Presentation of the catalog ABSALON and lecture by Philip Ursprung

8 pm
Presentation of the catalog ABSALON and lecture by Philip Ursprung

Lecture by Philip Ursprung
Design of the In/human: Absalon and the Spaces of Depression
What makes Absalon and his work so current almost 20 years after his death?
Do Absalon’s highly stylized dwellings mirror the isolation of the subjects, the pressure of competition and the anxiety at the possibility of being excluded?
Or, could we consider them to be models, showing us that everyone has the possibilty to change society?

Lecture in German
Free admission

Since 2011, Philip Ursprung is professor for Art and Architectural History at ETH Zurich. He teached at University of Arts, Berlin, at Zurich University and at Columbia University New York.
He ist he editor of Herzog & de Meuron: Naturgeschichte (2002), author of Grenzen der Kunst: Allan Kaprow und das Happening, Robert Smithson und die Land Art (2003), and co-author of Studio Olafur Eliasson: An Encyclopedia (2008). His latest publicaton is Die Kunst der Gegenwart: 1960 bis heute (2010).

On February 24 the catalog accompanying the extensive retrospective ABSALON at KW Institute for Contemporary Art will be released.
This publication is the first to ever offer illustrations of all the artist’s work and theoretical essays covering Absalon's entire oeuvre.

ABSALON, ed. by Susanne Pfeffer.
Foreword by Hortensia Völckers; Lecture by Absalon; Texts by Bernard Marcadé, Nina Möntmann, Moshe Ninio, Beate Söntgen, Philip Ursprung and a conversation between Ute Meta Bauer, Hans Ulrich Obrist and Susanne Pfeffer. 352 pages with 189 illustrations; German/English; 225 x 265,5 mm; Hardcover. Cologne: Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, 2011; ISBN: 978-3-86560-952-6; 49.80 Euro, On the occasion of the presentation at KW the catalog will be available at the special price of 45 Euro. The catalog can also be ordered online.