The Bijlmer Spinoza-Festival is an artwork, a sculpture, created by Swiss artist Thomas Hirschhorn in a peripheral borough of Amsterdams south-east known as the Bijlmer in 2009. This book recounts the event through the eyes of its Ambassador, art historian Vittoria Martini, who was invited by the artist to be an eyewitness to the existence of this precarious work. A term Hirschhorn sees as positive and creative: a means of asserting the importance of the moment and of the place, of asserting the Here and Now to touch eternity and universality. Appreciating the art historians presence as a central element of his sculpture, Hirschhorn consciously challenged the certainties of the profession by empowering and activating the role, thus leading Martini to find a new working methodology that she calls precarious art history. Accompanying the readers through her experience of the physical existence of The Bijlmer Spinoza-Festival , Martinis commentary leads to the profound understanding of how a work that no longer exists physically, can live on in the mind elsewhere, at some other timebecause in the meantime it has become universal. Parisbased artist THOMAS HIRSCHHORN (*1957, Bern) is best known for his sculptures in public spacemonuments, kiosks, and altars. Questioning the autonomy, the authorship, and resistance of a work of art, he asserts the power of art to touch and transform the other. He represented Switzerland at the 54th Venice Biennale in 2011 and received numerous awards, including the Prix Marcel Duchamp and the Joseph Beuys Stiftung Prize. VITTORIA MARTINI (*1975, Kinshasa) is an independent art historian living in Italy. She has a doctorate from Università Ca Foscari/Università Iuav di Venezia. Since 2013 she teaches History of exhibitions and curatorial practices and holds the Art Writing workshop at CAMPO - Program of curatorial studies and practices established by the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo (Turin, Italy). Her research focuses mainly on the institutional structures that produce exhibitions.

THOMAS HIRSCHHORN (*1957, Bern) lebt und arbeitet in Paris. Seine Monumente, Altäre und Kioske finden international Beachtung und sind mehrfach ausgezeichnet. Er ist unter anderem Gewinner des Prix Marcel Duchamp, des Joseph Beuys-Preises Basel sowie des Grand Prix Kunst/Prix Meret Oppenheimer des Schweizer Bundesamts für Kultur.

Cover Inhalt Note to the Reader Introduction Thomas Hirschhorn, The Bijlmer Spinoza-Festival, 2009 Thomas Hirschhorn, Presence and Production, 2009 Thomas Hirschhorn, Assignment, 2009 May 2 — May 17 Marcus Steinweg, Spinoza Theater, 2009 May 19 — May 20 What Does It Mean to Be the Ambassador, March 19, 2009 May 24 Letter to Lisa Lee, First Exchange on The Bijlmer Spinoza-Festival, May 26, 2009 May 26 Letter from Lisa Lee, May 26, 2009 May 27 To Be an Art Historian at The Bijlmer Spinoza-Festival, May 29, 2009 May 30 — June 9 Letter to Mignon Nixon, About Sculpture, June 6, 2009 June 16 Letter to Claire Bishop, About the Ambassador, June 17, 2009 Thomas Hirschhorn, Toward “Precarious Theater”, June 18, 2009 Letter from Mignon Nixon, June 19, 2009 Letter from Claire Bishop, June 19, 2009 Letter to Claire Bishop, Thanks for Your Thoughts, June 21, 2009 June 22 — June 28 Thomas Hirschhorn, Faith, June 2009 Colophon Backcover