From 1993-96, artist Rainer Ganahl held six reading
seminars with six different bibliographies in six different countries
and entitled this public project; "IMPORTED - A READING SEMINAR,
Or How to Reinvent the Coffee Table: 25 Books for Instant Use (7
Different National Versions)". Imported A Reading Seminar is
an extension of that project and gathers together a collection of
texts with the common theme of import. For this volume, Ganahl invited
a series of authors who have an intimate relation with each country
he visited to contribute texts or interviews addressing the consequences
of (cultural) exchange, globalization, nationalism, multinationalism,
Orientalism, Eurocentrism, tourism, languages, theory, desires, identity,
and politics from a variety of perspectives.
The interview between Kojin Karatani and Sabu Kohso, included in
this volume, addresses important economical and political aspects
along with its instrumentality in the construction of nations and
of race consciousness; Bill Arning’s text demonstrates how
the author came to understand through his experience as a curator
that sexuality always has a specific cultural context; Coco Fusco
deals with issues of prostitution in socialist countries now in the
process of transition to capitalism; dealing with displacement of
collective identities and their representation, Sami Naïr asks
the question: What is it to be Arab? And Sylvere Lotringer: How can
one become a foreigner in a foreign country. The resulting volume
includes texts in English, Japanese, Russian, German, and French
by nineteen different authors. Knowledge of a foreign language helps,
but is not necessary. Along with those already mentioned included
are texts by Julia Kristeva, Gayatri Spivak, Edward Said, Zeigam
Azizov, Lisa Adkins, Dan Bacalzo, Benjamin Buchloh, Karen Kelsky,
Dana Leonard, Edward Soja, Victor Tupitsyn, Wulf Schmidt-Wulfen. |
