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Research Texts

  1. Research Congresses

      1. —1st FORMER WEST Congress
      Former West: Introductory Notes
      by Charles Esche and Maria Hlavajova

      So what is it that happened in 1989?

      However naive this question might sound—as one would assume it a commonplace to know that this year, full of both aspiration and anguish, transformed ou[…]

      1. —1st FORMER WEST Congress
      Only Winners? No answers, just questions at the first day of the 1st Former West Congress
      by Jeroen Boomgaard

      What are we doing here? I mean here in the so-called former West at the first congress on the former West talking about the former West. Where are we when we are in the former West and wha[…]

      1. —1st FORMER WEST Congress
      Report Day 2 (6 November 2009)
      by Nathalie Zonnenberg

      The second day of the 1st FORMER WEST Congress concentrated on “Art, its Discourses and the World at Large (1989/2001/2008),” as the title of the day’s sessions announced. Pretty much about […]

      1. —1st FORMER WEST Congress
      Response, Day 3 (7 November 2009)
      by Steven ten Thije

      There are three questions or ideas that somehow form the coordinates which for me need to be grouped together in response to the last day of the 1st Former West Congress. One is the statemen[…]

    Research Exhibitions

      1. —Lawrence Weiner: Dicht Bij
      Dicht Bij: Thinking about the Work of Lawrence Weiner for the Exhibition as it Came to Be
      by Maria Hlavajova

      Lawrence Weiner came to the Netherlands in the early 1960s, and the inspiring character of the Dutch art scene made him return in 1970 to stay here in some way until today. Back then Amsterd[…]

      1. —Olga Chernysheva: In the Middle of Things
      In the Middle of Things
      by Cosmin Costinaş

      Olga Chernysheva is, in many ways, representative of the generation of artists and intellectuals that came of age in the late 1980s during the turmoil and uncertainties of perestroika, and m[…]

      1. —Mona Vătămanu and Florin Tudor: Surplus Value
      Surplus Value
      by Cosmin Costinaş

      Mona Vătămanu and Florin Tudor have been working together since 2000. In a practice that spans a variety of media—from installation to painting to photography to film—their work is dedicated[…]

    Research Texts

    1. On Manifestations of Political Imagination
      by Vivian Rehberg

      Over the course of my lifetime, most of which I lived in the United States before immigrating to Europe, I can only vividly remember two other occasions when the word “revolution” was as a o[…]

    2. On the FORMER WEST Educational Platform and Beyond
      by Vivian Rehberg

      The inaugural FORMER WEST Research Congress, held in Utrecht in 2009, and the "2nd FORMER WEST Research Congress, _On Art and[…]

    3. Unpacking the FORMER WEST Research Library
      by Vivian Rehberg

      As we gear up for the 2nd FORMER WEST Research Congress On Horizons: Art and Political Imagination, which takes place 4-6 November at the Istanbul Technical University, it seems an appropr[…]

    4. Welcome to the FORMER WEST Online Platform
      by Vivian Rehberg

      At this stage of the FORMER WEST research project, which began in 2008, the titular object of our research—a former West—is absent, and the outcomes are unpredictable. This is in part due […]