Exhibitions: The Twelve Theses on Attention

The Friends of Attention, Twelve Theses on Attention (recto)

[Information: from a series of 300 individually-inked offset prints on Fedrigoni paper; double-sided, 30×45 cm; Balgiu/Julien/DOC—Paris, 2020]
The Twelve Theses on Attention
Presented by Monira Foundation in collaboration with Friends of Attention
At Mana Contemporary, New Jersey. 888 Newark Ave Ste 440 NJ 07306
On View: May-Jul, 2022

Visiting hours: Thursdays 11-5pm and by appointment

True attention loves the real into existence” — declare the peaceful guerillas of the underground collective known as the Friends of Attention.  Working to devise, defend, recover, effect, and share forms of attention that defy commodification, the Friends seek friends (and allies) to “bring forth the astonishing reality of things and persons.” Formed in the wake of the 2018 São Paulo Biennial, this international coalition of artists, activists, scholars, and writers has led a series of annual workshops on “The Politics of Attention,” promoted community-based Attention Labs in New York City, and published a manifesto (“The Fuse; Its Refusal”) in October. Their new book Twelve Thesis on Attention (Princeton, 2022) documents their film at the 2021 Glasgow International, and lays out a radical vision of attentional worldmaking.  To celebrate the release of this important publication, the Monira Foundation hosts a benefit exhibition of one hundred individually unique handmade lithographs of the “Twelve Theses,” produced at the anarchist squat/atelier in Paris called the DOC, under the direction of French “Friends” Alex Balgiu and Quentin Julien-Saavedra. All proceeds to benefit the work of the Friends of Attention and the Monira Foundation.

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          The Monira Foundation is supported by a grant from the New Jersey Council for the Humanities with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) through the American Rescue Plan Act. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in The Twelve Theses on Attention do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities or the New Jersey Council for the Humanities.

This program is made possible in part by a grant from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, a division of the Department of State, and administered by the Hudson County Office of Cultural & Heritage Affairs, Thomas A. DeGise, Hudson County Executive & the Hudson County Board of County Commissioners.