Active Art

Wednesday 9 October at 5-6pm the book Active Art – a collection of texts by various contributors inspired by the 1923 manifesto Active Art by Andrejs Kurcijs – is launched at Kunsthal Charlottenborg.

The 1923 manifesto Active Art by Latvian philosopher Andrejs Kurcijs triggered a series of responses by writers, artists and curators on the notion of activism, past and present: art for political purposes, art for its own purpose or art with no purpose.

The texts collected in the book Active Art aim at considering the active part of writing inspired by the definition given in Kurcijs manifest. Contributors include Rebeka Pōldsam from Estonia writing on the lesbian artist Anna-Stina Tremund, Isabella Marrin from UK writing on virus structures in language, French poet Laure Boullic writing a revolutionary poetry essay, French artist Eva Barto advertising an upcoming research on economic structures in art and Latvian artist Evita Vasiļjeva sharing the beginning and the end of her notebook. There is a conversation in several parts between the editors and Latvian contemporary philosopher Ainars Kamolins on Kurcijs original text.

The book also includes the reprint of texts by American writer Rober Glück introducing the queer writing collective New Narrative co-founded in 1975 and a rare essay from 1982, a text by American writer James Baldwin, initially published in art-catalogue in 1987 that hi-lights his very strong political stand against racism, and finally the first translation of Anrejs Kurcijs 1923 manifesto.

The book is edited by curator and writers Maija Rudovska, Barbara Sirieix and Joachim Hamou. The book is published in English by French publisher Paraguay Press (paraguaypress.com).