Chris Kraus Knihy

Revoluční román americké kritičky, filmařky a spisovatelky Chris Kraus odhalující machismus newyorské intelektuální scény sedmdesátých, osmdesátých a devadesátých let. Kniha která vypráví o tom, jaké to je být ženou umělkyní se nikterak neobtěžuje zakrývat svou autobiografičnost. Když svět upírá ženám právo vyslovovat se k věcem neosobním – vyslovuje se Chris Kraus, kterou newyorská kulturní scéna, jíž vládnou muži, odmítla – nezbývá jí než psát sama o sobě. Jakýkoliv odstup tu není žádoucí. Osobní je politické. Detailní ohledání „nepřijatelných“ emocí – milostné posedlosti, emoční závislosti, sklonů k sebedestrukci – pak nese politický smysl. Hlavní hrdinka z románu vychází jako etické monstrum, sebestředná stárnoucí neurotička, která si projektuje do Dicka své poněkud adolescentní romantické představy, aniž by se kdy zabývala tím, kým vlastně Dick je. Zneužívá druhého člověka pro svůj umělecký projekt a autenticita jejích citů je tak přinejmenším pochybná. Monstróznost její milostné obsese předem odkázané k neúspěchu, nesnesitelná otevřenost, se kterou líčí svou touhu jakož i tělesné nedostatky, nemoci, nesplněné umělecké ambice a životní tragédie, jsou ale v důsledku fascinující. Román je upřímnou zpovědí o ženském selhání a (sebe)ponížení, manifestem nového druhu feministky, která se nebojí probít se vlastním narcisismem k zodpovědnosti za sebe sama a v neposlední řadě skvěle napsané umělecké dílo.

This bilingual publication offers an unprecedented exploration of the work of Belgian poet and artist Sophie Podolski (1953-1974), who has lingered in obscurity since her untimely death at the age of 21. Podolski's work is emblematic of a time marked by sexual liberation, antipsychiatry, and youth disenchantment. As a self-taught writer and artist, she wrote in an uninhibited and provocative style about life, popular culture, and conformist society. While she was known primarily as a poet during her lifetime, this book places emphasis on Podolski's visual practice and highly personal iconography. As well as the original manuscript of her only book, The Country Where Everything Is Permitted (1972), this book showcases Podolski's remarkable body of graphic works, with more than 100 drawings and some of her earliest etchings. Distributed for Mercatorfonds

The European bestseller, an epic of two brothers, brought together and divided by betrayal, secrecy and self-delusion, spanning seventy years of German history: from the Russian Revolution, to World War II, to 1975.

It's Summer, 1991, the dawning of the New World Order; a post-MTV, pre-AOL generation. Jerome Shafir and Sylvie Green, two former New Yorkers who can no longer afford an East Village apartment, set off on a journey across the entire former Soviet Bloc with the intention of adopting a Romanian orphan. Unflinchingly dark, hilarious and moving - Torpor is at once a satire and philosophy of cultural history, social identity and failing relationships. Dipping into the trajectory of a life at different moments, Kraus interrogates convention and emotion, creating characters that are flawed, witty, and altogether true to life.Part prequel, part sequel, Torpor continues a project of life-writing; personal, unsparing, and triumphant. If I Love Dick is the book of your 20s, Torpor is the book of your 30s.

Video Green examines the explosion of late 1990s Los Angeles art driven by high-profile graduate programs. Probing the surface of art-critical buzzwords, Chris Kraus brilliantly chronicles how the City of Angels has suddenly become the epicenter of the international art world and a microcosm of the larger culture. Why is Los Angeles so completely divorced from other realities of the city? Shrewd, analytic and witty, Video Green is to the Los Angeles art world what Roland Barthes' Mythologies were to the society of the spectacle: the live autopsy of a ghost city.

A novel about failure, empathy, and sadness, with a cast of characters that includes Simone Weil, Paul Thek, and the author herself.

Exploring the intersection of art and personal relationships, the essays delve into the complexities of human connections and the contrasting experiences of freedom and confinement. The author reflects on a decade-long friendship, revealing how their lives intertwine through shared moments in a bar, underscored by the act of smoking Marlboros. The work challenges conventional notions of borders, emphasizing the tangible realities of life and art.

Chris Kraus examines artistic enterprises of the past decade that reclaim the use of lived time as a material in the creation of visual art.

The legend and writings of American feminist writer Kathy Acker (1947-1997) - that of a rich girl, street punk, stripper and victim - is wrapped in mythologies. Nowadays Acker's legend has faded, making her writing more legible. In this first biography, Chris Kraus approaches Acker both as a writer and as a member of the artistic communities from which she emerged. The book traces the extreme discipline and literary strategies Acker used to develop her work, and the contradictions she longed to embody. Using archival research and conversations with colleagues and friends, Kraus describes the movement of Acker through some of the late twentieth century's most significant artistic enterprises.