Artists Space

Going Down the Market
David Bussel

Talk
October 30, 2014, 7pm

Artists Space’s current exhibition The Library Vaccine includes a section focused on the Colin de Land Library, a collection of books that were in the possession of the New York dealer and his gallery American Fine Arts, Co. at the time of his death in 2003. As part of this exhibition, writer, curator and former AFA employee David Bussel will give a talk that uses the contents of the library as its starting point, moving into a discussion around the nature of artistic critique.

Books packed on two adjacent metal shelving units.
[Books packed on two adjacent metal shelving units.]

By examining various “critical” practices and discourses relating to the market, Bussel will explore contemporary relations between economics and critique. Focusing on the activities of de Land and AFA as an example of a commercial enterprise perceived to be "ambivalent" to the market, the talk will address current practices around antinomy that seek to resist or at least make visible the recuperative forces of capital’s abstractions.

David Bussel is a freelance writer and curator based in London. He has contributed to publications including Afterall, Flash Art, Frieze and Texte zur Kunst, and lectured and taught at various museums and institutions. He has organized exhibitions in Berlin, Hamburg, London, Stuttgart and Zurich including Homo Economicus, a two-part exhibition at Cabinet Gallery in London and MD72 in Berlin in 2012.