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Plasticity of the PlanetOn Environmental Challenge for Art and Its Institutions

 - Plasticity of the Planet
This publication extends an exhibition program that examines the environmental challenges facing the art world and its institutions, drawing on the concept of “destructive plasticity” theorized by philosopher Catherine Malabou.
Can plastic planetarism replace neoliberal globalization? This publication is informed by Catherine Malabou's conception of destructive plasticity—an irreversible destruction of form that makes it possible for new phenomena to emerge. Here, the idea provides a framework for reflecting on an environmental crisis that is turning into an increasingly serious social crisis before our very eyes. This is a challenge to which neither contemporary art nor its institutions can remain indifferent; they must urgently develop their responses to it. The theoretical essays contained in this publication shed light on the nature and consequences of the destructive changes taking place in the natural/social environment. They are juxtaposed with artists', curators', and art researchers' comments on more specific practices, protocols, and formats of reaction, with the Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art serving as a particular case study. In a conversation conducted specially for the book, Malabou speaks of the consequences of man's destructive activities and introduces the notion of ecological plasticity.
Published on the occasion of the eponymous exhibition program at the Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art, Warsaw, from March 15, 2019 to February 12, 2020.
Edited by Magdalena Ziółkowska.
Texts by Defne Ayas, Viviana Checchia, Grzegorz Czemiel, Daniel Falb, Cathy Fitzgerald, Mira Gakjina, Alexander Hope, Anne Szefer Karlsen, Jarosław Lubiak, Małgorzata Ludwisiak, Nataša Petrešin-Bachelez, Małgorzata Sugiera, Magdalena Ziółkowska, interview with Catharine Malabou by Ewa Majewska.
 
published in March 2020
English edition
14,8 x 22 cm (softcover)
488 pages (color & b/w ill.)
 
ISBN : 978-88-6749-433-0
EAN : 9788867494330
 
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