The Unexpected Guest

Published on the occasion of the 7th Liverpool Biennial, The Unexpected Guest welcomes and gives home to an array of artists, writers and thinkers from the four corners of the globe. It is not intended as a catalogue of the exhibition, nor is it simply a reader on the subject. Instead, it is a complex anthology of newly commissioned writing, artists’ projects and creative texts that explore one of the most pressing issues of our time.

Artists have been invited to make a contribution that reflects upon a particular aspect of hospitality, or to invite a guest to occupy their space. In an extraordinary collection of new writing, Kenneth Goldsmith has invited twenty-nine fellow poets to compose works on two key areas of relevance to the subject: technology and geography. Commissioned essays by leading scholars from Africa, the Americas, Europe and Asia consider hospitality from multiple perspectives, including colonial history, spatial politics and the ethics of the host–guest relationship.

Together, this rich compilation of art, writing and thinking not only deepens our understanding of hospitality in the twenty-first century, it also offers possibilities for the future.

Art
Doug Aitken • John Akomfrah • Janine Antoni • Sylvie Blocher invites Jacques Rancière • Andrea Bowers • Libia Castro and Ólafur Ólafsson • Enrico David • Elmgreen and Dragset • Dora Garcia • Dan Graham • Mona Hatoum • Fritz Haeg • Jeanne van Heeswijk • Oded Hirsch • Hsieh Ying-chun • Nadia Kaabi-Linke • Markus Kahre • Anja Kirschner and David Panos • Jakob Kolding • Jirí Kovanda invites … • Suzanne Lacy and Stephanie Smith • Runo Lagomarsino • Jorge Macchi • Dane Mitchell • Sabelo Mlangeni • Mark Morrisroe • Patrick Murphy • Ahmet Ögüt • Trevor Paglen • Christodoulos Panayiotou • Pedro Reyes • Pamela Rosenkranz • Mikhael Subotzky and Patrick Waterhouse • Sun Xun • Superflex • Sinta Tantra • Tate Liverpool • Althea Thauberger • Jose Angel Vincench • Ming Wong • Jemima Wyman • Kohei Yoshiyuki • Akram Zaatari

Writing
Chris Alexander • Riccardo Boglione • Christian Bök • Stephen Burt • CAConrad • Kieran Daly • Craig Dworkin • J. Gordon Faylor • Robert Fitterman • Kristen Gallagher • Steve Giasson and Robert Fitterman • Kenneth Goldsmith • Lanny Jordan Jackson • Josef Kaplan • Tan Lin • Trisha Low • Stephen McLaughlin • Simon Morris • Tracie Morris • Eileen Myles • Vanessa Place • Kim Rosenfield • Vijay Seshadri • Maria Salgado • Don Share • Lytle Shaw and Jimbo Blachly • Ara Shirinyan • Nick Thurston • Darren Wershler and Bill Kennedy • Steven Zultanski

Thinking
Rosi Braidotti • Costas Douzinas • Stuart Hall and David Scott • Achille Mbembe • Pelin Tan

Published by Art / Books

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