The Power of Wonder – New Materialisms in Contemporary Art


Editor(s)	Markus Heinzelmann
Author(s)	Maria Bremer, Annika Büttner, Giulia D’Allotta, Yesi Dong, Markus Heinzelmann, Katharina Hoppe, Natalia Knickmeier, Anastassija Kostan, Tibor Krauß, Navaz Mirhosseini, Martin Paul, Maike Prause, Kathrin Rottmann, Eva Schmidt, Paula Thieme, Tatjana Wasikanon, Jannik-Andre Zur
Design	Adeline Morlon, Marie Bürger
Cover	Softcover
Size	21 x 28 cm
Pages	176
Illustrations	93
Language(s)	German, English
ISBN	978-3-96912-082-8

For the longest time, physical matter was seen as no more than a passive and lifeless object. Since the early years of the twenty-first century, however, visual artists and scientists alike have initiated a change of thinking, conceiving matter as active, unruly, and autonomous. The ethnologist Hans Peter Hahn has called it the “willfulness of things,” while the Belgian philosopher Isabelle Stengers has underscored the “power of wonder”—the bracing sense of marvel and surprise instilled by a material world that sometimes defies the attempt to put it into words.

This pioneering publication features six selected artistic positions that highlight the New Materialism’s significance for contemporary art. The artists employ materials that are millions of years old such as rocks from an open-pit mine as well as classic inorganic staples like ceramics and cutting-edge materials like digital products transformed in high-tech procedures into hitherto unseen hybrid objects. Their work lends art a powerful voice in contemporary debates around man’s position vis-à-vis his environment, around sustainability, participation, and justice.

With works by Ilana Halperin, Agata Ingarden, David Jablonowski, Markus Karstieß, Robert Smithson, and SUPERFLEX.