WRITINGS & (academic and non-academic)
[Door creaks open. Footsteps]. Fredric Jameson’s Seminar on Aesthetic Theory. By Octavian Esanu. Public Domain Review (April 3, 2024)
CURTAIN RISES
Moving chairs, squeaking door, coughs, other sounds filling the noise environment of a large classroom in the Literature Department at Duke University. Undergraduates, graduate students, and junior faculty from various humanities departments have gathered for the first seminar on Adorno’s Aesthetic Theory.
Between “Surpassing Disasters”: The MA Program in Art History and Curating. Octavian Esanu and Angela Harutyunyan e-flux Education (January 31, 2024)
The master of arts program in Art History and Curating at the American University of Beirut recently completed its sixth full year. Launched in 2017, the program commenced at a time when many universities in the Anglo-American academic world were cutting funding for the arts and humanities, shrinking graduate and postgraduate offerings, terminating positions, and even closing entire departments.
曾经什么是当代艺术 奥克塔维安·伊萨努 ■ 鲁宁/译 What Was Contemporary Art?” in ARTMargins Winter 2012, Vol. 1, No. 1: 5–28
(World Art, 2022.3. Translated into Chinese by Ning Lu)
ما كان الفن المعاصر؟
نص أوكتافيان إيسانو بعنوان "ما كان الفن المعاصر؟"، تعريب ديما حمادة. نشر هذا النص باللغة الإنكليزية بعنوان What Was Contemporary Art في مجلة ARTMargins سنة ٢٠١٢.
أوكتافيان إيسانو
أوكتافيان إيسانو هو مقيّم غالريات الجامعة الأميركية في بيروت حيث أشرف على افتتاح اثنين منها.
More posts by أوكتافيان إيسانو.
أوكتافيان إيسانو
2 NOV 2021
"Mark Verlan (1963-2020): An Absolute Totality," ARTMargins Online, 06/21/2021
Moldovan artist Mark Verlan passed away in Chişinău on the eve of this new year. Known by many names – Marioka Son of Rain (Marioca fiul ploii in Romanian and Marioca sin dozhdea in Russian), Marioca Son-and-Rain, or simply Mark, Marc, Maric, or Marik – he died at the age of 57 of a heart attack. Some names were given to him, others he chose (like his nom d’artiste “Son of Rain”), and the rest are the result of Moldova’s bilingualism, or the local preference for diminutives used to convey endearment or playful respect.
"Monument—Document—Mockument (in East European Art and Art History)" in How to Revisit History from a Plural Perspective? Institute of the Present (November, 2020)
One way to talk about art—in addition to the well-established art critical or art historical categories of style, genre, or form—is with regard to art’s relation to memory, time, and history. This relation is crucial, especially in modernity, with the emergence and then proliferation and now spectacularisation of various institutions of cultural memory such as the museum, the archive, and the documentation centre. Here, I will propose the triad monument-document-mockument to invoke the relation between art and time, art and memory, art and history. I will show how this conceptual set can be used to discuss artworks, as well as to examine methods of art critical reflection, along with other devices and institutions of social and/or aesthetic memory, namely: archiving, documentation, art historical cataloguing.
“Art Form and Nation Form: Contemporary Art and the Postnational Condition” in Contemporary Art and Capitalist Modernization: A Transregional Perspective edited by Octavian Esanu (Routledge, 2020)
Three Questions for Terry Smith: Peripherality, Postmodernity, Multiplicity – Reconceiving the Origins of Contemporary Art (Interview with Terry Smith, with Octavian Esanu) in Contemporary Art and Capitalist Modernization: A Transregional Perspective edited by Octavian Esanu (Routledge, 2020)
"Case Study 5: CarbonART 96 and The 6th Kilometer, SCCA Chișinău 1996" in Contemporary Art and Capitalist Modernization: A Transregional Perspective edited by Octavian Esanu (Routledge, 2020)
“During: The Transition to Capitalism” in Art and Theory of Post-1989 Central and East Europe: A Critical Anthology eds. Ana Janevski and Roxana Marcoci Marcoci (Durham, NC: Duke University Press and MoMA New York, 2018)
The chapter “During: The Transition to Capitalism,” originally published in Transition in Post-Soviet Art has been republished in this anthology of Central and Easter European critical writings after 1989. The chapter examines the political concept of “transition” associated with a new paradigm in the Western social sciences called “transitology.” It also introduces one particular mechanism of the cultural transition. The Soros Centers for Contemporary Arts (SCCA) were a network of art centers established in Eastern Europe during the nineties by the American philanthropist George Soros. The SCCAs were implemented as mechanisms of transition in order to help democratize art in the post-Soviet space, snatching it from the grasp of the socialist state and its totalizing cultural doctrine. For a more expansive analysis of this mechanism see my most recent book The Postsocialist Contemporary.
“Realism Today? A Roundtable” with Dave Beech, Christoph Cox, Sami Khatib, John Roberts and Marina Vishmidt in ARTMargins Winter 2018, Vol. 7 No. 1
The idea of this roundtable emerged at the time when artists and critics in the contemporary art world showed profound interest in the so-called “speculative turn” and its various manifestations (speculative realism, new-materialism, object-oriented ontologies, and others). Given the editorial direction of the journal, however, we decided to widen the basis of this discussion to include other opinions and beliefs about realism. The questions below were formulated collectively by the members of our editorial team, and the invitations to join this roundtable were sent to a number of practitioners for whom realism has played an important part in their research, thinking, and artistic or scholarly practice. We are very grateful to Dave Beech, Christoph Cox, Sami Khatib, John Roberts, and Marina Vishmidt for agreeing to participate in this roundtable held over electronic mail.
“A Study in Artist Locomotion” in On Photography in Lebanon: Stories and Essays edited by Nour Salame and Clemence Hachem (Beirut, Kaph Books, 2018)
The chapter discusses two photographs from the personal archives of the artist and archaeologist John Carswell. According to Carswell, they were taken sometime in the 1960s by Bran Ferren, the prominent American technologist and entrepreneur, lighting/sound and visual effects artist, photographer, inventor, and son of the painters Rae Ferren and John Ferren. In the 1960s, Bran’s abstract expressionist father spent one year at the Kennedy Center in Beirut, being the first American artist to be awarded a fellowship by the State Department to promote “cultural diplomacy” (and abstract expressionism) in the Middle East. During this year (1963-64) the Ferrens came in close contact with the faculty of the art department at the American University of Beirut, where Carswell was one of its most reformist members. Carswell claims that these photos were made when Bran was testing a new camera, and if we are to trust Carswell’s memory, Bran Ferren (who was born in 1953) took these photos when he was ten years old.
Bran Ferren (b. 1953, USA), "Portrait of John Carswell". Date unknown. Multiple exposure photograph. John Carswell's Archive
Discussion: “Octavian Esanu on Mashrou’ Proletkult” in Polycephaly project, available on https://polycephaly.net/Octavian-Esanu
“The Role of the University Art Gallery Today” with special issue of Newsletter Keio University Art Center (KUAC), Tokyo, Japan
In my view, the role of the university art gallery and museum in the world today is to serve as a space dedicated to critical thinking and to the study of the conditions of artistic production, exchange and circulation. Ideally, the university gallery...
“Critical Machines: Art Periodicals Today (Conference Report)” in ARTMargins, Summer Vol. 5 No. 3, 2016.
The questions and answers that follow this conference report were selected from the audio transcript of a two-day symposium organized in 2014 at the American University of Beirut Art Galleries. The editors of the following art magazines and journals have participated in the conference report: October journal, (New York); ARTMargins journal, (International); e-flux Journal (New York); Arteria e-journal platform, (Yerevan); ArtTerritories online platform (Ramallah); Ibraaz online platform (London); Mada Masr online newspaper (Cairo); Umelec magazine (Prague); Chto Delat’? newspaper (St. Petersburg); ArtLeaks Gazette (International); Red Thread e-journal (Istanbul); Art & the Public Sphere journal, (Bristol, GB); Al-Akhbar newspaper, “Culture and Society” section (Beirut); Cabinet magazine (New York); Bidoun magazine (New York); Gahnama-e-Hunar magazine, (Kabul).
“W@r aga1nst the F1lters: Spam as the Inheritor of High Modernism” in Forty-Five: A Journal of Outside Research, Vol. 1 (2015.) Reviewed by David Gissen.
For some time, I have been captivated by a form of writing that has been captivating my email inbox. Dictionaries define spam as intrusive, internet-mediated advertising — a definition whose interest lies in its suggestion of how much non-intrusive advertising is already around us. Spam is not like this ambient advertising, of course. It is pure intentionality.
"Art and Garbage (excerpt)” in Ibraaz, Platform for Discussion 10; Where to Now? Shifting Regional Dynamics and Cultural Production in North Africa and the Middle East. 1 June 2016
After the first heavy rain to fall in Lebanon last autumn, the English-language newspaper The Daily Star opined that any solution to the months-long garbage collection crisis would already have arrived too late. Like global warming, the garbage crisis had already passed that critical point where something could still have been done to prevent heavy winter rain from washing pollutants (left unattended in the streets of the cities, deposited in valleys, on mountain hills, bulldozed under highway bridges) deep into the ground, contaminating water supplies and endangering public health.
“Moscow Conceptualism,” in the expanded 2nd edition of the Encyclopedia of Aesthetics edited by Michael Kelly (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014)
Encyclopedia of aesthetics entry on Moscow Conceptualism.
“Stenogram of the General Meeting of the Artists of the Union of Soviet Artists of Moldavia (15 May, 1951)” in ARTmargins Winter 2013, Vol. 3, No. 1
The document translated below throws some light on the early days of the Union of Soviet Artists of Moldavia. As in other Eastern European countries and republics of the former USSR, this type of artists’ organization appeared soon after the advance of the Red Army westwards, and as in case of other former socialist Artist Unions of the region, the organization is still active today, though under a different name – The Union of Artists of Moldova. The document translated below represents an opportunity to step back for a better look at an era when a new type of art institution began to emerge in the countries that had found themselves, after 1945, in the USSR, or in the even larger “socialist bloc.”
“Stuckism (A Conversation)” in ARTMargins February 2013, Vol. 2 No. 1
Stuckism is an international art community, founded in 1999 by Billy Childish and Charles Thompson. The initial group of British Stuckists began regularly to catch the attention of the media from the early 2000s, when they protested (dressed as clowns) in front of the Tate Gallery’s annual Turner Prize exhibitions. Over the years since, the British Stuckists have depicted themselves as defenders of the fine arts, of traditional artistic skills, particularly of painting and often figurative painting (one of their manifestos states, for instance, that “artists who don’t paint are not artists”), of spirituality, authenticity, integrity and truth in art. They have repeatedly denounced the de-skilling of the contemporary artist and the de-materialization of the artistic object, particularly targeting artistic practices inspired by conceptual art and the ready-made. The British Stuckists have also been the most outspoken critics of British art world elites, condemning the sensationalist Brit artists or YBAs (Young British Artists) together with their corporate and government patrons.
“What Was Contemporary Art?” in ARTMargins Winter 2012, Vol. 1, No. 1
This article contributes to a recent debate around the question “What Is Contemporary Art?” It brings into discussion certain key aspects of the activities of the Soros Centers for Contemporary Art (SCCA)—a network of contemporary art centers established by the Open Society Institute in Eastern Europe during the 1990s. The author draws upon distinctions between this new type of art institution and the Union of Artists (the organizations which represented the interests of artists under socialism), highlighting distinct artistic, aesthetic and economic characteristics of each institutional model.
"Monochrome Orientalism" published as an insert for the exhibition publication Trans-Oriental Monochrome: John Carswell
When in the 1950s and 1960s, more and more artists began to make monochromes and primary structures, the phenomenon was discussed almost exclusively within the context of European and American art history. The appearance of monochromes and primary structures around the same time in some parts of the Middle East has not yet been brought into broader discussion. The British artist and scholar John Carswell resided for more than two decades in Beirut (1956-1977). During this time he produced several series of works in this idiom. Thus far his work has been only occasionally reviewed, and even then discussed solely within the context of Western art. But what do Carswell’s series mean for the region where they were made, and what do they mean for disciplines and discourses such as Orientalism, and Postcolonialism, for narratives and areas of study that have traditionally examined cultural interactions between Western Europe or North America and the Middle East?
Garbage Crisis, Beirut 2016
ETA in Umelec 1 (2013), English Version Vol .17 www.umelec.org
“Google buys “E:” the alphabet deal complete!” announced the headlines. The Wall Street Journal displayed this piece of news yesterday at the very top of their main page, over an optimistic yellow background surrounded by various economic and financial indexes that spoke a mysterious language of numbers and symbols. The journal talked about the benefits of privatization of the alphabet, bringing sound evidence from Chile and Slovakia – two countries that have been at the forefront of (their own) alphabetic privatization.
On Artivism [In Between Culture and Politics] in Umelec 2 (2011), Vol. 15 www.umelec.org
To be among those Moldovans (a word that even the Microsoft Office spell-checker does not want to recognize) who call themselves “contemporary artists” is at times an awkward experience – for what is today called “contemporary art” seems to avoid places that lack vibrant business, financial opportunities and markets, or at least abundant fossil fuel reserves. To be a Moldovan activist contemporary artist is even more difficult, and this is indeed a pity, especially after the “social turn” in contemporary art. While artists from other post-socialist countries have long ago joined a political cause – a very smart thing to do if one is to succeed today in this profession – the Moldovan contemporary artists are still hesitating and holding back.
The Americanization of the Spirit in Umelec 1 (2012), Vol. 16 www.umelec.org
Every year, in the fall, Princeton University Museum of Art holds a reception to welcome graduate students. The idea is simple: to remind new and old students that the university has a great facility where they can soften their souls (hardened by facts, numbers and figures)by looking art art. Here are some words of instruction for those who might want to attend such an event.
"Iconoclash in Chisinau: aripi contra torte, sau Dialectica piatra-foarfece-hartie" in Chisinau: Arta Cercetare in Sfera Publica
1. Iconoclash in Europa de Est
Timp de două decenii, multe din ţările din estul şi sudul Europei au fost prinse in vârtejul campaniilor iconoclaste – situaţie ce reaminteşte Reforma Protestantă a secolului al XVI-lea din vestul şi nordul Europei. În revoltele mai recente, ce au atins apogeul la sfârşitul anilor ‘80 şi începutul anilor ‘90, mari mase de oameni şi-au descărcat tensiunea acumulată desfiinţând anumite simboluri ale trecutului care le stăteau în cale. Aproape la fel ca în secolul al XVI-lea, valul de idolatrie anticomunistă a început în aceeaşi regiune a Germaniei în care odinioară Martin Luther îi condamna pe toţi cei ce puneau altceva în locul lui Dumnezeu.
Iconoclash in Chisinau: Wings versus Torches, or the Rock-Paper-Scissors Dialectics in Umělec magazine 2011/1
1. Iconoclash in Eastern Europe
For two decades many countries located in the Eastern and Southern parts of Europe have been caught in the midst of iconoclastic campaigns – a situation which may bring to mind the Western and Northern European 16th century Protestant Reformation.1 In the more recent revolts, which were at their peak in the late 1980s and early 1990s, great masses of people discharged their pent-up energy by smashing symbols of the past that stood in their way. Much as in the 16th century, the wave of anti-communist idolatry began in the same region of Germany where once Doctor Martin Luther condemned all those who would put anything in God’s place. The late 20th century iconoclastic pogroms started in 1989 at the Berlin Wall, when the East Germans tore it down and gradually chopped it into little bits and pieces soon to be sold – by both “osies” and “wesies” – to amused Western tourists visiting checkpoint Charlie.
Neoliberal Realism: or, There Is no Such Thing as Free Art. 2008
In one little American town located on the eastern coast of the United States, one comes across a very intriguing public sculpture. The town is known for its Ivy League University – one of the oldest in this country – that has launched, for decades, or rather centuries, many of its successful alumni into the space of politics, business, and the sciences. The monument faces the northern wall of the campus, which is daily skirted by tourists who come from all over the world to capture on their digital cameras alphanumeric memories of neo-gothic, modernist, and postmodern architecture; of university professors wearing orange blazers...
Kompotas. 2008
If the proverb “you are what you eat” has any validity, then I can say that for a couple of hours I was a “really existing socialist.” I came to this conclusion when I attended a presentation by the Lithuanian artist Indre Klimaite, who visited Chisinau in August in order to realize her project entitled “Canteen.”
The “Rolling R” and the Forces of Evil. 2010
I often wonder when the American popular imagination will ever grow tired of Hollywood villains built upon enduring eastern European stereotypes. But really, when? Twenty years – Ladies and Gentlemen – have passed since the fall of that evil concrete Wall, and good old Hollywood still keeps feeding us with new Frankensteins and Draculas, making many believe that these monsters once inhabited some central or south-eastern parts of Europe.
Panera Painting. 2009
I took the above photograph at a Panera bakery-café in one of its chain locations in Columbia, South Carolina. The canvas arrested my attention because...
O plimbare prin piata centrala. Contrafort, Nr. 7-8 (187-188), iulie-august. 2010
– Piața Centrală a Consiliului Municipiului Chișinău. Bine Ați Venit! Добро пожалoвать! Welcome!
– Confecționăm chei!
– Vizitați magazinul nostru! Avem reduceri la aur și argint 25%! Посетите наш магазин! Скидки на золото и серебро 25%!
– …Alo? Olea? Azi ce dată-i fa? – 25? – Da…
(from the series Soviet Leaders edited by History)
1. DEVELOPMENT OF THE WORLD SOCIALIST CAPITALIST SYSTEM AND THE COOPERATION AMONG THE SOCIALIST CAPITALIST COUNTRIES
"In Transit" by Vladimir Sorokin (translation). 2007
– Well, on the whole, comrades, your district performed well during this year – Georgii Ivanovich smiled, leaning slightly backward – this is what I was instructed to tell you. – Those sitting at the long desk smiled in response, exchanging glances among themselves. Georgii Ivanovich wagged his head and threw up his hands:
– When everything is well, comrades, then it is indeed well, and when itʼs bad, then why take offense. Last year you were too late with the sowing campaign, your factory did not complete the plan, and the sports complex, remember, all the hassles? Eh? Remember?
Ivanov who sat on the left nodded:
The Agraphia Survey (critofiction, HTML-collage). 2007
"The Agraphia Survey" is an interactive collage of sentences collected from Google Books. Please press on the hyperlinked footnotes. Note: Some of the HTML links may differ depending on the IP address and settings on your browser.
Waiting (fiction). 2006
[ðı:] [ˌmetǝ́ mɔ:fǝsis] (critofiction) Alternative title: The Metamorphosis. 2005
Kantʼs Metaphysical Deduction (Seminar Paper). Formalism or Functionalism; Kantʼs Metaphysical Deduction
Malevich’s passage: a painterly and poetic sdvigology