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What has become of the so-called West after the Cold War? Why hasn´t the West simply become "former," as has its supposed counterpart, the "former East"? In this book, artists, thinkers, and activists explore the repercussions of the political, cultural, and economic events of 1989 on both art and the contemporary. The culmination of an eight-year curatorial research experiment, Former West imagines a world beyond our immediate condition. The writings, visual essays, and conversations in Former West - more than seventy diverse contributions with global scope - unfold a tangled cartography far more complex than the simplistic dichotomy of East vs. West. In fact, the Cold War was a contest not between two ideological blocs but between two variants of Western modernity. It is this conceptual "Westcentrism" that a "formering" of the West seeks to undo.

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Maria Hlavajova is Founding Artistic Director of BAK (basis voor actuele kunst, Utrecht) and Artistic Director of Former West (20082016). Simon Sheikh is a curator, writer, and Programme Director of MFA Curating at Goldsmiths College, University of London.

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