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The November issue of ArtReview puts the ‘review’ under scrutiny: How do we (in the broadest sense) decide what to review? Can anything be reviewed? Is it possible to exhaust the review format? And why are we obsessed with reading reviews?
Four critics from around the world explore these questions via extended reviews: far from the galleries and artists studios of São Paulo, Oliver Basciano explores the rodeos and local festivals of his new hometown in the state of Minas Gerais; from Tokyo, Thu-Huong Ha deep-dives into the reviews website Tabelog and finds that the clientele of restaurants and funeral homes have very specific requirements; Martin Herbert repeatedly visits the same exhibition in Berlin, finding more and more on each return; Gaby Cepeda reviews everything within the one-kilometre radius of Mexico City’s posh galleries district; and Wendy comics artist Walter Scott contributes his own wry take on criticism for the issue’s backpage comic, as Wendy takes on the art critics.
‘I had a lot of problems with museums. I am still not welcome at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, but others are more open [to my work] now.’ German artist Hans Haacke, champion of ‘institutional critique’ (an inquiry that usually took the form of artwork that criticised the very museum and gallery systems in which they were shown) and featured on this issue’s cover (with an intervention by Scott’s hapless Wendy), is interviewed by Liam Gillick ahead of his retrospective at SCHIRN Kunsthalle, Frankfurt.
Álvaro Urbano incorporates a decommissioned public artwork-cum-furniture by American postminimalist artist Scott Burton in his new installation at New York’s SculptureCenter – prompting Jenny Wu to question what happens to a work when it’s displayed outside of its intended context: ‘Urbano’s vision is at odds with Burton’s aim and risks obfuscating the dissembling and demotic spirit of the latter’s public art. Whether the late artist’s original intent remains alive and legible in re-presentations of his work will determine, in large part, if it and his legacy have been stewarded or usurped.’
Elsewhere in the issue, Harminder Judge speaks to Finn Blythe about tantric art, existence, portals and death; Nate Budzinski asks why exhibitions about art and witchcraft are so popular; J.J. Charlesworth questions whether populist art is really for the people or just for the artworld; and Dorrell Merritt considers the enduring format of the photographic tableau. Plus exhibition and book reviews from around the world, including PST ART in Los Angeles, Manifesta 15 in Barcelona, Lyon Biennale and Baltic Triennial in Vilnius.
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