The nightclub as avant-garde architecture: from Studio 54 to the Double Club

Nightclubs and discothèques are hotbeds of contemporary culture. Since the 20th century, they have been centers of the avant-garde that question the established codes of social life and experiment with different realities, merging interior and furniture design, graphics and art with sound, light, fashion and special effects to create a modern Gesamtkunstwerk. Night Fever: Designing Club Culture 1960–Today is the first book to examine the design history of the nightclub, with examples ranging from the Italian clubs of the 1960s created by members of the Radical Design group and the legendary Studio 54 where Andy Warhol was a regular; to the Palladium in New York designed by Arata Isozaki and the more recent concepts by architecture firm OMA for a new Ministry of Sound in London. Featuring film stills and vintage photographs, posters, flyers and fashion, Night Fever takes the reader on a fascinating journey through a world of glamour, subculture and the search for the night that never ends.

This monograph surveys the diverse oeuvre of the ever-popular German artist Imi Knoebel, whose adventures in the elementary functions of form and color seem more relevant than ever. Opening up new perspectives on selected phases of Knoebel’s career, and tackling many lesser-known explorations alongside his classic geometric/minimalistic fiberboard paintings, it examines, in chronological order, the artist’s time at the Darmstadt Werkkunstschule and the Dusseldorf Art Academy, where he studied with Joseph Beuys, and where he met one of the artists with whom he would become most closely associated, Blinky Palermo. Also addressed here is Knoebel’s relationship to American Minimalism, and his early explorations of serial light photography and printmaking. This volume focuses on these early activities and recent paintings from the 1990s to 2009.

The multitude of mediums and techniques used by Sterling Ruby (born 1972) in his work―ranging from sculpture to collage, installation to painting, ceramics to video and printing―reflects the issues he tackles: the conflict between individual impulses and mechanisms of social control, the coercive function of architectonic space, art as the domain of irrationality, Minimalism and Art Brut, graffiti art, urban violence, desire and pleasure. His works combine memory of the past with attention to contemporary urban and popular phenomena. It is an art of expression and accumulation, of the overproduction of information and of the delirium of the senses, of neurosis and paranoia, and in which the gigantism of the shapes and their proliferation appear like a corrupt manifestation of desire, consumption, anxiety and the need for control that characterizes contemporary occidental culture. This is the second edition of JRP|Ringier’s 2009 monograph on Ruby.

Working in photography, film, sculpture, performance and installation, Los Angeles–based artist Elad Lassry (born 1977) has established himself as one of the most original artists of his generation, with works that are at once visually seductive and conceptually challenging. This book documents Lassry’s solo exhibition at the Padiglione d’Arte Contemporanea in Milan, Italy. With an essay by Aram Moshayedi (Curator at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles) and a conversation between the artist and Jörg Heiser (co-editor of Frieze magazine), it provides an in-depth critical examination of Lassry’s work from the beginning of his career to the present.

The installation “Electric Earth,” debuted at the 1999 Venice Biennale, brought international recognition to the video and media artist Doug Aitkin. In the piece, a dancer roams a transitory realm of wasted landscapes. Aitken, whose protagonists are usually natural landscapes and cityscapes, here links the electrified structures of our urban world with the nervous system of the human body. The piece, with its pop-surrealist overtones, also reveals Aitken’s roots as a director of music videos. This artist’s book, laid out in a landscape format, presents fascinating views of natural and urban lanscapes and structures from the video. Gijs van Tuyl, in his essay, writes, “You don’t have to look through it passively from A to Z…it offers up a space in which the reader can move freely…in order to create a story in the here and now, in the flow of time.”

The collaborative strength of Parkett unfolds with artists and writers, with retrospective and future views — one last time. Parkett’s closing print issue is a double one — one volume is a traditional issue, this time with ten new artist collaborations, while the other consists of recollections and tributes. Going forward, Parkett volumes and editions will remain fully documented on the website and available via the Zurich and New York offices. Furthermore, all volumes including 1500 texts are currently being digitized and will become accessible online. New, expanded Parkett exhibitions in various museums are in preparation as well, which will further explore the publication’s singular approach as a thirty-three-year time capsule and archive. The double issue features collaborations with Nairy Baghramian, Maurizio Cattelan, Marlene Dumas, Katharina Fritsch, Katharina Grosse, Marilyn Minter, Jean-Luc Mylayne, Nicolas Party, Pipilotti Rist, and Jordan Wolfson. Each artist has created as usual a special limited edition Collaboration texts are by Caoimhín Mac Giolla Léith (on Nairy Baghramian), Massimiliano Gioni (on Maurizio Cattelan), Tamar Garb (on Marlene Dumas), Jacqueline Burckhardt (on Katharina Fritsch), Barry Schwabsky (on Katharina Gorsse), Nancy Spector (on Marilyn Minter), Matthew S. Witkovsky (on Jean-Luc Mylayne), Ali Subotnick (on Nicolas Party), Juliana Engberg (on Pipilotti Rist), and Andrew Russeth (on Jordan Wolfson). Previous collaboration artists have sent in some one hundred image and short text contributions. >Explore here The second half of the issue opens with two roundtables on the future of art publishing. The first discussion, moderated by editor Mark Welzel, took place in Berlin and featured Diedrich Diederichsen (writer on music, art, cinema, theatre, and politics), Jörg Heiser (director of the Institut für Kunst im Kontext at the Universität der Künste, Berlin), Olaf Nicolai (artist), Susanne Pfeffer (director of the Museum für Moderne Kunst in Frankfurt), and Steffen Zillig (artist and writer), in addition to Parkett’s founding editors, Bice Curiger and Jacqueline Burckhardt. A New York conversation, moderated by executive editor Nikki Columbus, included Hal Foster (Professor at Princeton University, art critic, art historian, and co-editor, October), Michelle Kuo (former editor-in-chief, Artforum), and Hrag Vartanian (critic, curator, editor-in-chief and co-founder, Hyperallergic), as well as Curiger. Statements from Parkett’s past editors, curators, translators, and designers highlight what made the magazine special, while a wide and diverse range of artists write in to heap accolades in the form of images and texts.

Amidst current global uncertainty failure has become a central subject of investigation in recent art. Artists have actively claimed the space of failure to propose a resistant view of the world. Here success is deemed overrated, doubt embraced, experimentation encouraged and risk considered a viable position. Between the poles of success and failure lies a productive space where paradox rules and dogma is refused. This anthology establishes failure as a core concern in contemporary cultural production. Artists surveyed include Bas Jan Ader, Francis Alys, John Baldessari, Chris Burden, Phil Collins, Martin Creed, David Critchley, Fischli & Weiss, Ceal Floyer, Isa Genzken, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Wade Guyton, International Necronautical Society, Ray Johnson, Mike Kelley, Martin Kippenberger, Michael Krebber, Bruce Nauman, Simon Patterson, Janette Parris, Yvonne Rainer, Robert Rauschenberg, Dieter Roth, Allen Ruppersberg, Roman Signer, Annika Strom, Paul Thek and William Wegman. Writers include Giorgio Agamben, Samuel Beckett, Daniel Birnbaum, Bazon Brock, Johanna Burton, Emma Cocker, Gilles Deleuze, Russell Ferguson, Ann Goldstein, Jorg Heiser, Jennifer Higgie, Richard Hylton, Jean-Yves Jouannais, Lisa Lee, Stuart Morgan, Hans-Joachim Muller, Karl Popper, Edgar Schmitz and Coosje van Bruggen.

Doug Aitken is a young Californian video and installation artist who has risen to international prominence with works such as his multi-screen video environment “electric earth”. Aitken’s subjects explore the deserted spaces of Bollywood film sets in India; Jonestown, Guyana, the site of the notorious mass suicide of religious cultists; and a remote diamond-mining region of Namibia, closed to outsiders since 1908. His environments are vivid, elusive and dreamlike. This monograph explores the artist and his work. It features a discussion of Aitken’s working methods by Amanda Sharp; an examination of Aitken’s art within the context of contemporary philosophy and the work of other artists who have explored expanded notions of time and space; a study by Jorg Heiser of Aitken’s “i am in you”, a five-screen work centring on the imaginative experiences of a young girl; “Artist’s Choice”, for which the artist has selected a short story, “Funes the Memorious”, by Jorge Luis Borges, whose description of altered realities through the distortions of mirrors and memory echoes the artist’s own interests; and “Artist’s Writings” – Doug Aitken’s writings include his retelling of an unusual story he once heard from strangers he met in the desert and which served as the basis for a subsequent work.

Thirty years after Bas Jan Ader failed to return from a solo crossing of the Atlantic, the interest in his work continues to grow. In less than ten years he created some thirty-five works of art in which falling, physical and emotional vulnerability and mortality are the central themes. Published to coincide with a retrospective exhibition, this thoroughly illustrated catalogue provides a much needed overview of these and other aspects of Ader’s work. Also includes contributions by Tacita Dean, Jörg Heiser and Erik Beenker, amongst others.

For 20 years, Parkett has presented unparalleled explorations and discussions of important international contemporary artists by esteemed writers and critics. These investigations continue in issue No. 72, which features collaborations by Urs Fischer, Richard Prince, Monica Bonvicini, and in a special 20th anniversary section, Alex Katz. In Issue No. 72: Come into Swiss-sculptor Urs Fischer’s house of mirrors, among his oversized raindrops, chairs, and cigarette cartons, and ponder his spatially jarring world. Also, go on a guided tour up Richard Prince’s driveway, past a parked 1973 Dodge Barracuda, where you’ll get a close peek at his anti-monument of countercultural ephemera–a partially renovated, partially ramshackle house-work “painstakingly crafted to be almost impossible to find.” Read about Italian-born artist Monica Bonvicini who refuses to be confined by the architecture of her surroundings, but offers in her radical gestures, her own menu of obstacles. Also in this issue, adjust your eyes to Alex Katz’s flirtatiously awkward visions of reality until the details in his paintings emerge as indelible markings of timeless style. Pour into Katz’s cool poetic pictures as if into a perfect fitting suit. Authors include, Beatrix Ruf, Benjamin Weissman, Brenda Richardson, Vincent Procoil, Alison Gingeras, Dike Blair, Juliane Rebentisch, Jorg Heiser, Lars Lerup, Anselm Franke, Ena Swansea, Bruce Hainley, Boris Groys, Daniel Kurjakovic, Douglas Fogle, Marc Gloede, Stephanie Smith, and Hans Rudolf Reust.

Doug Aitken is a young Californian video and installation artist who has risen to international prominence with works such as his multi-screen video environment “electric earth”. Aitken’s subjects explore the deserted spaces of Bollywood film sets in India; Jonestown, Guyana, the site of the notorious mass suicide of religious cultists; and a remote diamond-mining region of Namibia, closed to outsiders since 1908. His environments are vivid, elusive and dreamlike. This monograph explores the artist and his work. It features a discussion of Aitken’s working methods by Amanda Sharp; an examination of Aitken’s art within the context of contemporary philosophy and the work of other artists who have explored expanded notions of time and space; a study by Jorg Heiser of Aitken’s “i am in you”, a five-screen work centring on the imaginative experiences of a young girl; “Artist’s Choice”, for which the artist has selected a short story, “Funes the Memorious”, by Jorge Luis Borges, whose description of altered realities through the distortions of mirrors and memory echoes the artist’s own interests; and “Artist’s Writings” – Doug Aitken’s writings include his retelling of an unusual story he once heard from strangers he met in the desert and which served as the basis for a subsequent work.

With the hotly discussed resurgence of painting at the dawn of the new century, it is clear that reports of the medium’s death have been greatly exaggerated. “Painting at the Edge of the World” explores the possibilities of a redefinition and ”hybridization” of painting begun in the 1960s, examining the manifestations of these new artistic vistas in the present day. This full-color catalogue features illustrations and a variety of critical texts by some of the most exciting established and emerging critical voices working today, in addition to work by an international and intergenerational group of artists hailing from places as diverse as Brazil, Ethiopia, Germany, South Africa, Scotland, Japan, Belgium, Iran, Italy, and the United States. Designed in two sections–a gatefold plate section containing reproductions of the work, and a french-folded section containing critical essays–the book brings together a wide range of contemporary views on painting from a diverse array of disciplines, including the visual arts, film, architecture, design, and music in an attempt to assess the relevance of painting in the contemporary global context. In addition, “Painting at the Edge of the World” includes documentation of each artist’s work and an examination of their artistic methodology. Essays by: Daniel Birnbaum, Paulo Herkenhoff, Midori Matsui, Jorg Heiser, Frances Stark, Andrew Blauvelt, Reindaldo Laddaga, Yves-Alain Bois, Helio Oiticica, Takashi Murakami, Mike Kelley, and Cuauhtemoc Medina. Introduction by Douglas Fogle. Featuring artworks by: Franz Ackerman, Haluk Akakçe, Francis Alÿs, Kevin Appel, Marcel Broodthaers, John Currin, Marlene Dumas, Andreas Gursky, Eberhard Havekost, Arturo Herrera, Mike Kelley, Martin Kippenberger, Udomsak Krisanamis, Jim Labie, Margherita Manzelli, Paul McCarthy, Lucy McKenzie, Julie Mehretu, Takashi Murakami, Nader, Chris Ofili, Helio Oiticica, Michael Raedecker, Thomas Scheibitz, Rudolph Stingel, Hiroshi Sugito, Paul Thek, and Richard Wright.

For Parkett No. 69, the featured collaboration artists are Belgian conceptual artist Francis Alÿs, German sculptor and mixed-media artist Isa Genzken, and the Indian-born, London-based sculptor Anish Kapoor. Authors include Saul Anton, Robert Storr, and Kitty Scott on Als; Pamela Lee and Jörg Heiser on Genzken, and an interview with Genzken by Michael Krajewski; and Norman Bryson, Marina Warner and Kurt Forster on Kapoor. Other features include Philip Kaiser on Amelie von Wulffen, Stuart Comer on Swetlana Heger and a special Parkett Inquiry on consensus in contemporary art world titled “The Economy of Attention.” The twentieth-anniversary issue, Parkett No. 70, will be published in summer 2004, with special collaborations and projects to be announced.

I testi presentati in questo libro sono dedicati all’arte italiana dal 1960 a oggi. La raccolta non pretende di offrire una sistematica rassegna di opere, artisti e movimenti che copra in modo esaustivo quell’arco temporale. Alcuni testi catturano primi piani, altri offrono panoramiche, per quanto parziali e selettive. Gli autori dei testi sono portatori di competenze, saperi e interessi assai vari: per esempio, c’è chi ha reso la storia dell’arte italiana contemporanea oggetto di insegnamento e ricerche specialistiche, chi scrive da attento testimone dei recenti artistici, chi considera la disamina delle opere d’arte inscindibile dalla politica e dalla storia delle idee. Sommario Pag.VII Attraverso l’evanescenza: appunti per un’introduzione Gabriele Guercio e Anna Mattirolo Primi piani Pag.3 Gas metafisico: la transavanguardia a New York Brooks Adams Pag.23 Gradi di visibilità: Roma anni ottanta Guglielmo Gigliotti Pag.43 L’arte povera a Roma Claire Gilman Pag.75 Eclissi: arte italiana negli anni sessanta Romy Golan Pag.105 Anni ottanta (e oltre): le ragioni dell’arte Elio Grazioli Pag.125 Le mie parole, e tu? L’arte povera e le sue affinità con il concettualismo internazionale e il romanticismo Jörg Heiser Panoramiche Pag.157 La discordanza inclusa. Arte e politica dell’arte Stefano Chiodi Pag.197 Miti anti miti Ester Coen Pag.225 Made in Italy. Fatto a mano, fatto a macchina, già fatto, rifatto Nicholas Cullinan Pag.263 Ytalya subjecta. Narrazioni identitarie e critica d’arte 1963-2009 Michele Dantini Pag.309 Il mito del Vinavil Pia Gottschaller Pag.343 L’opera d’arte e il divenire generico del creativo. Cinque momenti “italiani”? Gabriele Guercio Pag.391 In pura perdita. Strategie di opposizione all’opera-oggetto Giorgio Verzotti Pag.408 Indice dei nomi e delle opere Pag.415 Gli autori Pag.417 Ringraziamenti