All that Is Solid Melts into Air - Five Reflections on Materialistic Spirituality in Contemporary Ar

Does art have or give a meaning? Can contemporary art be a free haven of spirituality and enchantment in a time that is characterised by an increasing need for giving meaning in a globalised and sometimes virtual world? Answers to these questions are explored here by five internationally acclaimed curators. Illustrated with the works of dozens of contemporary artists this publication attempts to shed light on the contemporary art world. Artists include: Al + Al, Annie Cattrell, Camilla Low, Eva Berendes, Francesco Gennari, Gabriel Kuri, General Idea, Goshka Macuga, Harald Thys, Jimmie Durham and many more. Text in English & Dutch. AUTHOR: Edwin Carels is programmer and curator for the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) for the Exploding Cinema section and is also affiliated as a lecturer at the KASK in Ghent. Since 2002 Bart De Baere has been the Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art of Antwerp. Before that, he was involved in policy making for two years, developing a policy for cultural heritage that envisages the whole of it as an immaterial activity. Prior to that, he was chair of the Flemish Government Council of Museums, and now he is chair of its Council for Culture. He was, among other things, an advisor to the City of Johannesburg for the foundation of the Biennale of Johannesburg and a member of the International Board of the network of Soros Centers of Contemporary Art in Eastern Europe. He was a curator of Documenta IX in Kassel. Liliane Dewachter is an author & curator who writes about visual arts. Dieter Roelstraete was trained as a philosopher at the University of Ghent and currently works as a curator at the Antwerp museum of contemporary art MuHKA. His curatorial projects there include Emotion Pictures; Intertidal, a survey show of contemporary art from Vancouver; The Order of Things; and the collaborative projects Academy: Learning from Art and The Projection Project. In 2005 he co-curated Honoré d'O: The Quest in the Belgian pavilion at the 51st Venice Biennale. He is an editor of Afterall as well as a contributing editor to Prior Magazine and FR David, a journal published by De Appel arts centre in Amsterdam. Grant Watson is currently Projects Curator at MuHKA, Antwerp. ILLUSTRATIONS 200 colour illustrations

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