Art in Times of Gray Democracy
Edited by Julia Kurz, Joanna Warsza, Franciska Zólyom
Publisher: Spector Books
2015
English / German
160 pages
18 x 26 cm
Softcover
Price: 85 lei
Does art have the potential to stimulate and sustain political participation? On behalf of the Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst, Joanna Warsza invited the artists Alexandra Pirici, Pablo Helguera, and Ulf Aminde to Leipzig to try out three projects in public and semi-public spaces: Pirici staged a choreographic intervention at the Monument to the Battle of the Nations, Helguera an improvised speaking choir, and Aminde the dress rehearsal for an art strike. All the works were shown as part of the Performative Democracy series, whose title is taken from the book of the same name by Polish sociologist Elżbieta Matynia. It describes people as politically active creatures whose collective significance is derived from their actions. The publication Art in Times of Gray Democracy brings to a close the Performative Democracy series. It is produced in magazine format.
Alexandra Pirici, (1982) lives and works in Bucharest. In 2014 she was invited to take part in MANIFESTA 10 in Saint Petersburg. Pablo Helguera (1971 in Mexico City) lives in New York. He works as head of education at MoMA, New York. Ulf Aminde (*1969) lives and works in Berlin. He created projects for the 4th Berlin Biennale, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Taipei, and the Paço das Artes in São Paulo.
