Cluster is a network of eight contemporary visual arts organizations that are each located in residential areas situated on the peripheries of European cities, extending to the Middle East with one member in Holon, Israel. Each organization is focused on commissioning, producing, and presenting contemporary art, and the nature of the work is often experimental, process-driven, involves research, is based on working with international and local artists, and often engages with diverse publics on a local level.
Compiled after a series of meetings in each organization over a period of two years, Cluster: Dialectionary aims to find new ways to position this work and the work of contemporary visual arts organizations more broadly, particularly in relation to wider social, political, and cultural concerns.
The book includes essays by Andrea Phillips, Mark Fisher and Nina Möntmann, Marion von Osten, and Cluster members. These are accompanied by a series of keywords that are drawn from the practices and experiences of the people who work at, visit, and live with the organizations. They have both been produced within the contexts of the projects that gave rise to them, as well as written especially for the publication. The contributors include Can Altay, Ayreen Anastas and Rene Gabri, Pierre Bal Blanc, Alexandre Baudelot, Ferran Barenblit, Ricardo Basbaum, Binna Choi, Céline Condorelli, Cooperativa Crater Invertido, Eyal Danon, Julien Duc-Maugé, Udi Edelman, Mark Fisher and Nina Möntmann, Daniel Foucard, Dora Garcia, Rebecca Gordon-Nesbitt, Elaine W. HO, Annette Krauss, Bojana Kunst, Maria Lind, Pablo Martinez, Mattin, Sanne Oorthuizen, Marion von Osten, Emily Pethick, Natasa Petresin-Bachelez, Andrea Phillips, Tadej Pogacar, Dimitrina Sevova, Simon Sheikh, Louise Shelley, Steven Ten Thije, Mathilde Villeneuve, and Jason Waite.
The members of Cluster are: CAC Brétigny, Brétigny-sur-Orge; Casco – Office for Art, Design and Theory, Utrecht; CA2M Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo, Móstoles, Madrid; The Israeli Center for Digital Art, Holon; Les Laboratoires d'Aubervilliers, Paris; P74 Center and Gallery, Ljubljana; The Showroom, London; and Tensta konsthall, Stockholm.
Contributors
Can Altay, Ayreen Anastas and Rene Gabri, Ricardo Basbaum, Céline Condorelli, Cooperativa Crater Invertido, Mark Fisher and Nina Möntmann, Daniel Foucard, Rebecca Gordon-Nesbitt, Elaine W. Ho, Annette Krauss, Mattin, Andrea Phillips, Marion von Osten, Dimitrina Sevova, Simon Sheikh, Steven Ten Thije
Maria Lind is a curator, writer and educator based in Stockholm and Berlin. She has served as director of Tensta konsthall, artistic director of the 11th Gwangju Biennale, director of the Center for Curatorial Studies graduate programme at Bard College, and director of Iaspis, the International Artists Studio Program in Stockholm. Her previously published books include Selected Maria Lind Writing and Seven Years: The Rematerialisation of Art From 2011-2017, both published by Sternberg Press.
