Ekaterina Degot Bücher

The current economic situation and society’s low confidence in its institutions demands that artists become more imaginative in their self-organization. If labels such as ‘alternative,’ ‘non-profit’ and ‘artist-run’ dominated the self-organized art scene of the late nineties, the separatist position implied by the use of these terms has been moderated during the intervening years. This new anthology of accounts from the frontline includes contributions by artist practitioners as well as their institutional counterparts providing a fascinating account of the art world as a matrix of positions where the balance of power and productivity constantly shifts. Artists, curators and critics discuss empirical and theoretical approaches from Europe, Africa and South and North America on how self-organization today oscillates between the self and the group, self-imposed bureaucratization and flexibility, aestheticization and activism.

A grand hotel on the edge of the abyss? The phrase that provided the title and the agenda for steirischer herbst '19-Grand Hotel Abyss came from the pen of the philosopher Georg Lukacs. In the early 1930's he used this striking metaphor to describe the attitude of the European intellectual and cultural scene who continued to party in an uninhibited, hedonistic manner, despite the looming rise of fascism. Doomsday scenarios viewed from a snug sofa, along with the culinary and cultural comfort zones known as "Genusshauptstadte" (pleasure capitals), demonstrate that the apocalypse can be shaped in a thoroughly pleasant and exciting manner today. This reader, accompanying the 52nd edition of the steirischer herbst, tracks these observations and explores the actual relevance of this historical context, as well as the significance of critical artistic attitudes, in essays, artists' texts, and numerous illustrations.0 Every year for a month, steirischer herbst, the oldest interdisciplinary festival of contemporary art in Europe, turns the city of Graz and the province of Styria in Austria into a parcours of installative and performative works. Since 1968, the festival has offered a platform for public debates, critical positions, and dialogues between the arts.00Exhibition: City of Graz, Austria (19.09.-13.10.2019)

The success of ?social distancing? as a cure-all to the COVID-19 pandemic proves that neoliberalism has created an insurmountable distance to the very notion of society itself. This rejection is best embodied in Margaret Thatcher?s infamous dictum ?There is no society,? which supplies the title of this anthology, with a crucial question mark added. How can we deal with the paradoxical mix of solitude and imposed togetherness that the pandemic entails? How can culture and critical discourse even continue when public0space has been shut down upon the advice of epidemiologists? How do we grasp the new political constellations arising today? Such are the questions tackled by the authors of this anthology, based on the discussion program of the Paranoia TV edition of the steirischer herbst festival.00Exhibition: steirischer herbst ?20?Paranoia TV, Graz, Austria (2020).

Contemporary art, as well as our society in general, is?according to the diagnosis of the interdisciplinary art festival steirischer herbst '21?in a dead end. The Way Out of ... features texts by international contributors to the festival's discussion program that outlines ways out of the White Cube, failed political art and an unrestrained digital capitalism, and shows new paths for climate justice, a more critical race theory and new activists. Accessible and pointily written, this reader offers rich food for thought on the multiple crises of our times.00Every year for a month, STEIRISCHER HERBST, the oldest interdisciplinary festival of contemporary art in Europe, turns the city of Graz and the province of Styria in Austria into a parcours of installative and performative works. Since 1968, the festival has offered a platform for public debates, critical positions, and dialogues between the arts.