Diedrich Diederichsen

In this short book, the leading German cultural critic Diedrich Diederichsen puts forward a fresh and original account of pop music. He argues that pop music is not so much a form of music as a constellation of different media channels, social spaces and behavioural systems, of which music is only a part. Its own logic of attraction is based less on compositions and the expression of subjectivity and more on indexicality, real or pseudo-involuntary effects as recorded by sound technologies, and on studio discipline and staging, and hence on performance. By elaborating his innovative account of pop music as a constellation, Diederichsen develops a theory that distinguishes itself from sociology, cultural studies, media studies and ethnography, while at the same time drawing on and encompassing them all.

In this short book, the leading German cultural critic Diedrich Diederichsen puts forward a fresh and original account of pop music. He argues that pop music is not so much a form of music as a constellation of different media channels, social spaces and behavioural systems, of which music is only a part. Its own logic of attraction is based less on compositions and the expression of subjectivity and more on indexicality, real or pseudo-involuntary effects as recorded by sound technologies, and on studio discipline and staging, and hence on performance. By elaborating his innovative account of pop music as a constellation, Diederichsen develops a theory that distinguishes itself from sociology, cultural studies, media studies and ethnography, while at the same time drawing on and encompassing them all.

The first-ever monograph on Reynaud-Dewar, one of today’s most celebrated multimedia artists French artist Lili Reynaud-Dewar creates environments and situations in which she uses her own body to examine the dual experience of vulnerability and empowerment that results from acts of exposing oneself to the world. Evolving through a range of media such as performance, video, installation, sound, and literature, her work considers the fluid border between public and private space, challenging conventions related to the body, sexuality, power relations, and institutional spaces. This is the first book to document her remarkable career.

In the words of Peter Schjeldahl, writing in The New Yorker about the exhibition No Problem: Cologne/New York 1984–1989 at David Zwirner in New York, “the show’s cast of artists amounts to a retrospective shopping list of what would matter and endure in art of the era.” With an eye to canonizing that moment, this seminal publication examines the latter half of the 1980s through the lens of international art scenes that were based in Cologne—arguably the European center of the contemporary art world at that time—and New York. While a number of established Cologne-based gallerists, including Karsten Greve, Paul Maenz, Rolf Ricke, Michael Werner, and Rudolf Zwirner, had already begun shaping the European reception of American art in the previous decade, the 1980s marked a period during which art being produced in and around Cologne gained international attention. A burgeoning gallery scene supported the emerging work of artists based in the region, with gallerists such as Gisela Capitain, Rafael Jablonka, Max Hetzler, and Monika Sprüth showing artists such as Walter Dahn, Martin Kippenberger, Albert Oehlen, Rosemarie Trockel, and others. The works of these German artists were exhibited along with the latest contemporary art from the US by artists like Robert Gober, Jeff Koons, Richard Prince, Cindy Sherman, and Christopher Wool. Conversely, the works of German artists were presented in New York, with breakout exhibitions at galleries such as Barbara Gladstone, Metro Pictures, Luhring, Augustine & Hodes, and other significant venues. Important museum exhibitions that explored work being produced and exhibited on both sides of the Atlantic also set the tone for this ongoing dialogue, among them Europa / Amerika (Museum Ludwig, Cologne, 1986) and A Distanced View: One Aspect of Recent Art from Belgium, France, Germany, and Holland (New Museum, New York, 1986). Big, bold, and vibrant, this Pentagram-designed publication revives the conversation, reproducing in full color over one hundred immensely varied artworks by the twenty-two international artists included in this massive exhibition—one of the largest in David Zwirner’s history. Beyond its stunning visual components, the book features crucial new scholarship by Diedrich Diederichsen and Bob Nickas, and an illustrated chronology of the decade by Kara Carmack. The book also includes an arsenal of compelling archival material, from documentary photographs from the period to reproductions of Cologne’s culture magazine Spex. Taken as a whole, this ambitious exhibition catalogue encapsulates the energy, heart, and “dissonance of styles”—in the words of Schjeldahl—embodied by this fascinating and fecund moment in global art history. Artists featured in the book include Werner Büttner, George Condo, Walter Dahn, Jiri Georg Dokoupil, Peter Fischli/David Weiss, Günther Förg, Robert Gober, Georg Herold, Jenny Holzer, Mike Kelley, Martin Kippenberger, Jeff Koons, Barbara Kruger, Sherrie Levine, Albert Oehlen, Raymond Pettibon, Richard Prince, Cindy Sherman, Rosemarie Trockel, Franz West, and Christopher Wool.

This is the first comprehensive monograph devoted to New York and San Francisco-based artist Renee Green. Over the past 20 years, through film, video, sound art, photographs, prints, banners, texts, websites and ephemera, Green's work has comprised complex, multi-layered archive-like installations, employing a vast array of sources, which always urge viewers to become active participants. Included in this superbly illustrated volume are newly commissioned essays by a host of esteemed media scholars, art historians, critics and curators--Nora Alter, Diedrich Diederichsen, Kobena Mercer, Catherine Queloz, Gloria Sutton and Elvan Zabunyan--who engage issues central to Green's oeuvre, such as genealogy, archives and their reworkings, movements and displacements, site specificity and location.

GOLDEN YEARS. Diedrich Diederichsen über Georg Büchner, Andy Warhol, Bob Dylan, Ovid, Rodney Graham, Richard Wagner, die RAF, Damien Hirst, Kenneth Anger, Frank Zappa, Thomas Pynchon, Charles Manson, 50 Cent, Hermes Phettberg, Vanessa Beecroft, Paolo Virno, Ren? Pollesch, Jean Francois Lyotard ? Der Kunstboom hat eine Vorgeschichte. Aufbrechende Generationen, aufregende neue Lebensformen, Emanzipationsschübe von der Nachkriegszeit bis in die wilden 60er bilden das Reservoir an Hoffnungen, Gefühlen und Ekstasen, von denen noch heute die Kunstmarktblase zehrt. Doch was hat sich in dieser Zeit wirklich getan ? politisch, künstlerisch, in den Subkulturen und auf dem Markt? Wovon handelt der Hype um die Kunst in allen Medien denn wirklich? Ausstellungen sind Events, Bücher und Musik haben Marketing-Konzepte, Künstler müssen als Person erkennbar sein. Kein Mensch glaubt mehr an einen Underground oder eine Gegenkultur. Doch mit den Schatten dieser Begriffe handelt die Kunst. Ist das ein Verrat? Ein Niedergang? Oder gibt es auch Verbindungen und Versprechungen einer Welt jenseits des Marktes? Selbstverwirklichung, Flexibilität flache Hierarchien, unvorhersehbare Lebensläufe - jedes dieser Stichworte klingt sowohl nach der Erfüllung linker Forderungen, sie sind aber auch grimmige Realität unausweichlicher neoliberaler Zwänge, diagnostiziert Diedrich Diederichsen. In seinem neuen Buch nimmt er uns mit auf eine wahrhafte Tour de Force durch die letzten Jahrzehnte Gegenwartskunst und Popkultur. Es schließt an seine Bücher ?Freiheit macht arm?, ?Politische Korrekturen? und ?Der lange Weg nach Mitte? an.

Wer "Pop" sagt, muss auch "Sexbeat" sagen. Und mitreden kann nur, wer es gelesen hat. "Sexbeat" - das erste Buch von Diedrich Diederichsen erschien 1985 und erzählt von der Zeit seit 1972, von Hipness und der Welt der Spießer, vom postmodernen Aufwachsen, von einer Generation, die sich scheinbar endgültig vom Fortschritt verabschiedet hat. "Sexbeat" entstand zwischen Zeiten und Zuständen, Jobs und Weltanschauungen, zwischen der Musik von Roxy Music, Heaven 17 und ABC. Diedrich Diederichsen berichtet von seiner Jugend, von der ersten Gegenkultur, die sich gegenüber einer alten linken Boheme behaupten musste. Niemand glaubte mehr an natürlichen Ausdruck, stattdessen an Strategie und Subversion. Als auch das schal wurde, ging es plötzlich doch weiter. Die Leute blieben länger auf, nahmen noch mehr Drogen, hörten noch lautere Musik. Neuausgabe mit einem aktuellen Vorwort von Diedrich Diederichsen