Issue no. 107
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While a potentially and sometimes actually useful framework for critiquing the structures of exclusion, “identity politics” has always been beleaguered territory. Recently, however, the debate around “identity” has intensified, and with the current U.S. administration even established new front lines. Issue #107 of Texte zur Kunst examines the present state of identity politics in the West, finding the commodification of identity in mass culture (as in the art market) to be a leading influence. We also diagnose a contemporary divide: that of, on the one hand, non-dominant communities cohering around identity so as to become visible together; and on the other hand, individuals aiming to stand out as special or “unique” by dint of membership in various non-dominant groups. Neither approach is necessarily right or wrong, just as the notion of “identity politics” itself is neither intrinsically “good” or “bad.” Yet such ambiguity in the face of current leadership (see cover) lends only all the more urgency, we feel, for a serious engagement with “identity” vis-a-vis “politics” now.
Main section (in English and German):
Sarah Schulman in conversation
True and False Victims
People Politics. Curator’s statements by
Gabi Ngcobo & Yvette Mutumba / Klaus Biesenbach / Egija Inzule
Monique Roelofs
Identity and its Pubic Platforms: A string of promises entwined with threats
Andreas Reckwitz
Performative Authenticity: The subject in the late modern society of singularities
Bini Adamczak in conversation
What Would Winning Look Like?
Coco Fusco
Decades of Identity Politics
Reviews (partial listing):
Sabeth Buchmann & Ilse Lafer, Venus Lau, Judith Rodenbeck, Eva Ehninger, Tom McDonough, and Amy Lien & Enzo Camacho give their take on the 57th Venice Biennale, documenta 14, and Skulptur Projekte Münster
Floris Biskamp on Patsy l’Amour laLove, ed., Beißreflexe (German)
Jeff Nagy on Hannah Black & Juliana Huxtable’s novel, LIFE (English)
Helmut Draxler and Kerstin Stakemeier on Samo Tomšič’s book The Capitalist Unconscious (German)
John Kelsey on Michel Houellebecq at Venus Over Manhattan, New York (English)
Christiane Voss on Jörg Später’s Siegfried Kracauer. Eine Biografie (German)
Sarah Morris on Merlin Carpenter at Galerie Neu, Berlin (English)
Gertrud Koch on Sarah Morris at Capitain Petzel, Berlin (German)
Tobias Madison on Olivier Assayas’s film Personal Shopper (English)
Hans-Christian Dany on Seth Price at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (German)
Lars Bang Larsen on Hans-Christian Lotz at Christian Andersen, Copenhagen (English)
Anna Voswinckel on Peggy Buth at Museum Folkwang Essen (German)
Ella Plevin on Monira Al Qadiri at Gasworks, London (English)
Obituary:
Werner Hamacher (1948–2017) in the words of Daniel Loick (German)
Plus artists’ editions by:
Josh Kline
Juergen Teller
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