Henri Lefebvre

Lefebvre's classic analysis of daily life under capitalism in one complete volume.

The three-volume text by Henri Lefebvre is perhaps the richest, most prescient work about modern capitalism to emerge from one of the twentieth century's greatest philosophers and is now available for the first time in one complete volume. Written at the birth of post-war consumerism, Critique was an inspiration for the 1968 student revolution in France. It is a founding text of cultural studies and a major influence on the fields of contemporary philosophy, geography, sociology, architecture, political theory and urbanism. Lefebvre takes as his starting point and guide the "trivial" details of quotidian experience: an experience colonized by the commodity, shadowed by inauthenticity, yet remaining the only source of resistance and change. This is an enduringly radical text, untimely today only in its intransigence and optimism.

A multidisciplinary investigation of the interrelations of space and time, memory, architecture and urban planning through and beyond Henri Lefebvre's concept of Rhythmanalysis.

“The whole universe revolves around rhythm, and when we get out of rhythm, that's when we get into trouble.”—Babatunde Olatunji

A gathering of the echoes, memories and findings after three years of research, performances, exhibitions and conversations within “That, Around Which The Universe Revolves. On Rhythmanalysis of Memory, Times, Bodies in Space”. With chapters in Lagos, Düsseldorf, Harare, Hamburg and Berlin, the S A V V Y Contemporary project and publication bring together visual artists, urbanists, writers, photographers, performers, poets, and theorists to investigate the interrelations of space and time, memory, architecture and urban planning through and beyond Henri Lefebvre's concept of Rhythmanalysis.

Published following the exhibition project “That, Around Which The Universe Revolves. On Rhythmanalysis of Memory, Times, Bodies in Space”, SAVVY Contemporary, Berlin, from December 1st, 2017, to January 28, 2018.

Edited by Elena Agudio, Anna Jäger, Saskia Köbschall, Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung.

Contributions by Akinbode Akinbiyi, Jacques Coursil, Thulile Gamezde, Gintersdorfer/Klaßen, Noa Ha, Hebbel am Ufer Berlin (Annemie Vanackere & Ricardo Carmona), Kampnagel Hamburg (Caroline Spellenberg), Jan Lemitz, Dorothee Munyaneza, Lucia Nhamo, Christian Nyampeta, Qudus Onikeku, Tracey Rose, Louis Henri Seukwa, AbdouMaliq Simone, Awilda Sterling, Greg Tate, Kathrin Tiedemann, Trinh T. Minh-ha, Tinofireyi Zhou, Percy Zvomuya.

Event and Duration is a collection of texts that offer various perspectives on the notions of ‘event and duration’, and suggest ways that time can be thought and measured otherwise. The selection of texts are drawn from the field of performance studies, philosophy, psychoanalysis, science fiction and the visual arts among others, all of which were read in If I Can’t Dance’s reading groups in Amsterdam, São Paulo and Toronto as part of the artistic programme VI – Event and Duration (2015–16).

Contributors: Octavia E. Butler, Paul Chan, Denise Ferreira da Silva, Elizabeth Freeman, Amelia Groom, The Invisible Committee, R.D. Laing, Henri Lefebvre, Jota Mombaça, José Esteban Muñoz, Peter Pál Pelbart, Paul B. Preciado; and artist pages by Becket MWN.

176 p, ills colour, 15 x 22 cm, pb, English, 2021