Summary

111

Tourism

Spring Summer 2024

Because it is essential for it to be open to the world, art is particularly affected by concerns related to planetary travel. From a position at the intersection of contemporary art, leisure, ecology, and destination culture, Esse no. 111 observes artists’ and critical thinkers’ strategies for revisiting the very notion of tourism. Although the harmful impacts of the tourism industry are beyond question, the thematic section avoids falling prey to tourismphobia and simply pointing out its failures. Rather, this issue offers a guided tour of situations and places where art and tourism converge.

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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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