Edited by Myvillages

Part of the acclaimed Documents of Contemporary Art series of anthologies which collect writing on major themes and ideas in contemporary art.

"Finally a serious and current (rather than nostalgic) analysis of rural culture and environment. The problematic relationship between contemporary art and rural land and lives is too often defined by urban viewpoints. The variety of approaches in this book open a whole new and respectful field that is not as far afield as it seems." 

-Lucy R. Lippard, Author of The Lure of the Local:
Senses of Place in a Multicentered Society

What, and where, is ‘the Rural’? From the rocks that break a farmer’s plough on a field in Japan, to digital infrastructures which organise geographically dispersed interests and ambitions, vast parts of our lives are still connected and dependent on resources and  production located within rural geographies, with the rural remaining a shared and common cultural space. This anthology offers an urgent and diverse cross-section of rural art, thinking and practice, and considers how artists respond to the socio-economic divides between the rural and the urban, from re-imagined 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.

Artists surveyed include Lara Almarcegui, Lina Bo Bardi, Ruth Ewan, Forensic Architecture, Futurefarmers, Fernando García-Dory, Grizedale Arts, Sigrid Holmwood, Huit Façettes, Brian Jungen, M12, Renzo Martens, Lala Meredith-Vula, Grace Ndiritu, OHO Group, Robert Smithson, Rirkrit Tiravanja, Andrea Zittel, Stephen Willats, Bedwyr Williams, Franciska Zólyom.

Writers include Kenneth Anders, Homi K. Bhabha, Sacha Bronwasser, Okwui Enwezor, Hal Foster, Freeyad Ibrahim, Julia Kristeva, Henri Lefebvre, Marco Marcon, Georgy Nikich, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Paul O’Neill, Mike Pearson, Doina Petrescu, Tomasz Rakowski, Natalie Robertson, Marco Scotini, Vandana Shiva, Monika Szewczyk, David Teh, Colin Ward, Grit Weber, Stephen Wright.

Myvillages is an international artist initiative founded and run since 2003 by Kathrin Böhm (Germany/UK), Wapke Feenstra (Netherlands) and Antje Schiffers (Germany).

Paperback, 240 pages, 210 x 145 mm

ISBN 978-0-85488-271-7

First published 2019

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