Now available: Journal der Künste 21

The 21st issue of the Journal of the Arts appears in a new design and with a focus on issues of sustainability and maintenance. The cover photo shows the hands of Mierle Laderman Ukeles: the artist declared maintenance and care work to be art in her “Manifesto for Maintenance Art” in 1969, and deals with urban waste metabolism. Her work is part of the exhibition “The Great Repair”, which provides the occasion for the core themes of this journal. One of the central questions: Which artistic practices and perspectives help us address the major challenge of the multiple ecological crises that have been brought on, in part, by a traditional understanding of modernity framed by an industrial, colonial society predicated on growth? In addition to an exhibition introduction by Anh-Linh Ngo and an interview with Laderman Ukeles, photographs by Zara Pfeifer show the Hanseatenweg site from the perspective of cleaning work and maintenance. Cécile Wajsbrot’s “Goodbye to Winter”, which was read at the “Time to Listen!” festival, is reprinted, and Nathalie Mälzer’s and Ulrike Draesner’s contributions address the literature project “What drives us – energy and energeia between politics and poetry”.

This issue also focuses on dialogs with academy members: Painter Luc Tuymans sees his work as characterized by the balance between violence and tenderness, and talks about the exhibition he co-created with actress Edith Clever. Photographer Gundula Schulze Eldowy talks to Boris Friedewald about her encounter with Robert Frank on the occasion of her upcoming exhibition. To celebrate the 150th anniversary of the acquisition of the Serpentara oak grove, the journal contains preprints by Serpentara-fellowship holders Anna Hetzer, Andreas Bode and Moshtari Hilal. Author and poet Mátyás Dunajcsik highlights the dwindling artistic freedom in Hungary, which has led to resignation and massive emigration.

The restitution of a sketchbook by Max Liebermann recalls the sad legacy which presents us with the ongoing challenge of addressing the expulsion and annihilation of Akademie members and the theft of their works during the Nazi period. A recent find – a letter from Else Lasker-Schüler to Tilla Durieux – evokes the bohemian period that preceded it. Martin Kölbel and Peter Villwock provide an insight into the meticulous forensic approach of their major editorial undertaking to publish all of Bertold Brecht’s notebooks.

The Journal der Künste is available in German and English and is free of charge. If you wish to receive the print version of a single issue or if you are interested in a subscription, please send an email to info@adk.de or use the order form.