Issue 125
September 2009

‘What I like about theory is that it spares us disasters. We don’t need to see the worst to understand it.’ Sylvère Lotringer in conversation.

Plus: Jörg Heiser asks whether philosophers understand contemporary art, theory’s place in art schools, Art & Language, Walead Beshty, Monica Bonvicini, Liz Deschenes, Vladimir Nabokov, Plato, Eileen Quinlan and John Russell.

Also featuring: Venice 2009 unraveled. 

Reviews from: the UK, USA, Canada, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Ireland, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, the Netherlands, South Africa and Spain.

From this issue

The application of theory to the modern world

BY Mark Fisher | 16 JAN 17

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

BY Sam Thorne | 17 SEP 09

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

BY Robert Storr | 17 SEP 09

The evolution of theory and its impact on contemporary thought

BY Jennifer Allen | 17 SEP 09

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

BY Thomas Karshan | 17 SEP 09

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

BY Noemi Smolik | 17 SEP 09

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

BY Maria Fusco | 17 SEP 09

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

BY Mark Fisher | 17 SEP 09

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

BY Brian Dillon | 17 SEP 09

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

BY Nina Power | 17 SEP 09

Warp Records, 2009

BY Dan Fox | 17 SEP 09

Wisin y Yandel, Machete Music/WY Records, 2009

BY Jace Clayton | 17 SEP 09

The xx, Young Turks, 2009

BY Sam Thorne | 17 SEP 09

Do philosophers understand contemporary art?

BY Jörg Heiser | 01 SEP 09

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'

BY Nina Power | 01 SEP 09

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

BY Christopher Bedford | 01 SEP 09

Delicacy, vitrines and Modernism; scaffolding, relics and arcades

BY Quinn Latimer | 01 SEP 09

Collective memory and amnesia; mapping cities and family life

BY Martin Herbert | 01 SEP 09

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

BY George Stolz | 01 SEP 09

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

BY Vivian Sky Rehberg | 01 SEP 09

Various venues, Cape Town, South Africa

BY Sean O’Toole | 01 SEP 09

MADRe, Naples, Italy

BY Luca Cerizza | 01 SEP 09

Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, USA

BY Steven Stern | 01 SEP 09

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

BY Brian Dillon | 01 SEP 09

Henry Moore Institute, Leeds, UK

BY Maria Fusco | 01 SEP 09

Taka Ishii Gallery, Kyoto, Japan

BY Katie Kitamura | 01 SEP 09

Presentation House Gallery, Vancouver, Canada

BY Dan Adler | 01 SEP 09

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

01 SEP 09

Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York, USA

BY Joanna Kleinberg | 01 SEP 09

Simon Lee, London, UK

BY Mark Durden | 01 SEP 09

Sister, Los Angeles, USA

BY Andrew Berardini | 01 SEP 09

Supportico Lopez, Berlin, Germany

BY Sarah E. James | 01 SEP 09

Museo Tamayo de Arte Contemporáneo, Mexico City, Mexico

BY Jessica Berlanga Taylor | 01 SEP 09

Chisenhale Gallery, London, UK

BY Kate Forde | 01 SEP 09

Gallery Paule Anglim, San Francisco, ISA

BY Melissa E. Feldman | 01 SEP 09

Galería Oliva Arauna, Madrid, Spain

BY Ara H. Merjian | 01 SEP 09

Stephen Friedman Gallery, London, UK

BY Chris Fite-Wassilak | 01 SEP 09

RogueArt, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

BY Brian Curtin | 01 SEP 09

Mary Mary, Glasgow, UK

BY Sarah Lowndes | 01 SEP 09

Various venues, Thessaloniki, Greece

BY Sam Thorne | 01 SEP 09

Le Grand Palais, Paris, France

01 SEP 09

Figge von Rosen Galerie, Cologne, Germany

BY Catrin Lorch | 01 SEP 09

Lismore Castle Arts, Lismore, Ireland

BY Jennifer Higgie | 01 SEP 09

Maureen Paley, London, UK

BY Kathy Noble | 01 SEP 09

Gladstone Gallery, New York, USA

BY George Pendle | 01 SEP 09