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Public Matters: Debatten & Dokumente aus dem Skulptur Projekte Archiv

Annotated by Joanna Warsza
Year

2019

Publisher

Verlag Walter König

Author

Hermann Arnhold
Ursula Frohne
Marianne Wagner

Annotation

It feels like this book weighs approximately five kilos, but it’s worth the effort of carrying it around! It is the first comprehensive take on the archives of Skulptur Projekte Munster, a public art event that has taken place in the West German city of Münster every 10 years since 1977. It has established itself as the barometer of a decade of mostly European and North American public art, and has developed many great projects as well as blind spots. The archive includes sketches, plans, concepts, unrealised proposals, models, protocols, essays, professional studies, statements and interviews amassed over the past forty years and shows the evolution of the European understanding of context-responsive or site-specific art and its relation to participation, democracy and counterpublic.

Joanna Warsza

Publicity and participation are the basis of any democracy and an open society. They determine the positioning and development of an unusual exhibition format: the Skulptur Projekte in Münster. The publication PUBLIC MATTERS bundles the results of a three-year research in Skulptur Projekte Archiv. With essays, case studies, statements and conversations as well as a wealth of previously unpublished material, PUBLIC MATTERS opens up perspectives on one of the internationally most important archive collections on art in public space and reflects on the relevance of aesthetic and curatorial practices for the emergence of publicity.