Cras, Sophie u.a.
Aesthetics of Equivalence

Art in Capitalism. Edited by Simon Baier & Markus Klammer. Contributions by Sophie Cras, Markus Klammer, Peter Osborne, Simon Baier & Marina Vishmidt.

Five essays consider the relationship between contemporary art and the economy from art theoretical and philosophical perspectives. The eponymous term »equivalence« draws on three main sources: firstly, it refers to the 18th-century notion of the aesthetic and the arts as a social field in which the equality of people is not simply a postulate but can be directly felt and perceived; secondly, it builds on the Marxian definition of the »equivalent form« as universal exchangeability of commodities according to a purely quantitative principle; the third aspect of »equivalence« significant for the book concerns media and infrastructures enabling the digital and physical replication and circulation of images and objects. With regard to particular artworks, the volume's focus is not on content-driven approaches dealing with the flux of goods, information, individuals and capital in a documentary way. Rather, the publication focuses on works whose materiality, form and structure highlight the changed technological, economic and social conditions of art production and reception in an economic field. - Contents: Simon Baier and Markus Klammer: Aesthetics of Equivalence. An Introduction. - Sophie Cras: Principles of Equivalence. Art and Economic Theory in the Long 1960s. - Markus Klammer: Material and Equivalence in Charles Ray. - Peter Osborne: Stilling the Flow? Temporality and Digitality in the Photographie Image. - Simon Baier: Liquidity. The Aesthetics of an Economic Category. - Marina Vishmidt: Art, Value, Subjects, Reasons. Some Aspects of Speculation as Production. - 140 Seiten, broschiert (August Akademie/August Verlag 2023) leicht berieben und leicht angeschmutzt/slightly rubbed and soiled