Tirdad Zolghadr: Traction

Tirdad Zolghadr
Traction

Traction argues that contemporary art is defined by a moral economy of indeterminacy that allows curators and artists to imagine themselves on the other side of power. This self-positioning, in turn, leaves us politically bankrupt, intellectually stagnant, and aesthetically predictable. In his memoir-polemic, curator and writer Tirdad Zolghadr candidly reflects on his own experiences and the work of others. He also drafts possibilities for a logic and a support structure that can offer some purchase of their own, beyond the gravitational pull of business as usual. Ultimately, Traction calls for a renewed sense of profession, somewhere within the corridors of power where, for better or worse, contemporary art has long arrived.

Published by Sternberg Press, 2016,
Design by Aude Lehmann, Zurich
ISBN 978-3-95679-203-8
264 pages, 1 b/w and 4 color ill., softcover