Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Provoking the Freeport Magic: Art Assemblage in Late Capitalism

Provoking the Freeport Magic: Art Assemblage in Late Capitalism

Backsell, Jessica Inez

Paperback

Series: Sternberg Press / Experiments in Art and Capitalism

Art Criticism & TheoryBusiness of ArtGeneral Art

Currently unavailable to order

ISBN10: 3956796225
ISBN13: 9783956796227
Publisher: Sternberg Press
Published: Aug 5 2025
Pages: 112
Weight: 0.35
Height: 0.30 Width: 5.10 Depth: 7.50
Language: English
How practices that enact the art of constructing open secrets in markets can be mobilized to unfold magic making.

What is magic? And what can it do? In this book, Jessica Backsell interrogates the magic of the art world and culture's stubborn habit of foregrounding art as representative of an alternative value system. Through the empirical example of the freeport--luxury warehouses where valuable art is stored for preservation and taxation purposes--Backsell explores the implications of understanding the art world through contingent entanglements and practices. Examining the contested site of the freeport, Backsell addresses the dichotomous culture v. capitalism debate by showing how magic is not an innate and mysterious quality. Rather, it is a practice, a central yet unexplored element of curatorial toolboxes, that unfolds through what Backsell denotes as the enactment of conspicuous withdrawal. This insight, she argues, sheds new light and understanding on broader political issues in contemporary market society.

Copublished by Stockholm School of Economics

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