Revolution in the Head, or, Free Your Mind and Your Ass Will Follow’

This work features the following artists: Michael Blum, Nick Crowe, Igor Grubiae, Sanja Ivekoviae, Gergely Laszlo and Peter Rakosi, Nils Norman, and, Adrian Paci. It is edited by Maja Fowkes and Reuben Fowkes. It includes essays by Simon Sheikh, Gerald Raunig, Benda Hofmeyer, Chus Martinez, Maja and Reuben Fowkes. This publication brings together the artistic response to contemporary revolution represented by the exhibition and new reflections on the relationship between art and revolution by theorists and art historians. The book includes illustrations and interviews with the artists, and essays that tackle issues such as art and revolution, aesthetics and politics, ecology and anarchism. Gerald Raunig marks out alternatives to the takeover of the state apparatus as the primary goal of revolutionary activity. Benda Hofmeyr locates the significance of revolution in its transformation into a spectacle that provokes fervour in the minds of viewers. Simon Sheikh reviews the divide between aesthetics and politics and Chus Martinez examines Revolution and Garden Party as two opposing cultural idioms. Maja and Reuben Fowkes connect anarchy, ecology and art as factors of contemporary revolution. Responses to individual works by artists and curators highlight the variety of experiences and understandings of revolution in the context of contemporary art. This book is published to accompany an exhibition at Manchester Metropolitan University, February 2007