Lenz publishes books on contemporary art, photography, architecture and design.
Our imprint includes catalogues, monographs, theory and artist books.
This richly illustrated publication combines artwork, archival and process imagery, and includes an extended interview with the artist, as well as new essays by key thinkers in the fields of anthropology, philosophy, political economy and art history.
In the first monograph on the feminist conceptual artist collective Claire Fontaine, political theorist and somatic practitioner Anita Chari explores the artist’s theoretical and political innovations to illuminate a more haptic, embodied approach to the practice of critical theory.
Shahryar Nashat inserts his art in the pages of this new artist’s book, which takes the form of a catalogue-turned-manual: but instead of explaining its meaning, he strips it of its aura, flaunts its nature as an object and describes step-by-step how to create it.
Martin Heidegger, Glenn Gould, Jacques-Louis David, Cy Twombly, Paul Engelmann and Ludwig Wittgenstein: characters that Francesco Arena has chosen or rediscovered in multiple contexts over the time recur in this book. Ranging from philosophy, to music, to visual arts, they embrace the whole world of knowledge.
This first institutional monograph on the multimedia practice of artist and director Ali Cherri aims to highlight the themes and formal concerns running through his most recent, highly significant projects at GAMeC, Bergamo; Frac Bretagne, Rennes; Swiss Institute, New York; Biennale Arte 2022, Venice; and the National Gallery, London.
The book highlights the main characteristics of the collective trauma that gave rise to Rachel Whiteread’s project for GAMeC. The psychoanalysts Angelo Antonio Moroni and Pietro Roberto Goisis map out a composite picture, starting from the sense of vulnerability and collective loss associated with the Covid-19 pandemic.
Vincenzo de Bellis and Alessandro Rabottini
Artists: Yuri Ancarani, Giorgio Andreotta Calò, Francesco Arena, Rosa Barba, Elisabetta Benassi, Luca Bertolo, Rossella Biscotti, Chiara Camoni, Gianni Caravaggio, Giulia Cenci, Danilo Correale, Roberto Cuoghi, Enrico David, Patrizio di Massimo, Lara Favaretto, Formafantasma, Linda Fregni Nagler, Giuseppe Gabellone, Martino Gamper, Francesco Gennari, Massimo Grimaldi, Petrit Halilaj, Adelita Husni Bey, Giovanni Kronenberg, Luisa Lambri, Marcello Maloberti, Diego Marcon, Masbedo, Luca Monterastelli, Adrian Paci, Diego Perrone, Alessandro Pessoli, Paola Pivi, Pietro Roccasalva, Alessandro Sciarroni, Marinella Senatore, Francesco Vezzoli.
Designed by Lorenzo Mason Studio
2023, softcover, 10.8 x 18.4 cm, 720 pages
Co-published with Les Presses du réel
ISBN: 978-2-37896-461-0 (English edition)
Strata compiles 37 conversations with artists whose work has made a significant contribution to the Italian and international art scene since 2000. This book is the personal account of a number of encounters, friendships, and professional relationships that Vincenzo de Bellis and Alessandro Rabottini have nurtured over the past twenty years. The conversations explore pivotal moments in each artist’s career and delve into their conceptual and formal concerns, focusing on the aesthetics, philosophies, and politics underpinning their work.
The publication portrays several generations of artists and encompasses an array of diverse approaches to painting, sculpture, film, performance, installation, social and collective intervention, photography, and activism. The title of the book, Strata (the Latin term that denotes the gradual concretion of multiple layers of rock) is thus deployed as a metaphor for the multiplicity of languages and sensibilities that have brought the cultural debate to life in Italy over the past two decades. Moreover, the authors hope that the book will also function as a tool for younger artists, for whom the experiences of the previous generations may constitute a direct resource, enabling them to dive straight into the body of accumulated knowledge that would otherwise be mediated by the current educational hierarchy.
Strata addresses a number of pressing issues that artists today have to face, including their relationship with Histories, traditions and influences; how the personal is interwoven with the professional dimension; the social and political value that art still retains; and how to rethink the field of education today.
Project supported by the Italian Council (10th edition, 2021), program to promote Italian contemporary art around the world by the Directorate-General for Contemporary Creativity of the Italian Ministry of Culture
Proposing entity
Fondazione Arnaldo Pomodoro
With the contribution of
Fondazione In Between Art Film
Cultural partners
Camden Art Centre, London, UK
Fondazione Arnaldo Pomodoro, Milan, Italy
Museum Fridericianum, Kassel, Germany
Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein, Vaduz, Liechtenstein
