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Publications

This bibliography comprises the main secondary literature about Les Immatériaux. For a list of the catalogues and publications that accompanied the exhibition, and for a listing of contemporary reviews, see Wunderlich 2008, p. 252–256, and Gallo 2008, p. 175-200.

Kiff Bamford: Lyotard and the ‘figural’ in Performance, Art and Writing. London: Bloomsbury, 2014. (esp. ch. 3. Les Immatériaux: What is Lyotard’s Attitude to the Body?)

Daniel Birnbaum, Sven-Olov Wallenstein: Spacing Philosophy: Lyotard and the Idea of the Exhibition. Berlin: Sternberg Press, 2019.

Daniel Birnbaum, Sven-Olov Wallenstein: “Figuring the Matrix: Lyotard’s Les Immatériaux, 1985”, in: Thordis Arrhenius et al. (eds.): Place and Displacement: Exhibiting Architecture. Baden: Lars Müller, 2014.

Daniel Birnbaum, Sven-Olov Wallenstein: “Thinking Philosophy, Spatially: Jean-François Lyotard’s Les Immatériaux and the Philosophy of the Exhibition”, in: Joseph Backstein et al. (eds.): Thinking Worlds: The Moscow Conference on Philosophy, Politics, and Art. Berlin: Sternberg Press, 2008.

Bernard Blistène: “A Conversation with Jean-François Lyotard” (orig. March 1985), in: Giancarlo Politi, Helena Kontova (eds.): Flash Art: Two Decades of History. Cambridge MA: MIT Press, 1990.

  • this abridged version of the interview, originally published in the international edition of Flash Art, no. 121 (March 1985), pp. 32–39, is also available in Lyotard 2020 (Interviews, ed. K. Bamford), and on art agenda; a more complete version of the interview was published in French, in the French edition of Flash Art, no. 6, hiver (winter) 1984/1985, p. 28–31, and is also available in German, in Jean-François Lyotard e.a.: Immaterialität und Postmoderne. Berlin: Merve, 1985, p. 55–74.

Jean-Louis Boissier: “La question des nouveaux médias numériques”, in: Bernadette Dufrêne (ed.): Centre Pompidou: Trente ans d’histoire. Paris: Éditions du Centre Pompidou, 2007, p. 374-391.

Andreas Broeckmann: “Revisiting the Network of “Les Immateriaux“. The Exhibition as Manifestation and Interdisciplinary Research Platform”, in: Oliver Grau (ed.): Museum and Archive on the Move. Changing Cultural Institutions in the Digital Era. Berlin: de Gruyter, 2017, p. 234-247.

Andreas Broeckmann: “‘Indisziplinär’ und ‘unterbelichtet’: Die Ausstellung Les Immatériaux und die Kunstwissenschaft“, lecture manuscript, 25 April 2018, Leuphana University of Lüneburg.

Andreas Broeckmann: “Sounding Immaterial. Sound and Listening in the Exhibition Les Immatériaux (Paris, 1985)” Les Immatériaux Research, Working Paper No. 4, 2020.

Andreas Broeckmann and Marie Vicet (eds.): “Chronology of Les Immatériaux“ (version 2), Les Immatériaux Research, Working Paper No. 1, 2020.

Andreas Broeckmann: “The Pre-History of Les Immatériaux in 1979-1981″ Les Immatériaux Research, Working Paper No. 5, 2020.

Christian Carrier (ed.): Les Immatériaux (au Centre Georges Pompidou en 1985): Étude de l’évènement exposition et de son public. Paris: Expo-Média, 1986.

Paul Crowther: “Sublimity and Postmodern Culture. Lyotard’s Les Immatériaux”, in: idem: Critical Aesthetics and Postmodernism. London: Oxford University Press, 1996, p. 162–175.

Jean-Louis Déotte: “Les Immatériaux de Lyotard (1985): un programme figural”, in: Appareil, No. 10, special issue: “Lyotard et la surface d’inscription numérique”, 2012.

Jean-Louis Déotte: “Le paradoxe des Immatériaux : entre répulsion et fascination”, in: Cités 1/2011 (n° 45) , p. 59-67.

Claudine Eizykman, Guy Fihman: “Aperçus sur la pratique postmoderne de J-FL”, in: Françoise Coblence, Michel Enaudeau (eds.): Lyotard et les arts. Paris: Klincksieck, 2014,  p. 229–240 (esp. p. 236–240).

Léonard Faugeron: “Les Immatériaux, in the Labyrinth of Hanging Screens. Grids, Paths, Exhibition Design.” In: Problemata, “Le Centre de création industrielle et les expositions (1968-1992) : décentrages successifs,” March 2021. (French version, “Les Immatériaux, dans le labyrinthe des trames suspendues. Trames, parcours, scénographie.“)
Francesca Gallo: Les Immatériaux: Un Percorso di Jean-François Lyotard nell’arte contemporanea. Rome: Aracne, 2008.

Francesca Gallo: “Ce n’est pas une exposition, mais une œuvre d’art. L’exemple des Immatériaux de Jean-François Lyotard”, in: Appareil, No. 10, special issue “Lyotard et la surface d’inscription numérique”, 2012.

Charlie Gere: Art, Time and Technology (chapter 8: “1985: Jean-Franois Lyotard and the Immaterial”). Oxford: Berg, 2006.

Jérôme Glicenstein: “Les Immatériaux”, in: Françoise Coblence, Michel Enaudeau (eds.): Lyotard et les arts. Paris: Klincksieck, 2014, p. 102-114.

Nathalie Heinich: “Un événement culturel.” In: Charles Perraton et al.: Les Immatériaux. Étude de l’événement exposition et de son publique. Paris: EXPO-MEDIA, 1986, p. 25-122.

Nathalie Heinich: “Les Immatériaux Revisited: Innovation in Innovations”, Tate Papers, No. 12, London: Tate, 2009.

Nathalie Heinich: “Les Immatériaux Thirty Years Later : Memories of a Sociological Survey”, in Eva Grubinger, Jörg Heiser (eds.), Unlimited Sculpture. Materiality in Times of Immateriality, Berlin: Sternberg Press, 2015.

Antony Hudek: “From Over- to Sub-Exposure: The Anamnesis of Les Immatériaux,” Tate Papers, No. 12, London: Tate, 2009 (edited version reprinted in Hui/Broeckmann 2015, p. 71-91).

Antony Hudek: “Interview with Philippe Délis, 27 April 2001” Les Immatériaux Research, Working Paper No. 3, 2019.

Antony Hudek: “Les Immatériaux, sans queue ni tête,” La part de l’oeil, No. 33/34 (dossier “Exposition / Espace / Cadre”), Bruxelles, 2019/2020, p. 56-75.

Yuk Hui, Andreas Broeckmann, (eds): 30 Years after Les Immatériaux: Art, Science & Theory. Lüneburg: Meson Press, 2015.

Dolorès Lyotard (Rogozinski): “On the Development of the Texts for the Les Immatériaux Soundtrack (Sur le développement du texte pour la bande-son des Immatériaux)”, (edited by Andreas Broeckmann), Les Immatériaux Research, Working Paper No. 2, 2019.

Jean-François Lyotard: “On a Collaboration / D’un travail” (1986) (with a preface by Andreas Broeckmann), Les Immatériaux Research, Working Paper No. 6, 2021.

Jean-François Lyotard: The Interviews and Debates. Edited by Kiff Bamford. London: Bloomsbury, 2020.

  • Note: includes translations of three interviews related to Les Immatériaux, with Jacques Saur & Philippe Bidaine, Bernard Blistène, and Élie Théofilakis, p. 71-93.

Ceci Moss: Expanded Internet Art. Twenty-First-Century Artistic Practice and the Informational Milieu. New York, London: Bloomsbury, 2019. (chapter: “Resistance in the Domain of All Inputs, All Outputs: Jean-François Lyotard and Thierry Chaput’s Les Immatériaux“, p. 81-107.)

  • Note: Moss’ chapter about Les Immatériaux provides an interesting presentation of Lyotard’s thinking around the mid-1980s, by reviewing a set of texts from this period. However, the chapter contains a number of factual mistakes, resulting mostly from the fact that as the basis for the description of the exhibition, Moss used not the catalogue, or Wunderlich’s precise description, but a preliminary concept, written a year before the actual exhibition, in April 1984 (in the version published in Art+Text, No. 17, April 1985, p. 47–57, reprinted in Ferguson e.a., eds., Thinking About Exhibitions, 2005; the reference there to the date “April 1984”, on p. 121, is easy to miss…). [abroeck, May 2020]

Gillian Borland Pierce: Scapeland: Writing the Landscape from Diderot’s Salons to the Postmodern Museum. Amsterdam, New York City, NY: Rodopi, 2012.

John Rajchman: “The Postmodern Museum.” In Art in America, Vol. 73, No. 10, October 1985, S. 110–17. (repr. in: Derek Robbins (ed.): Jean-François Lyotard. 3 Vols. London: Thousand Oak, 2004, Vol. 2, p. 229- 240.)

John Rajchman: “Jean-François Lyotard’s Underground Aesthetics.” In: October, Vol. 86, Autumn, 1998, p. 3-18.

John Rajchman: “Les Immatériaux or How to Construct the History of Exhibitions”, Tate Papers 12, London: Tate, 2009.

Élie Théofilakis (ed.): Modernes, et après? “Les Immatériaux”. Paris: Editions Autrement, 1985. [online at BNF]

Colette Tron: “Des Immatériaux à l’hypermatériel”, in: Réel-Virtuel, No. 1, special issue “Textures du numérique”, February 2010.

Marie Vicet: “Éprouver la postmodernité : entre interactivité et simulation du réel dans l’exposition Les Immatériaux (1985).” In: André Gunthert, Thomas Kirchner und Marie-Madeleine Ozdoba (eds.): Nouveaux médias: mythes et expérimentations dans les arts. (Passages online, Band 10) Paris/Berlin/Heidelberg: DFK Paris/NAIMA/arthistoricum.net, 2021, p. 71–85.

Ashley Woodward: “Inhuman Arts: From Cubism to New Media.” In: Lyotard and the Inhuman Condition. Reflections on Nihilism, Information and Art. Edinburgh University Press, 2016, p. 165-188.

Antonia Wunderlich: Der Philosoph im Museum: Die Ausstellung Les Immatériaux von Jean-François Lyotard. Bielefeld: transcript, 2008.