Calling for a reassessment of the function of art in late capitalist society, Corporate Mentality focuses on the complex and ambiguous ways artistic production inhabits corporate processes, abandoning the autonomy of the artwork in order to elaborate resistant approaches to a world increasingly determined by commercial strategies and market concerns.
Based on an archive (1995–2001) maintained by Aleksandra Mir, it presents a diverse spectrum of artists who take on business as site, as material, and as subject of their work. As Will Bradley writes in frieze, “The book focuses on … an essential area of interest as artists wake up to the reality of the Clinton-era fantasy of ethical corporatism. The plan came out of Mir and Kelsey's realization that the publicity industry wasn’t stealing artists’ ideas, but simply employing artists, like Mir herself, who needed a day job. ‘Radical’ aesthetics that had taken at least six months to travel (we’re in New York here) from downtown to uptown were now transferred almost instantaneously, causing artists to reassess their methods.”
Contributions by WILL BRADLEY, CLAUDE CLOSKY, BERNADETTE CORPORATION, ANTHONY DAVIES/SIMON FORD, DEJANOV & HEGER, PURPLE INSTITUTE, GARETH JAMES, LAURA K. JONES, LARS BANG LARSEN, MATTHIEU LAURETTE, ATELIER VAN LIESHOUT, DANIEL PFLUMM, BENNETT SIMPSON, SUPERFLEX, PIOTR UKLANSKI, ABSOLUTE VODKA, LIAM GILLICK and CAREY YOUNG.
Published by Sternberg Press, 2003.