Genius Loci - Notes on Places - by Ameli Klein (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Vernon Lee (Violet Paget, 1856-1935) was a writer, essayist, and cultural critic. Genius Loci: Notes on Places approaches Lee's writings as a fluid thought space regarding the way that places absorb, alter, and shape history through affect. Starting at Kunstverein Ludwigshafen, a wandering exhibition cycle unfolded across various locations and contexts: five of Lee's texts became focal points at five sites, presented in shifting artistic constellations. The published reader documenting this cycle brings contemporary art, philology, art history, critical theory, and curatorial practice into dialogue with Lee's historical texts and the "spiritual reality" she attributes to the genius loci. Thus, hauntology--the presence of the past within the present--is described as a practice of paying attention to repressed images, unstable historical sources, and political affect that continue to resonate in the present day.

• Vernon Lee--historical texts meet contemporary art, new essays, conversations, and literary contributions
• New interdisciplinary perspectives on Vernon Lee and the ways that history, memory, and cultural meanings are inscribed into spaces, thus continuing to resonate
• A publication that is part academic reader and part exhibition catalog, combining philology, art history, cultural theory, and curatorial practice

About the Author

With contributions by Emily S. K. Anderson, Valentina Bay, Sladja Blazan, Sally Blackburn Daniels, Barbara Clausen, Erin Dziedzic, Vicente Flores Militello, Andrea Geyer, Jennifer Higgie, Ameli Klein, Sophie Jung, Dylan Kenny, Christopher Londa, Peter Murphy, Cassie Packard, Eugenio Refini, Gregory Sholette, Lukas Spielhofer, Colton Valentine, Lorenz Winkler-Horaček, Monilola Olayemi Ilupejuju