Quick Facts
Biography
Anton Vidokle is an artist and founder of e-flux. Born 1965, Vidokle lives in New York and Berlin.
Work
In 2004 Vidokle co-organized e-flux video rental with Julieta Aranda, which traveled to Berlin, Frankfurt; Extra City, Antwerp; Carpenter Center, Harvard University and others. As founder of e-flux, he has produced projects such as Next Documenta Should Be Curated by an Artist (curated by Jens Hoffmann), Do it (curated by Hans-Ulrich Obrist), Utopia Station poster project, and organized An Image Bank for Everyday Revolutionary Life (based on the image archive of David Alfaro Siqueiros) and Martha Rosler Library.
In 2005, Vidokle initiated research into education as site for artistic practice as co-curator for Manifesta 6, which was canceled. In response to the cancellation, Vidokle set up an independent project in Berlin called Unitednationsplaza (2006–2007) a twelve-month project involving more than a hundred artists, writers, philosophers, and diverse audiences. Located behind a supermarket in East Berlin, Unitednationsplaza's program featured public seminars, lectures, screenings, performances and various projects. In 2008 Unitednationsplaza traveled to Mexico City and was hosted by PAC, and opened in New York's New Museum for Contemporary Art under the name Nightschool (2008–2009).
In 2008, with Brian Kuan Wood and Julieta Aranda, Vidokle founded the e-flux journal, a monthly online publication on art and critical theory with contributions from writers such as Hito Steyerl, Martha Rosler, Liam Gillick, Boris Groys, Franco Berardi (Bifo), Jalal Toufic, Slavoj Žižek, Raqs Media Collective and others. The journal's international readership has led to the translation and republishing of many of the journal's essays.
Jointly with the Sternberg Press, Berlin, e-flux journal started a new imprint which has put out a series of paperback readers consisting of monographic publications and thematic compilations of essays, including: What is Contemporary Art? (2010); Boris Groys: Going Public (2010), Are You Working Too Much? Post Fordism, Precarity, and the Labor of Art (2011), Moscow Symposium: Conceptualism Revisited (2012), Hito Steyerl: The Wretched of the Screen (2012), Martha Rosler: Culture Class (2013) and Jalal Toufic: Forthcoming (2014).
In 2008, Vidokle and Aranda created a time bank for artistic community. The Time/Bank is a platform where artists, curators, writers and others in the arts can help each other get things done without use of money, but exchanging their time and skills. Time Bank has nearly 4,000 members from many cities around the world and operates several branches in Den Haag, Moscow, Berlin, Frankfurt and other cities.
At e-flux space in New York, Vidokle directs a program of exhibitions that has included solo shows by Martha Rosler, Gustav Metzger, Adam Curtis, Raqs Media Collective; Mladen Stilinovic; Alan Sekula, Andrei Monastirsky & Collective Actions; as well as group exhibitions such as the Agency of Unrealized Projects, curated jointly with Hans Ulrich Obrist; Animism, curated by Anselm Franke; Out Now, with Paul Chan, Trevor Paglen, Martha Rosler, Natascha Sadr Haghighian, Rirkrit Tiravanija and Jalal Toufic.
Vidokle frequently lectures and participates in international conferences and symposia. In 2012 Julieta Aranda and Anton Vidokle participated in the 9th Gwangju Biennale. and has contributed essays and texts to various publications including October, Frieze and Aprior, as well as numerous books and catalogues.
Selected films
- A Crime Against Art (2008), directed by Hila Peleg
- A Guiding Light (2010), with Liam Gillick
- New York Conversations (2011)
- Two Suns (2012) with Hu Fang
- 2084: A science fiction show, Episodes 1, 2 & 3 (2012–2014), directed by Anton Vidokle and Pelin Tan
- This is Cosmos (2014)
- The Communist Revolution Was Caused By The Sun (2015)