e-flux was started somewhat accidentally in 1999. The original plan was simple: to help artists and curators disseminate information about their exhibitions via e-mail. However, very quickly our readership snowballed, and it became apparent that many people wanted to get something more from e-flux in addition to exhibition press releases. Our first publishing experiment was the insertion of a love letter by an artist in an edition of the then-popular Parkett Magazine. What followed was a series of projects and books that placed a significant emphasis on text: The Next Documenta Should Be Curated By An Artist, the Martha Rosler Library, DO IT, and many others. In 2005 we organized a free experimental school in Berlin called unitednationsplaza. This project, more than anything else we had undertaken up to this point, underlined the interest in and need for critical discourse in the arts.
In 2008 we started e-flux journal, which focuses on writings by artists and thinkers interested in theory and society. Shortly thereafter we started commissioning exhibition reviews, which evolved into e-flux Criticism. A little later we started commissioning texts on art education and its institutions, and in 2016 we launched e-flux Architecture—a publication dedicated to critical theory in the field of architecture and urban studies. Most recently, during the Covid pandemic in 2020, we launched e-flux Notes—a platform for urgent, short-form writing on art, politics, and theory.
All of these publishing platforms developed at different times, and grew independently of each other. For the most part they also have their own respective readerships, which do not intersect much, despite the fact that much of the content from all these publication strands is interrelated and addresses overlapping concerns and interests. The goal of e-flux Index is therefore to bring all this together in one body for the most voracious readers in the world! We hope that you enjoy this first issue of e-flux Index, ahead of many more to come.
—Anton Vidokle, Founder
