Launch of the book 'Active Art' and discussion at Kim? Contemporary Art Centre

Active Art. Graphic Design by Laure Giletti and Gregory Dapra, 2019

Active Art. Graphic Design by Laure Giletti and Gregory Dapra, 2019

Kim? Contemporary Art Centre invites you to the launch event and discussion on the book Active Art, on 2 May at 7 pm in Kim? Contemporary Art Centre, Sporta street 2, k-1. The event will include a presentation and a conversation between the editors of the book Maija Rudovska, Joachim Hamou and Barbara Sirieix and a discussion with the philosopher Ainārs Kamoliņš. 

In this book, Latvian philosopher Andrejs Kurcijs’ manifesto Active Art from 1923 is accompanied by a series of essays by writers, artists and curators whom have been invited to contribute responding to and/or coinciding with the text and ideas provided by Kurcijs.

The editors of the book comment “Our interest in ‘Active Art’ by Kurcijs hangs on the way it orbits around the problems of art and the notion of activism: art for political purposes, art for its own purpose or art with no purpose. ‘Active Art’ doesn’t provide answers but many and sometimes obscure propositions. It proved to be operative as a departure point for the collaborations with artists and writers that contributed to this book. The ambiguities highlighted by the text enabled a collective exercise of analysis and interpretation as well as practical processes leading us to share the tasks of editors and curators.

Among the contemporary contributors are curator Rebeka Põldsam, artists Evita Vasiļjeva and Eva Barto, writer and researcher Bella Marrin and poet Laura Boullic. An essay by Robert Glück about New Narrative is followed by a rare fiction from 1982, while a historical essay by James Baldwin from 1987, commissioned by the African Center in New York, is an opportunity to create a statement on racism, entitlement and slavery. Throughout the book runs a conversation between the editors of the book and the contemporary philosopher Ainārs Kamoliņš. The questions raised in the dialogue convoke the other contributions expanding further thoughts, an apparatus reflected in the book design.

The project has been created in collaboration between Kim? Contemporary Art Centre, Paraguay Press, Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Latvia, LV100, Fondation d’Entreprise Ricard, Latvian State Culture Capital Foundation. The publication has been supported by RIT Logistika.