Bøger af Octavian Esanu

This book addresses the art historical category of "contemporary art" from a transregional perspective, but unlike other volumes of its kind, it focuses in on non-Western instantiations of "the contemporary."

This book engages with the historical paradigm of 'contemporary art' by examining a programme initiated in Eastern Europe by the Hungarian-American billionaire George Soros in the 1990s. The Soros Centers for Contemporary Art played a leading role in popularising the norms and conventions of 'contemporary art' throughout the region. -- .

This book addresses the art historical category of "contemporary art" from a transregional perspective, but unlike other volumes of its kind, it focuses in on non-Western instantiations of "the contemporary."

This funny, dry and absurd twist on conventional art criticism serves as a great reference book for 20th Century art criticism. In 2001, while residing at Akademie Schloss Solitude in Stuttgart, artist and curator Octavian Esanu read hundreds of interviews and essays by artists and art critics. He then formed a new text out of the questions about art which he had culled from his readings. Each question is duly footnoted. The results are hilarious, absurd and profound. Originally published in 2002 in Germany by Edition Solitude, JFL: What Does "Why" Mean? is now available in North America, re-typeset and printed by J&L.