Eight Books Exploring Time in Art and Culture

Marco Enrico Giacomelli reviews eight books that each approach the concept of time from a different angle, published in Artribune Magazine #42. The selection includes 'Revolution (Not) Now' (Skira, 2018) on the revolutionary 1966-1970 period, tied to a V&A London exhibition that traveled to Milan's Fabbrica del Vapore. Germano Celant's 'Precronistoria 1966-69' (Quodlibet, 2017) reconstructs art years with a 1972 flashback, published in 1976 and now reissued. John Thackara's 'Progettare oggi il mondo di domani' (Postmedia Books, 2018) addresses survival without catastrophism. Jean-Loup Amselle's 'Il museo in scena' (Meltemi, 2017) tackles post-colonialism and temporalities of 'ethnic' art. Claudio Musso's 'Dalla strada al computer' (Libri Aparte, 2017) links Net Art and Street Art with anachronistic coherence. Walter Benjamin's 'Il concetto di critica nel Romanticismo tedesco' (Mimesis, 2017) examines Romanticism's temporal twist. Carolina Sandretto's 'Cines de Cuba' (Skira, 2017) documents surviving Cuban cinemas. Massimo Melotti's 'Vicende dell’arte in Italia dal dopoguerra agli anni Duemila' (Franco Angeli, 2017) offers a systematic history of Italy's art system.