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This is an excerpt of a text by JOSEF STRAU which revolves around the non-productive attitude that was reflective of the Cologne art scene in the late eighties. It has been published in the catalog for “Make Your Own Life: Artists In and Out of Cologne,” an exhibition curated by BENNETT SIMPSON  that took place at the ICA Philadelphia in 2006. ‘The exhibition brought together over twenty-five artists of three generations—centering from Cologne but also including Los Angeles, New York, London, and Berlin—to explore themes of autonomy, artistic collectivity and social relationships, and the privileging of the artist’s life and context as a basis for understanding creative practice’.

A bootleg of this book has been produced by RAMAYA TEGEGNE on the occasion of her exhibition Respektive at Marbriers 4 in Geneva in 2014.

The entire text by STRAU is available online here.

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