4 documents
# 65
Torn Together
Jan Verwoert
There is something about the word “corruption” that says so much about what it describes. Corruption. Say it like you were striking a key on a piano to hear the note. Corruption. Corruption. Now try the keys next to it. Interruption. Disruption. Rupture. Rumpus. Rumpere is Latin for tear, split, break. You hear the violence of the act in the sharp “p” and “t” that kill off the “u” right after it resonates. As in shut “up.” R-up-t-ure. R-ap-t-ure does the same. It’s derived from rapere,…
e-flux Journal
Posted: May 1, 2015
Subjects
Corruption, Christianity, Humor & Comedy
# 28
World as Medium: On the Work of Stano Filko
Jan Verwoert
1. Totality as Point of View, Medium, and Mode of Address
Stano Filko’s work is never just about the world. It is world. Because Filko speaks world. World is his medium, his language, his means of artistic production: using the medium of world Filko produces (anti)happenings, environments, installations, objects and diagrammatic drawings of all kinds. Some look very different from others. But that is the freedom of a mind that speaks world. It can choose the means and…
e-flux Journal
Posted: October 1, 2011
Category
Contemporary Art, Architecture, Ideology
Subjects
Conceptual & Post-Conceptual Art
# 12
Standing on the Gates of Hell, My Services Are Found Wanting
Jan Verwoert
Standing on the gates of hell, my services are found wanting. For I cannot give you what you want. What you want from me, here, on the gates of hell, is to open the gates and let you in. But I cannot do that. I don’t even see why that service should still be required. Because you have already passed the gates. You are inside. You live in contemporary hell. You inhabit the hell of the contemporary. And now you want me to perform the rite to confirm your passage? And give you reasons for being…
e-flux Journal
Posted: January 1, 2010
Category
Contemporary Art, Modernism
Subjects
Contemporaneity
# 01
The Boss: On the Unresolved Question of Authority in Joseph Beuys’ Oeuvre and Public Image
Jan Verwoert
To be certain, art offers answers. Its strength, however, often lies in its unresolved problems. In his statements about his own work, Joseph Beuys absolutely inundated his listeners and readers with answers. As a consequence, the inner tensions and unanswered questions at the heart of his oeuvre are scarcely recognized. An unconditional acceptance of Beuys’ interpretive authority over his own practice has caused the discourse surrounding the oeuvre to fail to touch on a central unresolved…
e-flux Journal
Posted: December 1, 2008
Category
Contemporary Art, Performance, Religion & Spirituality, Labor & Work
Subjects
Art Criticism