Critical Grounds #6. Portrait of a critical practice. In conversation with Douglas Crimp

For the sixth volume of the Critical Grounds series, Arshake presents a lengthy and significant conversation between Maria Giovanna Mancini and Douglas Crimp. Ritratto di una pratica critica (Portrait of a critical practice) is, in fact, a journey which – besides the writer’s perceptive reflection on his character and the contemporary art scene – invites the reader to “get to grips with Crimp’s method and his writing, which alongside theoretical reflection offers biographical memoir and detailed description of the background against which art events took place”.

Linked to a blurring between artistic disciplines and a vision which cannot help but feel the need to take up the threads of politics, ethics and society, the journey proposed by Mancini – whose works include the authoritative monograph October. Una rivista militante (Luciano, Naples 2014) – outlines the intellectual itinerary of a figure whose brilliant analysis of facts and methods of research is inserted within the narration of a life of active participation in a complex cultural scene. Enjoy the ride. And enjoy the read.

Antonello Tolve

«Critical Grounds», the Arshake’s publishing project directed by Antonello Tolve*, is born from the desire to network precious and of great cultural interest books in open source electronic format. It is, in fact, a shelf which, together with the re-release of untraceable or forgotten essays, spreads rumors of the international critical scene to offer a wide-ranging look at the culturological contemporary landscape. Alongside this program “Critical Grounds” also proposes artist books, new authors and new voices of fiction to share with its authors and its readers a wide choice of assumptions, guidelines, designs on the creative area of the near future.

* The Critical Grounds from #1 to #5 were curated together with Christian  Caliandro.