Link Editions: AFK by Domenico Quaranta

The Link Art Center is happy to announce that AFK. Texts on Artists 2011 – 2016 by Domenico Quaranta is now available on our shelves. The book can be bought as a black and white paperback with a 20% discount or downloaded as a free pdf.

AFK – an acronym for “away of keyboard” widely used online – is an anthology of texts written for catalogues and exhibition brochures along the last five years, featuring twelve texts about eleven artists and an artist duo: Rosa Menkman, Jon Rafman, Gazira Babeli, Martin Kohout, Maurizio Cattelan, Enrico Boccioletti, Constant Dullaart, Jill Magid, Aram Bartholl, Emilie Brout & Maxime Marion, Evan Roth and Addie Wagenknecht. In different ways, these artists experienced the impact of digital means of production and dissemination, they experimented with them, they thought about them, and all this is reflected in their work. As Peter Sunde, the co-founder of the Pirate Bay, they think the internet is real, and they spend a lot of time in this real space of life, communication, love, hate, surveillance, sharing, and copying. Most of the works discussed here are made to be experienced in a brick and mortar space, away of keyboard; but reflect the current way of living, communicating, loving, hating, spying, sharing, copying, on and away of keyboard.

 

 

Domenico Quaranta is a contemporary art critic and curator interested in the way art reflects the current technological shift. The author of Beyond New Media Art (2013) and In My Computer (2011), he contributed to, edited or co-edited a number of books and catalogues including GameScenes. Art in the Age of Videogames (2006) and THE F.A.T. MANUAL (2013). Since 2005, he curated and co-curated many exhibitions, including: Holy Fire. Art of the Digital Age (2008); RE:akt! (2009 – 2010); Playlist (2009 – 2010); Collect the WWWorld (2011 – 2012); Unoriginal Genius (2014); Cyphoria (2016). He lectures internationally and teaches “Interactive Systems” at the Accademia di Carrara. He is the Artistic Director of the Link Art Center.