Checkpoint Charley: Charley 04

by Maurizio Cattelan (Editor), Massimiliano Gioni (Editor), Ali Subotnick (Editor)

Charley is a series of publications edited by Maurizio Cattelan, Massimiliano Gioni and Ali Subotnick. A voracious creature fixated on the assimilation and consumption of visual art, the fourth issue, Checkpoint Charley, brings together images of works produced by more than 700 artists encountered by the curators of the 4th Berlin Biennial for Contemporary Art during their research. A multiform creature, Charley takes on a new theme and shape with every the first featured 400 emerging artists, the second documented the 2001-2002 New York art season, and Charley 03 presented forgotten artists from the 80s and early 90s. The 4th Berlin Biennial for Contemporary Art is funded by the German Federal Cultural Foundation. Checkpoint Charley is realized with the support of the Culture 2000 program of the European Union.

712 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2004

Reviews

[Tom · Rating 2 out of 5]

A catalog of entries in the 4th Berlin Biennial, presented as poor photocopies of the works submitted--an idea that really works, giving the catalog a feel of immediacy, informality, and, well, cheapness of ideas. The vast majority of works displayed here--stills from videos, performance art, sculptures, paintings, and photography--are ill-conceived, solipsistic, and dreary. Representations of these work on heavy-weight paper and giclee-quality productions values couldn't save those stinkers. The good work still has an arresting quality, and perhaps that was part of Cattelan's idea in his choice of presentation medium--for that alone I would give the book 5 stars. The 2 stars, however, go to the overall intellectual vacuity of the works presented here. Cattelan is just the medium through which they're viewed.