The New Institution

Publication series Das Neue Alphabet (The New Alphabet), Volume 25
Editor: Bernd Scherer
Publisher: Spector Books, Leipzig
ca. 90 pages, German and English edition
color illustrations, paperback with folded dust cover
ISBN DE: 978-3-95905-665-6
ISBN EN: 978-3-95905-666-3
Price: 10 €

Available at bookstores, mail order buying / postal shopping via the Webshop

Cultural and academic institutions have been in crisis for quite some time now. In many cases, they still refer to a canon that has been made obsolete by global developments – in particular, by new voices from the Global South. Their modes of knowledge production operate within disciplinary bounds that can no longer cope with the Anthropocene’s radical processes of change, and their self-referential paradigms have ceased to reflect social change and the needs of society. Against this backdrop, the book discusses new counter-institutional practices and concepts, examining specific examples that reframe intellectual and pragmatic responses to concrete situations of societal conflict. These examples furthermore demonstrate a new connection between social, aesthetic and academic forms of work based on integrative, multi-perspectival approaches that transcend existing divides.

With contributions by Gigi Argyropoulou, Maria Hlavajova, Olaf Nicolai, Adania Shibli and Eyal Weizman

Table of contents:

Introduction
Bernd Scherer

Instituting Otherwise: Ten Observations “With-Within-Against”
Maria Hlavajova

Dislocating Institutions: Theses/Momentums of (Un)Making Spaces of Culture
Gigi Argyropoulou

Open Verification
Eyal Weizman

Attempts at Repressing a Language, Instituting Another
Adania Shibli

In Search of New Institutions: A Navigational Conversation
Gigi Argyropoulou, Maria Hlavajova, Bernd Scherer, Adania Shibli, Eyal Weizman