Raqs Media Collective - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Raqs Media Collective

Published in ‘Manifesta 7 INDEX, one of three publications accompanying Manifesta 7, co-curated ... more Published in ‘Manifesta 7 INDEX, one of three publications accompanying Manifesta 7, co-curated by Raqs Media Collective, 2010

Published in conjunction with 'The River Project', a key project of the Upper Georges River Catch... more Published in conjunction with 'The River Project', a key project of
the Upper Georges River Catchment Urban Sustainability Initiative held from August to October 2010

Published in ‘Curating and the Educational Turn’, edited by Paul O’Neill and Nick Wilson, Open Ed... more Published in ‘Curating and the Educational Turn’, edited by Paul O’Neill and Nick Wilson, Open Editions, De Appel, 2010

Published in ‘Work, Work, Work: A Reader on Art and Labour’, Edited by Cecilia Widenheim, Lisa R... more Published in ‘Work, Work, Work: A Reader on Art and Labour’, Edited by Cecilia Widenheim, Lisa Rosendahl, Michele Masucci, Annika Enqvist and Jonathan Habib Enqvist. IASPIS, Stockholm & Sternberg Press, Berlin & New York, 2012

Published in Art History in the Wake of the Global Turn, Edited by Jill H. Casid and Aruna D' Sou... more Published in Art History in the Wake of the Global Turn, Edited by Jill H. Casid and Aruna D' Souza. Clask Studies in the Visual Arts, Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown & Yale University Press, New Haven & London, 2014

Conversation between Chang Tsong-Zung and Raqs Media Collective, Published in ‘Extra Time’, Edite... more Conversation between Chang Tsong-Zung and Raqs Media Collective, Published in ‘Extra Time’, Edited by Chen Yun, 2013

Published as a monograph for ‘The Contemporary Condition Series’, series editors Geoff Cox and Ja... more Published as a monograph for ‘The Contemporary Condition Series’, series editors Geoff Cox and Jacob Lund, 2017

Text accompanying a performance by Raqs Media Collective titled ‘Memorophilia’ held at Tate Moder... more Text accompanying a performance by Raqs Media Collective titled ‘Memorophilia’ held at Tate Modern, 2016

Published in ‘Critical Times: Interventions in Global Critical Theory, Critical Times’

Written to accompany Raqs' contribution to the Momentum Nordic Biennale of 2011, the essay th... more Written to accompany Raqs' contribution to the Momentum Nordic Biennale of 2011, the essay thinks aloud on time, and what stays. In 50 years time, in 2061, a time capsule buried on the grounds of the Alby Estate in the city of Moss, in the Østfold county of Norway, will hopefully be opened, and if and when it is opened, our insertions in the handsome aluminium box that came parcelled to us only the other day from the Momentum exhibition at the Nordic Biennial of 2011 will be made public.

Stedelijk Studies Journal, 2018

Raqs Media Collective guides us through the operative ideas behind their curation of the 11th Sha... more Raqs Media Collective guides us through the operative ideas behind their curation of the 11th Shanghai Biennale, titled Why not ask again? They discuss some of the challenges they faced in curating and implementing what they call an “infracuratorial” model. Invited to think of that exhibition as a labyrinth, they talk us through some examples of labyrinths that inspired them, among others: the Bara Imambara in Lucknow, India; a labyrinthine slaughterhouse in Shanghai, designed by British architects; and the story of a series of shadow companies set up to create a convoluted paper trail meant to evade the law. The attempt to visually present a labyrinth introduces a paradox: one has to, somehow, lay out the illogical and mystifying in a logical way. Raqs Media Collective invites us to think through this question. How should one discursively present something which does not make straightforward sense to us, experientially? The fundamental experience of the labyrinth is one of losing y...

TDR: The Drama Review, 2021

Turning, and turning around, on the Rann does not alter the white horizon. Salt—brilliant under t... more Turning, and turning around, on the Rann does not alter the white horizon. Salt—brilliant under the sun—dazzles the eyes, opens the lachrymal canals. We taste our own salinity as time seasons us.

Critical Times, 2018

The members of the Raqs Media Collective look back on an artwork they made and a text they wrote ... more The members of the Raqs Media Collective look back on an artwork they made and a text they wrote to reflect on the empty and silent dockyards in Liverpool in the early 2000s, in order to try to understand how the sense of being made redundant, which seemed like an anomaly then, has moved into the very foreground of consciousness today. Globally dispersed and networked production spurred by automation has led to the paradoxical intersection of rising productivity and falling life chances. For the first time since the twentieth century, large populations at the very heart of capitalism are beginning to consider themselves to be residual. Taking stock of this reality means facing a wave of resentment that impels the dominant political forces of our time.

Third Text, 2013

This meditation around the themes of Sand, Salt, Tears and Art draws on conversations in a gravey... more This meditation around the themes of Sand, Salt, Tears and Art draws on conversations in a graveyard of aeroplanes in the Mojave Desert, on the shores of the Dead Sea, and in the Baltic Archipelago Sea. It proposes that the interesting task is now for the human species and for art to think of ways out of lamentation. It is not a matter of protecting some people and attacking others, because epidemics, drought, storms, melting ice caps, floods and nuclear meltdowns do not choose to discriminate between their victims, even if the rich and powerful of today choose to fantasize that they do. The only way out lies in the human species (as a species) imagining infinitely different possibilities of how it might produce and exchange. The moment we enter the domain of desire and the imagination, we also simultaneously find ourselves in the realm of the aesthetic. What is art if it is not a tightrope strung between what exists and what we dream about?