Afterall 7

This exhibition and series of events and seminars was the result of an invitation by Apex Art, New York.

I chose to bring together two aspects of my research: theoretical writing and editorship of the Journal Afterall (since its inception in 1998 to the present); linked with my curatorial involvement in presenting contemporary art. I selected one issue of the journal (AFTERALL #7) where I had taken a central role in determining its theme and contents and which focused on the conceptual possibilities of the gothic as an aesthetic, political and social proposition exploring both the dark side (of artistic behaviour) and complex visual patterning.

I embodied my concept for the show in the following quotation: “If the mind, while imagining non-existent things as present to it, is at the same time conscious that they do not really exist, this power of imagination must be set down to the efficacy of its nature, and not to a fault, especially if this faculty of imagination depend solely on its own nature – that is if this faculty of imagination be free” – Benedict de Spinoza. My general aim was to use the exhibition to explore the problematics of resistance in the context of – as I expressed it in the introduction to the exhibition - ‘ the default victory of capitalism, a tragedy waiting to happen for thirty years at least’

Charles Esche

Research Interests

In line with my role as director of the Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, I am busy looking at the terms in which art museums and other art institutions can function within a city and with particular communities. The question in general is: what is the point of a city art museum in the twenty-first century? It includes questions about global cultural exchanges, local communities, public identities, singularity and the public sphere. At the same time, through the Community and Art workshops series, I am exploring how creative communities in diverse parts of the world can connect, learn from each other and break down nationalistic or regional barriers to a global, but differentiated, cultural sphere. The outcome of this research is in the form of exhibitions, workshops, public projects and texts.

Charles Esche and Mark Lewis co-founded Afterall, a research and publishing organisation, at Central Saint Martins in 1998. Each issue of Afterall Journal brings together five international artists whose work seems particularly pertinent to the wider cultural debates of the moment. In 2002 Los-Angeles based artist and writer Thomas Lawson joined Afterall as co-editor of the journal. Subsequently a second Afterall office was opened at California Institute of the Arts in Los Angeles.

• http://www.afterall.org/journal/issue.7/
• http://www.apexart.org/exhibitions/esche...
• http://www.mitpress.mit.edu/afterall
• http://www.vanabbemuseum.nl/