It is said we are at "Peak Television." Are we also, therefore, at "Peak Biennial"? "Peak Literature"? Or did these golden moments already pass? We are certainly surrounded by content, that amorphous resource which fuels our endless feeds. But isn't it strange that Peak Content coincides with Peak Attention Deficiency? Not when paradoxes are the cute new normal. Shumon Basar journeys through some of his recent projects — a book that feels like a screen; a summit that thinks it's a port; a fashion house that is also a serious art museum — in search of the right forms to address "the extreme present."
Shumon Basar is a writer, editor and curator. He is Commissioner of the Global Art Forum in Dubai; Editor-at-Large at Tank magazine and Contributing Editor at Bidoun magazine; and is a member of Fondazione Prada’s “Thought Council.” Shumon has been active at the Architectural Association for two decades, primarily in the public program and directing “Format: The Shapes of Discourse.” He is co-author of The Age of Earthquakes with Hans Ulrich Obrist and Douglas Coupland.
Image: From "The Age of Earthquakes" by Shumon Basar, Douglas Coupland and Hans Ulrich Obrist, 2015.