Nadim Samman Boeken

Proprietary algorithms, secret data troves, and inscrutable systems rule the day. How is this registered in art? In Poetics of Encryption Nadim Samman explores works that highlight the hidden dimensions of our technological landscape. Running counter to erroneous claims regarding a new culture of transparency and openness, such artworks address black sites, black boxes, and black holes—all the while, toggling between enlightened concern and occult dreaming. NADIM SAMMAN is Curator for the Digital Sphere at KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin. He read Philosophy at University College London before receiving his PhD from the Courtauld Institute of Art. Widely published, in 2019 he was First Prize recipient of the International Award for Art Criticism (IAAC). Major curatorial projects included the 4th Marrakech Biennale (2012), the 5th Moscow Biennale for Young Art (2015) and the 1st Antarctic Biennale (2017).

Collected interviews from a prominent Lebanese theater artist A leading voice in Lebanon’s cultural diaspora, acclaimed stage actor and visual artist Rabih Mroué (born 1967) produces work that addresses the contested memory of historical events such as the Lebanese civil war, the Arab Spring and the Syrian Revolution. This volume presents his collected interviews.

Straddling the genres of travelogue and critical essay, As We Used to Float explores Bikini Atoll as a space of fantasy and trauma. Situated in a remote region of the Pacific Ocean, between 1946 and 1958 ist ‚paradise’ islands were subjected to twenty-three of the most powerful explosions in history – during Operation Crossroads, the United States nuclear testing program. Since then, their fate has been largely ignored. While toggling between a personal account of a sea journey, above and below water, and a critical investigation of postcolonial geography , As We Used to Float develops broader reflections on place and subjectivity. These spring from a series of narrative immersions, variously taking on the psychological and astehtic parameters of ultra-deep scuba diving, the decaying ‚Ghost Fleet’ of World War II battleships, irradiated coconuts, and more As We Used to Float is a sea-story for our time.