Jean-Jacques Lebel at the ZKM

Jean-Jacques Lebel guides participants in person through his exhibition »The highest of all the Arts is Insurrection« held at the ZKM | Media Museum. This will be followed by a presentation of the recent publication »Jean-Jacques Lebel. Barricades« (»The Future of the Past«, vol. 4) and the book signing.
 

About the publication

Without Jean-Jacques Lebel, born in Paris, in 1936, the history of Happenings in Europe would be unthinkable. He has been confronting an international public in Venice, Milan, London and Paris with an intense series of political Happenings ever since 1960, and initiated the still active »Polyphonix Festival«, in 1979. The critical analysis and treatment of social questions and the fundamental critique of art history as a history of genius, have continued, until today, to define the work of this multi-media artist, author, theorist and curator.

Presented in Germany for the first time, the book is an exemplary description of the work of Jean-Jacques Lebel’s artistic creations. The core of the work turns on the Happenings of the 1960s, all which are richly documented with numerous illustrations and analyzed in detail by Alyce Mahon, professor in Cambridge.  The written contributions by Félix Guattari (1988) and Robert Fleck analyze the specific methods »Montrage« (»Montage« and »montrer«, Fr. for »showing«) as are used by Lebel in his sculptural works. There is also an extensive interview with Lebel, held for the first time in the German language, in which he offers a vivid presentation of the fundamental idea of the rhizome.

In keeping with the idea of the series »The Future of the Past«, Axel Heil’s introduction is dedicated to the present-day significance of the work and, by way of the idea of the barricade as a collective act, analyzes Lebel’s concept of art, which vehemently resists the art-market dominated mainstream.
 

Publication details

• Edited by Axel Heil in the series »The Future of the Past« 
• Introduction by Axel Heil 
• Texts by Robert Fleck, Félix Guattari, Alyce Mahon, Jacques Rivette; Interview by Jean de Loisy with Jean-Jacques Lebel  
• Format (width x height): 24 x 17 cm 
• Number of pages: 248
• Number of Illustrations: ca. 100 (b/w), ca. 160 (color) 
• Binding: soft-cover 
• Language: German and English edition
• Publisher: Walther König, Cologne
• ISBN: 978-3-86335-660-6
• Price: 28 €