Published on the occasion of Manifesta 9 – the 2012 edition of the nomadic European Biennial of Contemporary Art in Genk, Belgium – this illustrated volume collects artworks, concepts and stories that invite the reader to rethink the role of culture in industrial and post-industrial societies. Drawing on the format of an encyclopaedia, it constructs an interdisciplinary dialogue between different layers of art history, cultural heritage, and contemporary cultural production. It also raises questions about the enduring significance of material production for contemporary art as well as the impact of coal – the fossil fuel that powered the Industrial Revolution – on the history of modern art.
Edited by Cuauhtémoc Medina and Christopher Michael Fraga, this volume contains texts by the curatorial team of Manifesta 9, led by Cuauhtémoc Medina, Dawn Ades and Katerina Gregos, as well as specialists in art history, cultural heritage and social theory.
Essays: Dawn Ades "The Age of Coal"; Cuauhtémoc Medina "News from the Graveyard"; Svetlana Boym "Nostalgia and its Discontents"; Katerina Gregos "Poetics of Restructuring".
Genk - Limburg (Belgium), June - September, 2012
