"Disassembled" Images. Allan Sekula and Contemporary Art

This volume takes as a point of departure Allan Sekula’s productive approach of “disassembling” elements in order to reassemble them in alternative constellations. A wide range of experts investigates some of the most pressing issues of our time, such as human labor in a globalized economy or the claim for radical democracy. Addressing a variety of artworks, both by Sekula and by other artists, the essays focus on three crucial aspects within recent politically engaged art: collecting as a tool for representing folly and madness; confronting the maritime space of ecological disasters and geopolitical processes with alternative models of solidarity; exploring Sekula’s “critical realism” as a reflective method in search of new social agencies and creative freedom. A text-image portfolio by Marco Poloni completes this profound reflection on Sekula’s influential legacy within contemporary visual art making.