On Rage

In On Rage, a 400+ page anthology based on a conference/happening/exhibition that took place at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin in 2010, an essay titled “(De)Facing Rage” (by Dominique Malaquais) focuses on the work of SPARCK artists Mowoso, Malam and Hervé Yamguen. The book is edited by Cordula Hamschmidt et al. and was published by Revolver Books (2011). 

About the book

Where and how does rage manifest? What is its position? Which pathways does it choose? What does it subscribe to? This book probes the multifaceted phenomenon of rage not only in its immediate and spectacular outbursts and manifestations. It seeks for the abstract and reflecting forms of confrontations at those very critical points when human behaviour suddenly shifts. This is about the major political questions, about these moments when rage testifies to the breakdown of diplomatic means, when the negotiations fail, when other – socially sanctioned – forms of expression come into play.

Through a cultural and across-time phenomenology of rage, Revolver Books seeks to rethink rage as a condition. This could lead to a rehabilitation of this emotion and might form a vantage point for new and less explored forms of thinking.

Protest – whether organised or not – is a sign of our times. In connection with a feeling of economic, ecological and political crisis, this leads to states of emergency that could turn out to be helpful in developing new strategies for survival in this world.

This volume considers itself a glossary: the alphabetically listed entries range from “Amplifying” to “Blood”, “Dada”, “Monsters”, “Phobias” and “Silence” all the way to “Vacuum” and “Wild West”. Works by artists – in part created specifically for the exhibition “On Rage” (2010) -, discussions, essays, lectures, poems and much more, make for an encyclopaedia of an emotional state – a state, it would appear, which ranks among the most significant of our time.

“On Rage” includes contributions by Jimmie Durham, Tadeusz Kantor, Abdelwahab Meddeb, Terézia Mora, Michael Rakowitz, Monika Rinck, Mick Taussig, Stefan Weidner, Aaron Ben Ze’ev, Jean Ziegler and many more.

(Translated from the Revolver Books website.)

For more on the book, click here