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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: Andreas Broeckmann and Sergio Meijide Casas (eds.): “Lyotard’s Interviews on Les Immatériaux.” Les Immatériaux Research, Working Paper No. 11, 2024, p. 35–46.

  • An abridged English version of the interview was originally published in the international edition of Flash Art, no. 121 (March 1985), p. 32–39; it was reprinted in: Giancarlo Politi, Helena Kontova (eds.): Flash Art: Two Decades of History. Cambridge MA: MIT Press, 1990, and is also available in Lyotard 2020 (Interviews, ed. K. Bamford), and online on art agenda; the 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; it was published in German, in Jean-François Lyotard e.a.: Immaterialität und Postmoderne. Berlin: Merve, 1985, p. 55–74; in this Working Paper No. 11, the full version appears for the first time in English translation.

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

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 Sergio Meijide Casas (eds.): “Lyotard’s Interviews on Les Immatériaux.” Les Immatériaux Research, Working Paper No. 11, 2024.

Andreas Broeckmann, Antonia Wunderlich: “Description of Les Immatériaux.“ Les Immatériaux Research, Working Paper No. 12, 2025.

Andreas Broeckmann: “D’une coopération. Le travail de Jean-François Lyotard avec le CCI pour l’exposition «Les Immatériaux»” in Cahiers du musée national d’art moderne, special issue on the CCI, No. 170, Winter 2024–2025, p. 129–137. (Engl. version, “About a Cooperation”)

Andreas Broeckmann: The Making of Les Immatériaux. Lüneburg: Meson Press, 2025.

Enrico Camporesi: “Le mouvement des immobilités. ‘Ciné-immatériaux’ au Centre Pompidou.” In Fanny Cardin et al. (eds.): Cinématérialismes. Nouvelles approches matérialistes de l’audiovisuel. Sesto San Giovanni: Editions Mimésis, 2024, 99–124.

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: Christian Carrier (ed.): 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.

Jean-François Lyotard: Lyotard’s Interviews on Les Immatériaux. Edited by Andreas Broeckmann and Sergio Meijide Casas. Les Immatériaux Research, Working Paper No. 11, 2024.

Sergio Meijide Casas: “El museo como espacio para el pensamiento: Les Immatériaux y la irrepresentabilidad de la Naturaleza.” In: Arte, Individuo y Sociedad, July 2024, DOI: 10.5209/aris.96002

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: “Les Immatériaux: a tour of the exhibition with headphones.” In: Hybrid. Revue des arts et médiations humaines. No. 6, 2019 (issue “L’écoute”) [French version: “Les Immatériaux : visite de l’exposition au casque“, ibid.]

Marie Vicet: “Éprouver la postmodernité : entre interactivité et simulation du réel dans l’exposition Les Immatériaux (1985).” In: André Gunthert, Thomas Kirchner and 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.