Andrea Steves is an artist, curator, researcher, and organizer currently based between New York and Vienna, Austria. Her recent projects deal with museums and public history, monuments and memorials, and the complex legacies of the Cold War. Andrea also works in the collective FICTILIS and is co-founder of the Museum of Capitalism. She is currently a visiting scholar at the Center For Capitalism Studies at The New School.
Held online December 12, 2020, this roundtable discussion on “art & strategy” brought together perspectives from Nora N. Khan, Serubiri Moses, Zoé Samudzi, Andrea Steves, MARCH founders Sarrita Hunn and James McAnally, and was moderated by Gelare Khoshgozaran with Human Resources (and thanks to Hugo Servantes) in Los Angeles.
Can publication (the act of making public) be an act of protest (public making)?
“Capitalism is what is left when beliefs have collapsed at the level of ritual or symbolic elaboration, and all that is left is the consumer-spectator, trudging through the ruins and the relics.” – Mark Fisher
“Il capitalismo è quel che resta quando ogni ideale è collassato allo stato di elaborazione simbolica o rituale: il risultato è un consumatore-spettatore che arranca tra ruderi e rovine.” – Mark Fisher
Dear X,
How are you doing today? How is your breathing? Have you checked the news yet? Is this what you expected from your year? Do you think we’ll still have elections by the end of it? What have you been cooking? Are you taking the appropriate number of supplements? Are you getting in your steps? Are we living in a failed state? Do you like my YSL knockoff mask my friend sent? What art is bringing you solace? Are you still consolable? Do you want to share a cocktail over FaceTime later? When are we anyway? Are we already too late?
With Care,
Andrea and James