Publisher: Walker Art Center ISBN: 9781935963158 Editor: Fionn Meade Format: Softcover, 244pp, 254x190mm
Question the Wall Itself examines ways that interior spaces and decor 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 Laverriere, 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 decor": a critique of ideas of nationality, globalisation and the space of the institution through constructed interior scenes. Recasting our conception of interior space and design, the featured works exist between art, prop, and set or stage.
Espousing this mise-en-scene 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 walkthrough of the installations, and essays by Jordan Carter, Adrienne Edwards, Isla Leaver-Yap, Fionn Meade, and Robert Wiesenberger, as well as contributions from participating artists.