ON RAGE publication @ Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin
ON RAGE
Editors: Valery Smith, Susanne Stemmler and Cordula Hamschmidt
for the Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin (House of World Cultures)
Revolver Publishing by VVV, 2011
English, 432 pages, 141 coloured and 81 b/w images
ISBN: 978-3-86895-135-6
This book explores instances of rage and how their place in people’s lives are being expressed and manifested in the body and the mind. We relate rage not only to its immediate outburst but also to abstract forms of dealing with the tipping points in human behavior. We consider larger political issues, those moments when rage marks the failure of diplomacy, when negotiation breaks down or is simply nonexistent, when other unconventional or socially unaccepted forms of expression come into play.
By presenting a phenomenology of rage across cultures and timelines we would like to re-think rage as a state of being. This may lead to a rehabilitation of this affect and be the point of departure for new forms of less mediated thinking. Protest – be it organized or not – is the signature of our times. Together with a feeling of an economical, ecological or political crisis, this leads to states of emergency that may help to develop new strategies of survival in this world.
With contributions by Luca Di Blasi, Jimmie Durham, Ruediger John, Marc Jongen, Tadeusz Kantor, Sylvère Lotringer, Boyan Manchev, Abdelwahab Meddeb, Terézia Mora, Nina Power, Michael Rakowitz, Monika Rinck, Paolo Santangelo, Mick Taussig, Stefan Weidner, Annette Weisser, Aaron Ben Ze’ev, Jean Ziegler and others.