[artinfo] The Pleasure of Research

[e-flux]

MaHKU

Release of The Pleasure of Research

<http://www.hatjecantz.de/the-pleasure-of-research-6412-1.html>www.hatjecantz.de

In the lives of theorists and philosophers the question of "What is 
it I have been doing?" pops up time and again carving traces in work 
and thought. For years and years, an ultimate response to that 
question can be avoided and delayed. But suddenly the necessity will 
come up-looking back at a series of projects and figures of thought 
for instance-to give a reply to that question, albeit a temporary one 
in many cases.

Henk Slager's renewed publication The Pleasure of Research is based 
on such a line of events and motivations. After an eight-year period, 
including posts such as Dean of MaHKU/Research Professor at HKU 
University of the Arts Utrecht, Visiting Professor of Artistic 
Research at Finnish Academy of Fine Arts in Helsinki, and an 
incessant involvement in diverse activities focusing on the debate on 
the current role and position of research in visual art, the moment 
has arrived for him now to expand that focus and delve further into 
the question of  "what is research?" in the form of a situating 
publication. 

Starting point for the publication is a flashback of a series of 
curatorial projects by the author in various parts of the world: 
Flash Cube (Leeum, Seoul 2007), Shelter 07 (The Freedom of Public Art 
in the Cover of Urban Space, Harderwijk 2007), Translocalmotion (7th 
Shanghai Biennale 2008), Nameless Science (Apexart, New York 2009), 
Becoming Bologna (Venice 2009), Critique of Archival Reason (RHA, 
Dublin 2010), As the Academy Turns (Manifesta, Murcia 2010), Artistic 
Anthropology (NJP Center, Seoul 2010), Any-Medium-Whatever (Georgian 
Pavilion, Venice Biennale 2011), Temporary Autonomous Research 
(Amsterdam Pavilion, Shanghai Biennale 2012), Offside Effect (1st 
Tbilisi Triennial 2012),The Judgment is the Mirror (Living Art 
Museum, Reykjavik 2013), Joyful Wisdom (Parallel Project Istanbul 
Biennial 2013), Modernity 3.0 (80 WSE NYU, New York 2014), and 
Aesthetic Jam (Project Taipei Biennial 2014). 

In addition, activities come to the fore which are developed in the 
context of the European Artistic Research Network: a network 
investigating the consequences of artistic research for current art 
education in symposia, expert meetings, and presentations such as A 
Certain Ma-ness (Amsterdam 2008), Epistemic Encounters (Utrecht 
2009), Tables of Thought (Helsinki 2010), Agonistic Academies 
(Brussels 2010), Art as a Thinking Process (Venice 2011), Staging 
Knowledge (Istanbul 2012), Doing Research (Documenta 2012), A Counter 
Order of Things (Venice 2013), and What is Monumental Today (St. 
Petersburg 2014).

In The Pleasure of Research, Henk Slager treats the above-mentioned 
activities and projects as traces of inspiration and shows how the 
discussion on research implying issues such as knowledge production, 
artistic thinking, medium-specificity, context-responsiveness, and 
counter-archival display, has affected the current state of visual 
art and art education.

The Pleasure of Research is published by Hatje Cantz, 
Ostfildern. More 
information <http://www.hatjecantz.de/the-pleasure-of-research-6412-1.html>here.

In the context of the 1st Research Pavilion (Sala del Camino, Venice, 
May 6-June 28), a presentation of The Pleasure of Research will take 
place.

The Pleasure of Research was also made possible by the financial 
support of HKU University of the Arts Utrecht and Finnish Academy of 
Fine Arts/University of the Arts Helsinki. 

April 2015, English
17 x 24 cm, 96 pages, 20 b/w ill., softcover
ISBN 978-3-7757-3976-4