Hito Steyerl

This is a kind of poetic philosophy or maybe rap or hip-hop. It's about politics and the economy. How images function, for example. There are some fine insights here on our present situation, the patterns we've evolved into. This whole book is rather out of my comfort zone... discussions of the art world. How the language of art criticism functions to enforce political hierarchy etc.

Lots of talk about how art objects function as a kind of asset, getting locked up in warehouses that are outside the customs frontier, hence the title "Duty Free".

I don't usually read books like this, where the language sort of embodies the point as much as expressing it. I think of Derrida working this way. Derrida I find 99% opaque. This book I could mostly understand. So maybe it is a good entry point for this whole stylistic world, maybe James Joyce crossing Karl Poppper or something.

Anyway it stretched me pretty good so I found it well worth the while!… (meer)