"Power itself has become carnivalesque"

Book launch (Mis)reading Masquerades with a lecture by culture critic and philosopher Prof. Sylvère Lotringer

On Friday the 25th of June at 17:00 hrs the book launch of our most recent publication (Mis)reading Masquerades will take place at our headquarters at Westerdok 606-608 in Amsterdam. On this occasion Prof. Sylvère Lotringer will be giving a lecture titled Capital Carnival:

"Irony and grotesque no longer come from below, as popular release or political subversion, they now come from above. In a striking reversal, it is no longer the masses who identify with a hysterical leader (Hitler, Mussolini), but perverse leaders who identify with the masses (Berlusconi, Sarkozy) and with comparable results. Fragmented and disseminated throughout social networks, power itself has become carnivalesque."

The lecture of Prof. Lotringer will be followed by a conversation hosted by researcher Steven Ten Thije.

Sylvère Lotringer, founder of Semiotext(e), is widely credited for introducing "French Theory" in America. He is professor emeritus of French Philosophy at Columbia University, Jean Baudrillard professor at the European Graduate School, and visiting professor at SciArc in Los Angeles. His most recent publications are Fous d'Artaud (Paris: Sens et Tonka, 2003) and Overexposed (New York: Semiotext(e), 2007).

Steven Ten Thije is research curator at the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven and research fellow at the University of Hildesheim. He studied art history and philosophy at the University of Amsterdam.

RSVP to bookings@ificantdance.org. Space is limited.

(Mis)reading Masquerades
This publication focuses on the notion of Masquerade. For the past two years, If I Can't Dance, I Don't Want To Be Part Of Your Revolution has been exploring the cultural, social and political meanings of this concept from a critical and interdisciplinary perspective together with more than fifty artists, curators, writers and theoreticians. (Mis)reading Masquerades comprises a selection of theoretical texts drawn from different fields of knowledge that address questions such as transgression, gender identity and subversion, gesture, the carnivalesque, the construction of subjectivity, authorship, mimesis, and alterity. The publication features introductions to each text by the participants of our monthly reading group, newly commissioned essays by writers and curators from the field of contemporary art and contributions by artists from the Dutch Art Institute (Enschede) and Piet Zwart Institute (Rotterdam).

For orders, please visit www.revolver-books.de

'(Mis)reading Masquerades', 512 p., edited by Frédérique Bergholtz, Iberia Pérez. Produced by If I Can't Dance in collaboration with the Dutch Art Institute, the Piet Zwart Institute, and the Van Abbemuseum. Design by Joris Kritis and Julie Peeters. Published by Revolver. ISBN 978-3-86895-071-7. EUR 35.

IF I CAN'T DANCE, I DON'T WANT TO BE PART OF YOUR REVOLUTION.WESTERDOK 606-608, 1013 BV AMSTERDAM. WWW.IFICANTDANCE.ORG