Individual Project

Henrik Nieratschker’s artist book 'Toying Around: -archies, -cracies & -isms' was first publicly released during the launch of surprisesurprise.online, a web platform initiated by the artists from the studios and workshops of the Künstlerhaus Bremen that shows analog and digital works and actions.

Is democracy failing us?
The artist publication Toying Around presents a short essay in interpretation of the press coverage of protests during the 2017 US presidential inauguration that poses this very question. In search of an answer, we encounter a collection of Wikipedia articles in the second half of the book, showcasing a wide variety of forms of government. From Matriarchy to Technocracy to Despotism, engaging with the theories and histories of these -archies, -cracies and -isms might help us to identify ways to move forward with democracies in crisis.

The ebook version of the publication is available for free here and a printed copy can be purchased by simply getting in touch with the artist.