Edited by Hendrik Folkerts, Christoph Lindner and Margriet Schavemaker
This spirited exploration of the interfaces between art and theory in the 21st century brings together a multidisciplinary range of viewpoints that converge on an imagined future of the “contemporary.” The authors in this volume examine contemporary visual culture based on speculative predictions and creative scientific arguments. Focusing on seven themes—Future Tech, Future Image, Future Museum, Future City, Future Freedom, Future History, and Future Future—the book shows how our sense of the future is shaped by a visual rhetoric of acceleration, progression, excess and destruction.
The essays reflect the collaborative work between the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, the Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis at the University of Amsterdam, de Appel arts centre, W139–Space for Contemporary Art, Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam (SMBA), and the art magazine Metropolis M in the shaping of the seven themes that formed the structure of the successful lecture series “Facing Forward: Art & Theory from a Future Perspective” (2011/2012) and this eponymous volume of essays. Discussing these provocative themes, Facing Forward is an energetic look at how our visions of the future affect how we depict the world around us today.
Amsterdam University Press / Paperback / 180 pages / 8 b/w illustrations
Design by: Studio Felix Salut and Stefano Faoro
ISBN 978 90 8964 799 3 / 37.50 USD / 29.95 EU / 24.50 GBP
Available to order via your local bookstore or online here.
Authors: Amber Case & Manuel Delanda (Future Tech), James Elkins & Jalal Toufic (Future Image), Iwona Blazwick & Hans Belting (Future Museum), Rem Koolhaas & China Miéville (Future City), Paul Chan & Hito Steyerl (Future Freedom), Amelia Jones & David Summers (Future History), and Juha van ‘t Zelfde, Patricia Pisters, Timotheus Vermeulen, Hassnae Bouazza, Melissa Gronlund, Matthijs de Bruijne, Metahaven, Ding Ren & Maria Barnas (Future Future)
The lecture series and publication was made possible through the generous support of the Mondriaan Fund, the Amsterdam Fund for the Arts and the SNS REAAL Fund (now Fonds 21).
