The cultural framework and biopolitics of capitalist globalization has resulted in an increased concentration on the body as a site of production—in contemporary art as in life. Just as the historical avant-gardes sought to overcome art’s autonomous and isolated relationship to society by way of inviting in the ‘praxis of life’; so do contemporary artists whose focus is bodies and subjectivities. In an ever-emergent bio-economy, it is not just the body, but subjects and their lives that are crucial to value creation.
Contributors: Philip Auslander, Dodie Bellamy, Eva Birch, Cristine Brache, Ramsay Burt, Travis Chamberlain, Amy Charlesworth, James Ferraro, Karen Finley, Andrea Fraser, Tim Gentles, Isabelle Graw, Amelia Groom, Aurelia Guo, K8 Hardy, Chris Kraus, Ruth O’Leary, Tanja Ostojic, Carol Que, Ander Rennick, Audrey Schmidt, Phebe Schmidt, Eleanor Ivory Weber, Katie West, Amelia Winata, and Jarrod Zlatic.