Question the Wall Itself

Published by Walker Art Center

Edited with text by Fionn Meade. Foreword by Olga Viso. Text by Jordan Carter, Adrienne Edwards, Mason Leaver-Yap, Robert Wiesenberger.

Question the Wall Itself examines ways that interior spaces and décor can be funda­mental to the understanding of cultural identity. It showcases 23 international artists who explore the political and social dimensions of interior architecture as well as its complicated relationship to history and their own backgrounds. The featured artists are Jonathas de Andrade, Uri Aran, Nina Beier, Marcel Broodthaers, Tom Burr, Alejandro Cesarco, Marc Camille Chaimowicz, Theaster Gates, Ull Hohn, Janette Laverrière, Lou­ise Lawler, Nick Mauss, Park McArthur, Lucy McKenzie, Shahryar Nashat, Walid Raad, Seth Siegelaub, Paul Sietsema, Florine Stettheimer, Rosemarie Trockel, Cerith Wyn Evans, Danh Vo and Akram Zaatari.

The book and the exhibition it accompanies take as its guiding principle what Marcel Broodthaers termed “esprit décor”: a critique of ideas of nationality, globalization and the space of the institution through constructed interior scenes. Recasting our con­ception of interior space and design, the works on view exist between artwork, prop, and set or stage. Espousing this mise-en-scène approach, Question the Wall Itself plugs readers into material that expands the show in the form of book-as-exhibition. It includes an extensive photographic walk-through of the installations, essays by Jordan Carter, Adrienne Edwards, Mason Leaver-Yap, Fionn Meade, and Robert Wiesen­berger, reprinted texts by Douglas Crimp and Jalal Toufic, as well as contributions from participating artists.

• Walker Art Center, 2017
• Paperback, 7.5 x 10 inches
• 244 pages, 150 color/50 b&w