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Anton Vidokle (b. 1965)


A Crime Against Art, a film by Hila Peleg (2008)

Anton Vidokle is an artist and founder of e-flux. Born 1965, Vidokle lives in New York and Berlin. His work has been exhibited in shows such as Documenta 13, Venice Biennale, Lyon Biennial, Dakar Biennale, Shanghai Biennale, Liverpool Biennial and at Tate Modern, London; Moderna Galerija, Ljubljana; Musée d’art Modern de la Ville de Paris; Museo Carrillo Gil, Mexico City; UCLA Hammer, LA; ICA, Boston; Haus Der Kunst, Munich; MoMA/P.S.1, New York; among many others. Unitednationsplaza, Berlin, 2007 With Julieta Aranda, he organized e-flux video rental, which traveled to numerous institutions including KW, Berlin; Portikus, Frankfurt; Extra City, Antwerp; Carpenter Center, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA; 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. e-flux Video Rental in Berlin, 2008. 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, UNP’s program featured numerous public seminars, lectures, screenings, performances and various projects. In 2008 Unitednationsplaza travelled 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. During the past three years, the journal published 36 issues containing more than 250 essays by writers such as Hito Steyerl, Martha Rosler, Liam Gillick, Boris Groys, Franco Berardi (Bifo), Jalal Toufic, Slavoj Žižek, Diedrich Diedrichsen, Raqs Media Collective and numerous other contributors. The journal is read by more than 20,000 readers from all parts of the world, and many of the essays have been translated and republished in several of languages.

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). Upcoming titles include a collection of essays by Martha Rosler and a book by Hito Steyerl.

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 made several films and videos on contemporary art, including the New York Conversations (2011) A Crime Against Art (2008, directed by Hila Peleg) and A Guiding Light (with Liam Gillick, 2010.) He has contributed essays and texts to various publications including October, Frieze and Aprior, as well as numerous books and catalogues. Vidokle frequently lectures and participates in international conferences and symposia. Along with Julieta Aranda, Vidokle will participate in the 9th Gwangju Biennale (2012)