Is art criticism losing ground to the Internet and its rapidly proliferating art blogs? Do people still consider the art critics employed by newspapers and magazines the most important arbitrators of what is worth seeing and reading? Much recent discussion about the changing landscape of art writing, often framed as a crisis in criticism, has revolved around the question, “what is art criticism?” Spaces for Criticism, edited by Pascal Gielen, asks instead, “where is art criticism?” The contributors to this volume explore new ways and new spaces where art critics might interact with works of art, artists, scholars and a varied, increasingly informed public. The authors argue that criticism has shifted to different places and different stages, experiencing both a displacement onto new media and into new geographic regions and new institutional structures.

Contributors: Luc Boltanski, Sabeth Buchmann, Robin Celikates, Hans D. Christ, Ingrid Commandeur, Katy Deepwell, Iris Dressler, Sonja Eismann, John Ellingsworth, Pascal Gielen, Daniel Givens, Max Jorge Hinderer Cruz, Christian Höller, Ines Kleesattel, Vida Knežević, Thijs Lijster, Ivana Marjanović, Suzana Milevska, Dan Perjovschi, Jorinde Seijdel, Ruth Sonderegger, Terre Thaemlitz, Niels Van Tomme

Thijs Lijster is philosopher of arts and culture and coordinator of the research center Arts in Society at the University of Groningen. In 2009, he received the ‘ABG/VN Essay prize’ and in 2010 the Dutch/Flemish ‘Prize for Young Art Criticism’.

Editors: Thijs Lijster, Suzana Milevska, Pascal Gielen, Ruth Sonderegger

DesignMetahaven

Series: Antennae/Arts in Society

2015, Valiz | supported by Mondriaan FundUniversity of Groningen | paperback| 272 pp | 17 x 13,5 cm (h x w) | English | ISBN 978-90-78088-75-2