Five New Art Theory Books Reviewed: Bourriaud, Dehò, Gramiccia, Iamurri, Varnedoe

Artribune reviews five recent Italian publications on contemporary art theory. Nicolas Bourriaud's 'L'exforma' (Postmedia Books, 2016) explores the 'exformal' as a frontier between inclusion and exclusion, drawing on Walter Benjamin, Georges Bataille, and Louis Althusser. Valerio Dehò's 'Arte ex machina' (Christian Marinotti, 2016) examines the fraught relationship between art and techno-science, arguing that art is often conservative and late to adopt new media, with case studies from Futurism to Net Art. Roberto Gramiccia's 'Elogio della fragilità' (Mimesis, 2016) is a testimonial autobiography linking fragility to political struggle, framed by a preface by Michele Prospero. Laura Iamurri's 'Un margine che sfugge' (Quodlibet, 2016) focuses on Carla Lonzi's engagement with art in Italy from 1955 to 1970, leading to her abandonment of art criticism for feminism. Kirk Varnedoe's 'Una squisita indifferenza' (Johan & Levi, 2016) argues for the invention of modern art through 'exquisite indifference,' notably omitting Marcel Duchamp from its index. The reviews were published on Artribune in December 2016.