Michael Rakowitz: Circumventions

by Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev

To circumvent is to get around the rules, to find loopholes, to initiate idiosyncratic solutions, to employ subtle metaphor to highlight problematic situations. Michael Rakowitz does just that, combining architecture, design, agitational techniques and a poetic sensibility to create installations and performances that touch on issues of power, visibility and memory. His paraSITe shelters are custom-built tents for homeless people that attach to the hot exhaust vents of buildings, creating not only a heated abode but one much more visible than a cardboard box. Rise conducts the smell of Chinese pastries from a Chinatown bakery to the decidedly un-local art exhibition in an adjacent building. And in Minaret, Rakowitz uses an alarm clock bought in Jordan to broadcast the adhan, the Muslim call to prayer, to a city where minarets are otherwise quieted.

156 pages, Paperback

First published March 2, 2004

About the author

Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev was the Artistic Director of dOCUMENTA (13) which opened in Kassel on June 9, 2012, and of the 2008 Biennale of Sydney. Previously, she was the director of the Museo di Arte Contemporanea di Torino at Castello di Rivoli in Turin until 2009, and chief curator of the same museum from 2002 to 2008. She wasalso co-curator of the 2005 Turin Triennale. She is interested in the relations between the historical avant-garde and contemporary art through exhibition-making.

Reviews

[Natalie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great general overview of the work of Michael Rakowitz in the late 90's. I'd recommend this to anyone with a vague interest in activism, art, or just someone in need of inspiration.