The Off-Modern

Svetlana Boym writes a new genealogy of modernity, moving beyond older debates between modernism and postmodernism to focus on the intersection of art, architecture, technology, and philosophy in the early twenty-first century. Drawing on theories of Georg Simmel, Henri Bergson, Aby Warburg, and Jacques Derrida, Boym presents the off-modern as an eccentric, self-questioning, anti-authoritarian perspective with roots in the Russian avant-garde, now developed in surprising ways by contemporary artists, architects, and curators around the world. She illustrates the off-modern in discussions of (and with) figures as diverse as architect Rem Koolhaas, Albanian artist-turned-mayor Edi Rama, an art collective in Delhi, and the creator of the Museum of Jurassic Technology in Los Angeles. Both a manifesto and a memoir, The Off-Modern often returns to themes of travel and immigration, exploring issues of diasporic intimacy and productive estrangement amid nostalgic landscapes of urban ruins.

Author: Svetlana Boym
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Published: 06/15/2017
Pages: 208
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.90lbs
Size: 9.20h x 6.10w x 0.60d
ISBN13: 9781501328978
ISBN10: 1501328972
BISAC Categories:
- Art | Criticism & Theory
- Architecture | Criticism
- Philosophy | Aesthetics

About the Author
Svetlana Boym was a literary amd cultural theorist and critic, visual artist, writer of fiction, and Hugo Reisinger Professor of Slavic and Comparative Literature at Harvard University, USA.