Breaking Point
OVER THE PAST FEW MONTHS, I have started dancing again. With a club kid for an inner child, I never really meant to stop. I moved to an unfamiliar city; I had a baby; the pandemic hit. I turned forty and assumed some chapters of my life had closed; I watched a genocide unfold on Instagram and felt my feet turn to lead. But since the reelection of Donald Trump last November—to say nothing of other disastrous elections around the world—I keep finding myself saying yes: yes to sweating out my fury and frustration; yes to enjoying any precarious, precious freedoms; yes to joy and camaraderie and hope, however fleeting.
I mention this too-personal news only because I find it almost impossible to reflect on the closing of the 2024–25 season of Artforum’s print edition—my first full season as editor in chief—outside of my own turbulent lived experience: endless hours of deep despair about the state of the world increasingly punctuated by moments of purposeful labor and meaningful connection, both with art at their center. I know many others feel similarly, which has inspired my ambition to make Artforum a kind of virtual nexus for artists and those who support them on an international scale. It’s not everything—it certainly will not save lives, nor ensure civil liberties—but unfortunately, in this climate, it’s not nothing, either.
In my many conversations over the past year with various members of the art world(s) in cities ranging from Shanghai to Mexico City to Berlin, one recurring topic has been the need for new models. Almost everyone seems to think almost everything is broken, or breaking: markets, institutions, criticism, contemporary aesthetics, public discourse. I do not pretend to have all the answers, but it is precisely the job of our editors to guide us to those artists and writers who might. In this issue, we hear from Benjamin H. D. Buchloh on Gabriel Orozco’s turn to “use value” as a bulwark against spectacle; Marina Isgro on Liliane Lijn’s feminist re-casting of technology; Percy Zvomuya on Esther Mahlangu’s hybridization of modern and traditional forms; Glenn Adamson on “adhocism” as an alternative to “Cybertruckism”; Diedrich Diederichsen on Mi You’s notion of a “multipolar” art world; Cecilia Alemani on transforming globalized museums into “spaces with unique identities”; and our own Theo Belci on one group’s unconventional approach to criticism (to cite only the most obvious examples). On the cover of this issue is a detail of Carmen Winant’s 2023 work The last safe abortion; as Jessica Simmons-Reid writes in her assessment of Winant’s practice, her works examine “feminist histories, the contentious politics of the body, and the phenomenological qualities of the photograph itself,” providing a kind of model for both art and politics past the point where either feel safe (or perhaps even possible).
In several of my other letters, I have written about the importance of the infrastructures that condition the work we all do. Here at Artforum, we are committed to formats that allow us to host critical dialogues informed by history and theory, contributing to a conversation about art that is more capacious than news or publicity. In September, we introduced The Checklist, a column offering curators a platform to discuss the work that they do in a more foundational sense; similarly, in October, we initiated Under the Influence, a new video series in which prominent artists reflect on the networks of people and ideas that inspired them. We also re-launched On Site as a column dedicated to the analysis of specific cultural spaces and live events (such as conferences) that help shape our discourse, and yet rarely receive critical coverage. In December, we introduced The Critics’ Critics, a new year-in-review column highlighting the important work that critics do, and inaugurated Atelier, a series of live panel discussions followed by informal receptions, with the goal of creating spaces for people to engage in focused, nuanced conversations. Throughout the season, we have prioritized Close-Up, our feature focusing on specific artworks, which can be especially useful for modeling close reading and highlighting permanent collection displays, public art, and other installations of artworks that would not normally be reviewed and yet shape “contemporary art” (all art is contemporary art).
Looking forward, we also will be placing more emphasis on formats that reflect Artforum’s position as an indispensable resource on contemporary art. For example, we will be publishing more Diaries and other on-the-ground reports; ramping up Dossier, an ongoing series of thematic compilations of materials drawn from Artforum’s archive (each functioning as a kind of primer on that topic); and further developing Screening Room, a video series that features moving-image art, making hard-to-find works accessible to global audiences. Most broadly, we aim to be more timely (with more rapid reviews); more dialogical (with more roundtables, interviews, and opinion pieces); and more international (thanks to our growing networks in urban and regional centers)—always with an eye on how we can be most helpful to the larger field.
None of this would be possible without my Artforum colleagues and our contributors, including artists and writers. I am grateful for the continued dedication of our staff to the highest editorial standards, and for our supporters who appreciate the value of what they do. We look forward to being back in print in September for Artforum’s sixty-fourth season. In the meantime, we hope you enjoy the content we will continue to produce for our digital platforms, and that you find joy and camaraderie and hope—wherever, whenever, and with whomever you can find them.
—Tina Rivers Ryan
