At the memorial for Rosa Luxemburg on 13 June 1919, the political radical, art historian, critic, and writer Carl Einstein gave an oration. There is no record of what Einstein said, how he said it, or what it addressed. This collection assembles a broad range of texts from artists, film-makers, writers, poets, critics, philosophers, and art historians. Each contribution is a speculation on what Einstein might have delivered, each as likely and as unlikely to be Einstein’s as any other. Through the multiple substitutions of Carl Einstein—a practice that Einstein pursued throughout his life—themes of masquerade, mistaken identities, of persons substituted after the event, of orations, speeches, and texts rewritten, speculated upon and redelivered, celebrating, mapping, and fictionalising a past life, are explored.
Contributors:
Sean Ashton, Hannes Bajohr, Rowan Bailey, Sean Bonney, Uma Breakdown, Matthew Burbidge, Sonja Burbidge, Sophie Carapetian, Alison J. Carr,
Declan Clarke, Kirsten Cooke, John Cunningham, Mark Curran, James Davies,
Sam Dolbear, Kate Evans, Donal Fitzpatrick, Darryl Georgiou & Rebekah
Tolley-Georgiou, Dale Holmes, Derek Horton, John Hyatt, Martin Jackson,
Tom Jenks, Sacha Kahir, Sharon Kivland, Pil & Galia Kollectiv, John Z. Komurki,
Mark Leahy, Rona Lorimer, Katharina Ludwig, Ed Luker, David Mabb, T.C.
McCormack, Martina Mullaney,Nick Hadikwa Mwaluko, Benjamin Noys, Betsy Porritt, Bede Robinson, Benedict Seymour, Ohad Ben Shimon, Joshua Simon, Louis-George Schwartz, Zoë Skoulding Spartakus, David Steans, Jeroen Van Dongen, Frank Wasser, Geoffrey Wildanger, Christian A. Wollin, Sarah Wood, Thomas Yeomans