In this time of ideological and political crises, in which people and things are increasingly thrown back on their own resources, autonomy is considered again. But how does autonomy, the wish to take matters into one's own hands and have significance independent of old structures, relate to the call for engagement and performativity? This issue, made in collaboration with Sven Lütticken, examines autonomy from the standpoints of art, art history, philosophy, political theory, and cultural criticism, and attempts to escape the limitations of thinking in terms of engagement on the one hand and autonomy on the other.

Steven ten Thije delves into the background of The Autonomy Project. John Byrne argues that art must be freed from its current technocratic framework. According to John Hartle, the rightwing-populist criticism of art lacks democratic legitimacy. Willem van Weelden interviews Franco Berardi on the Italian Autonomia movement and autonomy, Occupy, and education. Hito Steyerl makes a plea for isolation in order to think about how life can recapture its autonomy from art. Christoph Brunner, Gerald Raunig, and Roberto Nigro examine new dimensions in current forms of activism. Joost de Bloois comments on the recent protests against government cutbacks, whereby an appeal is made to autonomy. Sven Lütticken investigates the concept of autonomy and its relation to aesthetics and politics in the context of post-war modernism. Andrea Fraser argues for an approach to autonomy from a psychoanalytic perspective. Peter Osborne analyses misunderstandings about the autonomy of art and goes into Adorno's ideas in this regard. Thomas Hirschhorn and Jacques Rancière investigate what the essence of a work of art might be in these times.

About Open
Open investigates the contemporary conditions of public space and changing notions of publicness in a structural manner in relation to cultural production. This implies an experimental and interdisciplinary exposition of the reality, possibilities, and limitations of the current public domain, in particular from sociological, philosophical, political, and artistic perspectives. Within the framework of this 'project in progress,' themes such as safety, memory, visibility, cultural freedom, tolerance, hybrid space, the rise of informal media, art as a public affair, precarity, and privacy have been examined.

Open is edited by Jorinde Seijdel (editor in chief) and Liesbeth Melis (final editing) and appears twice a year in a Dutch-language and an English-language edition. The graphic design is by Thomas Buxò and Klaartje van Eijk. Open is an initiative of SKOR | Foundation for Art and Public Domain, Amsterdam and is published by NAi Publishers.

For information, ordering, and subscriptions see: www.opencahier.nl and www.naipublishers.nl/open, or contact SKOR | Foundation for Art and Public Domain at: +31 20 672 2525, info@skor.nl and www.skor.nl