The application of theory to the modern world

The changing role of cultural theory, and its enduring importance for contemporary art

Contemporary art’s confusion about the difference between praxis and practice

The evolution of theory and its impact on contemporary thought

The publication of an unfinished novel by Vladimir Nabokov prompts a reflection on the aesthetic possibilities of the literary vanishing act

Vladimir Solovyov is now – thanks to Lenin’s censorship – the most important philosopher you’ve never heard of

In an ongoing series, frieze asks an artist, curator or writer to list the books that have influenced them

Steven Shaviro (MIT Press, Cambridge, 2009) / Graham Harman (Re.Press, Melbourne, 2009)

Giorgio Agamben, trans. David Kishik and Stefan Pedatella (Stanford University Press, 2009)

The Invisible Committee (Semiotext(e), Los Angeles, 2009)

Warp Records, 2009

Wisin y Yandel, Machete Music/WY Records, 2009

The xx, Young Turks, 2009

Do philosophers understand contemporary art?

Four leading teachers from universities and art schools around the world reflect on the importance of theory for students today

Theorist Sylvère Lotringer talks art and the market, the failings of capitalism and how radical thinking can help us survive 'the system'

Artists Walead Beshty, Liz Deschenes and Eileen Quinlan discuss the return of the topic of abstraction to photography

Delicacy, vitrines and Modernism; scaffolding, relics and arcades

Collective memory and amnesia; mapping cities and family life

Human rights and urban living; knowledge, complicity and the potential for change

A guide

The highs and lows of the 53rd Venice Biennale, ‘Fare Mondi Making Worlds’

BAK, basis voor actuele kunst, Utrecht, and Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, The Netherlands

Various venues, Cape Town, South Africa

MADRe, Naples, Italy

Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, USA

Irish Museum of Modern Art, Project Arts Centre, Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin, Ireland

Henry Moore Institute, Leeds, UK

Taka Ishii Gallery, Kyoto, Japan

Presentation House Gallery, Vancouver, Canada

What do you like the look of? The sheep in the meadow

Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York, USA

Simon Lee, London, UK

Sister, Los Angeles, USA

Supportico Lopez, Berlin, Germany

Museo Tamayo de Arte Contemporáneo, Mexico City, Mexico

Chisenhale Gallery, London, UK

Gallery Paule Anglim, San Francisco, ISA

Galería Oliva Arauna, Madrid, Spain

Stephen Friedman Gallery, London, UK

RogueArt, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Mary Mary, Glasgow, UK

Various venues, Thessaloniki, Greece

Le Grand Palais, Paris, France

Figge von Rosen Galerie, Cologne, Germany

Lismore Castle Arts, Lismore, Ireland

Maureen Paley, London, UK

Gladstone Gallery, New York, USA