.g. at Daad Galerie in Berlin (2012), Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid (2011), Kunsthaus Glarus (2009), and the National Gallery of Bosnia-Herzegovina in Sarajevo (2006). Bajevic has also been represented in group exhibitions, notably at the 56th Venice Biennale All the World's Futures (2015), the 4th Thessaloniki Biennale in Greece (2013), the Royal Academy of Arts in London (2010), and Zacheta National Gallery of Art in Warsaw (2010).

The appearance of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus and the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDS) in the early 1980s and its subsequent rapid spread around the world has left deep marks in society. The illness itself and its effects on society have also caused manifold responses by artists and activists in many countries.United by AIDS, published in conjunction with an extensive group show on the topic of loss, remembrance, activism and art in response to HIV/AIDS at Zurich's Migros Museum of Contemporary Art (Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst), sheds light on the multi-faceted and complex interrelation between art and HIV/AIDS from the 1980s to the present. It examines the blurred boundaries between art production and HIV/AIDS activism and showcases artists who played - and still play - leading roles in this discourse. Alongside images of artworks and brief texts on the represented artists, the book features voices from the past and present. Essays by Douglas Crimp, Alexander García Düttmann, Raphael Gygax, Elsa Himmer, Ted Kerr, Elisabeth Lebovici ,and Nurja Ritter broaden the view of the international discourse on HIV/AIDS and society's confrontation with the disease. Published to accompany an exhibition: 'United by AIDS - An Exhibition about Loss, Remembrance, Activism and Art in Response to HIV/AIDS' at the Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zurich from 31 August to 2 November 2019.