Transformative Avant-Garde and Other Writings

Transformative Avant-Garde and Other Writings is a comprehensive collection of writings by the artist Krzysztof Wodiczko spanning from the 1970s to the present day. Known for his large-scale, politically charged video and slide projections onto prominent architectural structures, this publication explores the development of Wodiczko's political, theoretical and social motivations in relation to his practice. These writings encompass the artist's ongoing critique of public space and his argument for the integral role that art plays in challenging the institutionalised and national narratives inscribed in the architecture of urban environments, and therefore in the democratic process. Working with marginalised city residents since the 1980s as active, critical democratic agents, Wodizcko explores the political and psychological potential of "fearless" or parrhesiastic speaking in the reanimation of our public spaces and monuments.

Krzysztof Wodiczko is Professor in Residence at Harvard University and was awarded the Hiroshima Prize in 1998 for his contribution as an artist to world peace.