Rural

An investigation through texts, interviews, and documentation of the complex relationship between the urban, the rural, and contemporary cultural production.

What, and where, is “the Rural”? From the rocks that break a farmer's plough on a field in Japan to digital infrastructures that organize geographically dispersed interests and ambitions, vast parts of our lives are still connected and dependent on resources, production, and infrastructures located within rural geographies, and the rural remains a shared cultural space. This anthology offers an urgent and diverse cross-section of rural art, thinking, and practice, with writings that consider ways in which artists respond to the socioeconomic divides between the rural and the urban—from reimagined farming practices and food systems to architecture, community projects, and transnational local networks. Edited by three artists who have been working within rural situations and communities for the last twenty years, this anthology is formed as a document, tool, and navigation device for future artistic practice in which “the rural” is filtered through a lens sharpened by an audience-based model of art that practices from within the culture it addresses.

Artists, practitioners, and organizations surveyed include
Lara Almarcegui, Archstoyanie Festival, Joseph Beuys, Lina Bo Bardi, Melanie Bonajo, Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale, Olafur Eliasson, Fieldwork, Amy Franceschini, Rainer Ganahl, Fernando García-Dory, Grizedale Arts, Hans Haacke, Sigrid Holmwood, Jatiwangi Art Factory, Brian Jungen, Anastasia Khoroshilova, Tea Mäkipää, Renzo Martens, M12 Group, Nikolay Polissky, Marjetica Potrc, Katerina Šeda, Robert Smithson, Rirkrit Tiravanija

Writers include
Kenneth Anders, Sacha Bronwasser, Homi K. Bhabha, Hal Foster, Ivan Illich, Steven Jacobs, Julia Kristeva, Henri Lefebvre, Marco Marcon, Georgy Nikich, Carolyn Steel, Vandana Shiva, Paul O'Neill, Mike Pearson, Doina Petrescu, Miranda Pope, Natalie Robertson, Paul Roncken, Rosemary Shirley, Sue Spaid, David Teh, Reinhardt Vanhoe, Colin Ward