07 Nov 2011

PRIVATE INVESTIGATIONS - new book in the series BÜCHS'N'BOOKS

We are happy to announce a new publication in the series Büchs'n'Books:

Private Investigations – Paths of Critical Knowledge Production in Contemporary Art, a book edited by Andrei Siclodi, with contributions by Alfredo Cramerotti, Judith Fischer, Geoffrey Garrison, Alison Gerber, Ana Hoffner, Brigitta Kuster, Ralo Mayer, Andrei Siclodi, Alexander Vaindorf as well as conversations between Laura Horelli and Geoffrey Garrison, Nina Möntmann and Alexander Vaindorf, Andrei Siclodi and Ralo Mayer.


Save the dates:

November 8, 2011, 7 p.m.: Künstlerhaus Büchsenhausen, Innsbruck, Austria
Private Investigations
Book launch and discussion with Alfredo Cramerotti (author), Andrei Siclodi (editor), a.o..

November 9, 2011, 7 p.m., Secession, Vienna
Information and Desire
Presentation and discussion evening with a focus on the books Aesthetic Journalism. How To Inform Without Informing by Alfredo Cramerotti and Private Investigations - Paths of Critical Knowledge Production in Contemporary Art, edited by Andrei Siclodi.
Introduction: Alfredo Cramerotti (author) and Andrei Siclodi (author and editor), followed by a discussion moderated by Ana Hoffner (artist).


About Private Investigations:

For some time now, one aspect of contemporary art has been en vogue in theoretical discussions: art as a field of, and medium for, the production of specific knowledge. Especially in relation to the discipline that the academic establishment calls 'artistic research,' the persistent need for a stable basis for artistic knowledge production has been continually emphasized—above all in academia; knowledge production in art, so the mantra goes, must go hand in hand with a socially critical (self-)reflexive approach toward art and its producers. In the globalized knowledge-based society of the twenty-first century, we are told, art must position itself quickly in order to assert its own social relevance and insure itself in the long run. With such arguments, the academic standardization of artistic criticality is aided and 'tenured' by national educational policy. Yet can this top-down criticality, standardized through academic curricula, have any real impact outside a self-referential framework? Despite all its good intentions, does this not rather serve to entrench existing hegemonies and (distribution) economies of knowledge? And what alternative strategies might be used to counter an increasingly dominant discourse on the theory and practice of 'artistic research?'

This book is not primarily intended as a formulation of a theory in opposition to the hegemonic idea of 'artistic research.' Instead, the practitioners—who because of their respective practices are hastily shelved as 'artistic researchers'—are given the opportunity to speak up for themselves. An integral commonality among the artists and cultural producers presented here is that their investigative practices are able to resist this categorization. These are private investigations, artistic practices that attempt to infiltrate hegemonic discourses of knowledge, like those found not least of all in the art context itself, while simultaneously proposing individual paths for acquiring and processing knowledge.


Andrei Siclodi (Ed.)
Private Investigations - Paths of Critical Knowledge Production in Contemporary Art
Büchs'n'Books Volume 3
Includes contributions by Alfredo Cramerotti, Judith Fischer, Geoffrey Garrison, Alison Gerber, Ana Hoffner, Brigitta Kuster, Ralo Mayer, Andrei Siclodi and Alexander Vaindorf as well as conversations between Laura Horelli and Geoffrey Garrison, Nina Möntmann and Alexander Vaindorf, Andrei Siclodi and Ralo Mayer.
1st edition 2011
English language, 144 pages, paperback
EUR 15,00
ISBN 978-3-9502583-1-8

The book can be ordered at Künstlerhaus Büchsenhausen.


About Büchs'n'Books:
The series Büchs'n'Books — Art and Knowledge Production in Context brings together publications by artists and theoreticians who conceive of their work as a specific contemporary production of knowledge, as well as anthologies that deal contextually with this field. The authors in this series are, for the most part, alumni of the International Fellowship Program for Art and Theory at Künstlerhaus Büchsenhausen. Büchs'n'Books is edited by Andrei Siclodi.

For a full list of publications please visit buchsenhausen.at.