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Decay – Staging – Esse

Summary

Image de la couverture du numéro Esse 115 décomposition.

115

Decay

Fall 2025

Decomposition affects organic matter, but also mineral and synthetic materials, transforming built infrastructure into ruins. Metaphorically, we associate these phenomena with the crumbling of political and economic structures or the destruction of our civilization. But decomposition also promises rebirth. How, in a collapsing world, can we imagine this rebirth? This issue proposes to sidestep disgust in order to perceive the beauty in rotting matter and discover other ways of envisioning our decline. It's about sifting through our debris to extract the substances that will allow us to nourish art and reflect on the world to come.

Cover: Neal Auch
Vanitas with Lemon, Vegetables, and Bones, from the series The Boundary, 2020.
Photo: courtesy of the artist

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Image de la couverture du numéro Esse 116 Immersion

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Immersion

Winter 2026

This issue is interested in all forms of immersion in contemporary art. How are artists critically engaging with immersive technologies? Conversely, what kinds of practices are challenging technology in their pursuit of immersion? How are these experiences breaking down the boundaries between spectator, body, and art? We put forward proposals that rely on listening and sustained attention rather than on amplification and sensory overload – works using devices that are sometimes relatively simple and non-invasive, sometimes a little more elaborate, but in which participation is, with a few nuances, neither passive nor devoid of critical thinking.

Cover: doux soft club
bleu de lieu, 2023-2024.
Photo: Cléo Sjölander, courtesy of the artists

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