Initiales is an art and research biannual magazine published by the École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts de Lyon, the fifth issue is dedicated to Andrea Fraser. With contributions by Kader Attia, Eva Barto, Daniel Buren, Claire Fontaine, Dora García, Thomas Hirschhorn, Sven Lütticken, Chus Martínez, Jean-Luc Moulène amongst others.

Produced on the occasion of Remco Torenbosch’s exhibition of Growth, 2019 at Kunstfort bij Vijfhuizen for which Toren­bosch ap­pro­pri­ated a med­i­ta­tion video that he found cir­cu­lating on an in­ternet forum for stock traders. The video shows a mon­tage with a va­riety of flower fields, com­posed in such a way as to glo­rify the beauty of na­ture and ef­fec­tuate re­laxation through dig­ital de­vices. The piece ex­plores how the rep­re­sen­ta­tion of na­ture is cap­i­tal­ized on by the med­i­ta­tion in­dustry, in order to pro­mote better per­for­mance in the work­place.

The vir­tual rep­re­sen­ta­tion of flowers and na­ture and the video’s orig­inal place of cir­cu­la­tion also un­der­line the eternal con­nec­tion be­tween the nat­ural and the fi­nan­cial world: from the very first spec­u­la­tive bubble caused by tulip bulbs in the 17th cen­tury, to dis­aster in­vestors who are cashing in on the eco­log­ical cat­a­stro­phes of the fu­ture.

With a text by Sven Lütticken.

Hito Steyerl is rightly considered one of the most exciting artists working today who speculates on the impact of the Internet and digitization on the fabric of our everyday lives. Her films and writings offer an astute, provocative, and often funny analysis of the dizzying speed with which images and data are reconfigured, altered, and dispersed, many times over, accelerating into infinity or crashing into oblivion.

Published to accompany the artist’s survey exhibitions at the Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, and the Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane, Too Much World gathers a series of essays and close readings of Steyerl’s films from the past ten years. Newly commissioned texts by Sven Lütticken, Karen Archey, Ana Teixeira Pinto, and Nick Aikens, alongside writings by Thomas Elsaesser, Pablo Lafuente, David Riff, and Steyerl, are spliced with over one hundred pages of color stills. This publication is a charged slideshow of the artist’s extraordinary investigations into the status, circulation, and materiality of images.

Copublished with Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, and Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane. Design by Bardhi Haliti.

Produced on the occasion of Sean Snyder: No Apocalypse, Not Now, at the Kölnischer Kunstverein, 9 November–22 December, 2013. With texts by Moritz Wesseler and Sven Lütticken.

Sean Snyder takes the global circulation of data as the raw materials for his practice. He experiments with multi-layered signs revealing unexpected layers in an intentionally non-pedagogical way. Refusing to conform to conventions, his practice avoids simple classification. In resistance to contemporary art’s tendency to aspire to a mechanized consumer society, his investigations parody and mirror their processes. More information here.