The role of editorial practices and small-scale presses in artistic research: Workshop #3

Prof. Henk Slager: An Arc of Artistic Research Publishing  

Henk Slager first addressed artistic research in print when he co-edited together with Annette W. Balkema, the special volume of Lier & Boog: Series of Philosophy, of Art and Art Theory in 2004 that addressed, Artistic Research. The volume included contributions to the already simmering debate from figures such as Anke Bangma, Jan Kaila, Mika Hannula, Massimiliano Gioni and Marta Kuzma, and Sarat Maharaj. Later he published the short and influential monograph The Pleasure of Research (originally published by the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts, Helsinki in 2011, and later  in an expanded edition with Hatje Kantz Verlag in 2015). While working as Dean of the Utrecht Graduate School of Visual Art and Design, he was the animating force behind maHKUzine: Journal of artistic research, which included many important issues including Hito Steyerl’s important 2010 essay on “Aesthetics of Resistance? Artistic Research as Discipline and Conflict.” (See https://monoskop.org/ for archived issues of maHKUzine. In his work through the EARN network Prof. Slager has been responsible for a series of edited volumes including Experimentality (2015), The Postresearch Condition (2021), and Expo-Factor: Into the Algorithm of Exhibition (2022) realized in partnership with MetropolisM Books. Prof. Slager’s new monograph Collateral Concept: A Provisional Vocabulary for Artistic Research released in Spring 2026 as part of The Contemporary Condition series by Sternberg is the latest in his contributions to the debate. 

Over more than two decades Prof. Slager’s writing, editorial and publishing practice has generated an important space of invention that is threaded through his curatorial and pedagogical practices. He has provided an enrichment of artistic research discourse that is thoroughly collegial, enthusiastically playful and undogmatic, following the red threads of multiple arcs of inquiry. In this workshop we will explore the practices and strategies that interweave his writing, editorial and publishing practices with his curatorial and pedagogical practices. What are the changes and continuities that may be traced across this unique arc of artistic research publishing? 

About this Workshop Series  

This is the third event in an ongoing series of workshops addressing the role of editorial practices and small-scale presses as: (i) dimensions of artistic research; and (ii) as part of self-organisation / “artist-led” culture and the politics (small “p”) of infrastructure. These events are part of a wider research process on organisational imaginaries and targetted at masters students, PhDs and senior researchers.  

Dates and Locations  

Wednesday 15 April 16:00-18:00 PhD Seminar Room, Vasagatan 50 Gothenburg and ZOOM.

Conditions for Participation

Participation is free. Booking required (via form available shortly) 
No ECTS credits will be awarded. Certificate of attendance can be issued if requested. 

Application Procedure  

Places provided on a first come / first served basis.