X-TRA

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X-TRA

X-TRA is a contemporary art journal published in Los Angeles by Project X Foundation. X-TRA's mission is to provoke critical dialogue about contemporary art.

X-TRA is a contemporary art journal published quarterly in Los Angeles. Edited by a collective of artists and writers, X-TRA publishes expansive features, historical essays, commissioned artist's projects, interviews, columns, and substantive reviews. X-TRA is published in print and digital-reader format, and the complete archive is available online. Project X Foundation for Art & Criticism is a n

onprofit organization founded to support X-TRA and create platforms for critical art dialogue. In tandem with X-TRA, Project X produces artist's editions, books, and a wide range of public events.

08/12/2023

“Artists are increasingly being tapped to lead biennials in the role of “guest curator,’ a position that already indicates institutional divestiture from the advocates and creative visionaries who make successful exhibitions work. In addition to choosing works for exhibition, curators also run interference, managing conflicts between artists and between artists and the public. These tasks are doubly difficult when the institution holds the curators at such a distance. Does the reliance on contract curators—often artists with limited institutional experience hired and managed by career administrators—reflect a conflicted desire on the part of the institution to both speak freely and control speech?”

In X-TRA Volume 25, Number 2, Anuradha Vikram, contributor and member of the X-TRA Editorial Board, examines the curatorial framing and politicized media narratives that have shaped the discourse around recent global art exhibitions documenta 15 and the 12th Berlin Biennale. Vikram poses insightful questions regarding the inclusion and exclusion of artworks that depict trauma or critique political movements and leaders‚ asking, who has the authority to address these sensitive topics?

Read Vikram’s “Fear of a Lumbung Planet: Decolonization and Backlash at documenta and the Berlin Biennale” via the link in our bio. To support us further, considering purchasing a print copy through the webstore.

Images:
1: Atis Rezistans | Ghetto Biennale, 2022. Installation view, documenta fifteen, Kassel, June 18–September 25, 2022. Photo: Frank Sperling.

2: Wajukuu Art Project, Wakija Kwetu, 2022. Installation view, documenta fifteen, Kassel, June 18–September 25, 2022. Photo: Nicolas Wefers.

07/12/2023

“This summer marked the twentieth edition of REDCAT’s annual New Original Works (NOW) Festival, a self-described ‘catalyst for creativity and new ideas.’ Each week featured three performances in a shared program in REDCAT’s black box theater. These works, mostly untested, were selected via an open call that encourages emerging and early-career artists, then bolstered with an artist fee, technical support, and rehearsal space. This makes NOW a relatively rare platform for brand new, experimental performance in Los Angeles.”

For the Dispatches column, Jessi DiTillio () reports on three standout efforts from the 2023 New Original Works Festival (NOW) at in Los Angeles.

Read “TV on Stage” now!

Pictured: Melissa Ferrari, Relict: A Phantasmagoria, 2020/2023. Performance, REDCAT, Los Angeles, August 24–26, 2023. Photo: Angel Origgi.

04/12/2023

“What happens when you look down is that the perspective feels wrong. Geometric slabs of sidewalk phenomena—mounding tarmac, manhole covers, storm-drain grates—have been transposed on the interior ground at original scale but in implausible proximity.”

For the Dispatches column, Emma Kemp () crosses the psychogeography of Fiona Connor’s Continuous Sidewalk, 2023, presented in her Glendale studio by Château Shatto.

Read “Memory Arcade Dream Space or Continuous Sidewalk” now!

Images: Fiona Connor, Continuous Sidewalk, 2021–23. Poured and formed concrete, cast resin and metal inserts, brick, asphalt, paint, silicon, wax, sand and dirt, silkscreen on aluminum, existing space. Courtesy of the artist and Château Shatto, Los Angeles. Photo: Ed Mumford.

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X-TRA's mission is to provoke critical dialogue about contemporary art. As a collective of artists and writers, we produce the quarterly art journal X-TRA, the website x-traonline.org, and public programs. Founded in Los Angeles in 1997, X-TRA collaborates with artists, writers, and institutions to generate meaningful content for a diverse contemporary art community. Project X Foundation for Art & Criticism is a nonprofit organization founded to support X-TRA and create platforms for critical art dialogue.

X-TRA Contributors (1997–2018)