Summary

106

Pain

Fall 2022

In recent years, the question of pain, whether physical or psychological, has become a hot topic in media and scientific discourses. This issue reflects on the place that pain claims in contemporary art through the production of forms and images of suffering that don’t forget the care, don’t ignore the trauma, and take the affects of the aesthetic relationship into account.

Order
LinkedIn

Editorial

Feature

Portfolios

Off-Features

Columns

Reviews

Young Critics

Videos

Image de la couverture du numéro Esse 116 Immersion

Current Issue

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

Order