Unknown Unknown

“Do we actually want the future to be totally unlike the present, or only a little bit different? This is just one of the pressing questions that Kurant’s works raise. Some of her work invokes a world of little differences, small tricks, magic sticks, cloud busters, barking birds, bubbles from a black box, and exits as entrances. Others examine the big picture of the future: global politics in the year 2020 as presented by the authoritative voice of the New York Times, a future issue that Kurant meticulously prepared with the professional help of clairvoyant Krzysztof Jackowski and several Times journalists. In a sense, her big-picture works speak less about the small differences of the near future than the potential for absolute difference—events  after which the world might never be the same again …” Jan Verwoert

In Ready Unmade, a piece commissioned by the frieze art fair, Kurant further explores the thin line between fiction and reality, purposelessness and function: the artist presents a trio of trained parrots that have been taught to use an alternative language. Both a reflection on nature behaving unnaturally and a caricature of the zoo-like atmosphere of the art fair and the self-reflexive communication of the art world. Referring to two similar but unrealized projects by other artists, Kurant also questions the notions of copyright and the marketplace.

Designed by Kasia Korczak & Boy Vereecken, the book includes sections printed with photochromic ink, a pop-up, and a poster cut into separate pages.