Turning Inward

Turning Inward comprises a selection of texts by international artists, critics, and curators, which aims to renegotiate the relationship between centers and peripheries in contemporary art worlds. In the context of advanced globalization, the distributed agency of networked power structures can hardly be localized any longer in geographical terms. Yet, if we are to turn our attention away from geographical—that is, horizontal—relations, we can conceive of the central and peripheral as vertical phenomena that can coexist spatially in the shapes of social constructions, genealogies, or epistemic formations. Against this backdrop Turning Inward provides a heterogeneous range of critical reflections upon contemporary art and its modes of production, distribution, and consumption. Reaching far beyond the spatial metaphor, the positions assembled in this volume touch on fields such as art history, philosophy, economics, gender studies, urbanism, language, and education.
Texts by John Beeson, Svetlana Boym, Marta Dziewańska, Philipp Ekardt, Felix Ensslin, Orit Gat, David Joselit, William Kherbek, John Miller, Reza Negarestani, Matteo Pasquinelli, Dieter Roelstraete