“A sense of art history is part of the critical basis on which artists construct ‘a future’ of art. But the question is, which sense of art history will be shaping that future? Art history has always been far too important to be simply left up to art historians.”
— Ian Burn, 1985

This presentation is organised by Robert Milne and includes a work by Ian Burn from 1989, exhibited with selected publications and other documentation, to coincide with the release of the new book. The Estate of Ian Burn is represented by Milani Gallery, Meanjin/Brisbane.

Ian Burn has been described as many things: an activist, a trade-unionist, a journalist, an art critic, a curator and an art historian—and, as he once described himself in a moment of self-deprecating alienation, ‘an ex-Conceptual artist’. This volume brings together a diverse collection of Burn’s writings that reveals a probing, analytical artist who turned to language to articulate the need for ‘looking at seeing and reading’, who pursued a Marxist politics in the face of neoliberalism and who sought to occupy and transform the margins of landscape painting. The publication includes previously unpublished material and offers a prescient rethinking of art in a decentered world through what Burn called ‘peripheral vision’.

Ian Burn: COLLECTED WRITINGS 1966–1993 is edited by Ann Stephen and designed by Robert Milne, with contributions by Art & Language, Adrian Piper, Paul Wood, Allan Sekula, and Mel Ramsden.

Atelier E.B: Passer-by is edited Beca Lipscombe & Lucy McKenzie and examines an essential facet of the fashion industry: the world of mannequins and retail display. Since the Surrealists took them up in the early twentieth century, mannequin have been an enduring motif within fine art. Lipscombe and McKenzie un-pack the disciplines of window dressing, look to radical thinkers and makers who dissolved the dividing line between fine art and commercial display, and piece together a compelling narrative that encompasses ethnography, statuary, dolls, the world fairs and our digital future.

This catalogue is published on the occasion of the exhibition Passer-by, by Atelier E.B, at the Serpentine Galleries, London 3 October 2018–6 January 2019; Lafayette Anticipations-Fondation d’entreprise Galeries Lafayette, Paris, 21 February–28 April 2019; Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow 31 January–10 May 2020.

Produced on the occasion of the exhibition Tishan Hsu: recent work 2023 at Secession, Vienna, 1 December, 2023 – 11 February, 2024.

Hsu’s preoccupation with the body in a world of technology dates back to the 1980s. How bodies and consciousness change in the interaction with digital technology is a question he has insistently probed. Hsu’s insights into the interpenetration of human and technology have proven visionary; science fiction anticipated its culmination in the hybrid existence of the cyborg, but it left few traces in the art of the 1980s.

You can see Tishan Hsu in conversation about the exhibition with Patrizia Dander here.

Designed by Sabo Day.

VALIE EXPORT Archive Matters provides a first insight into the holdings of the artist’s premature legacy. It seeks to contextualize archival material with the works of art. Moreover, it documents the archive’s presentations in the exhibitions in Linz, Berlin and Montréal between 2017 and 2021, showing not only the rich archival material but also experimental forms of display in relation to the format of the archive. The extensive publication containing numerous illustrations and texts is being published as volume 2 within the VALIE EXPORT Center Linz publication series.

A conversation between the artist Marc Camille Chaimowicz and the architect Roger Diener about their collaboration, The Armadillo House in Basel. Chaimowicz claims the interior as a pictorial space while also referencing the history of architecture, art and design.