Artists Space

Critical Laboratory

Discussion
July 9, 2013, 7pm

Coinciding with the summer-long presence of Thomas Hirschhorn’s Gramsci Monument at Forest Houses in the Bronx, organized by the Dia Art Foundation, the artist will be in conversation with art historians Hal Foster and Lisa Lee. Their discussion will address this new work, the fourth in a series of “monuments” to major writers and thinkers, as well as Hirschhorn’s own writing collated in a new volume titled Critical Laboratory, edited by Foster and Lee and published by MIT Press.

The title of the book appears in white text atop an yellowed image of a room
Eds. Lisa Lee and Hal Foster, Critical Laboratory: The Writings of Thomas Hirschhorn (MIT Press, 2013). [The title of the book appears in white text atop an yellowed image of a room's interior. A plant, lamp, and some paper with notes cover the desk in the room.]

In this publication Hirschhorn discusses the full range of his art, from works on paper to the massive Presence and Production projects in public spaces. “Statements and Letters” addresses broad themes of aesthetic philosophy, politics, and art historical commitments. “Projects” consider specific artworks or exhibitions. “Interviews” capture the artist in dialogue with Benjamin Buchloh, Jacques Rancière, and others. Taken together, the texts serve to trace the artist’s ideas and artistic strategies over the past two decades. Critical Laboratory also reproduces 33 Ausstellungen im öffentlichen Raum 1998–1989, an out-of-print catalog of Hirschhorn’s earliest works in public space.