Today the Art21 Magazine launched its Summer 2018 issue, “Figures of Speech,” which examines the capacity of art for self-expression, community building, and political activism in 2018. Offering a diversity of perspectives on truth, storytelling, protest, and knowledge, “Figures of Speech” will feature artists’ projects that employ and investigate the power of speech, both analog and digital.

Our executive director and chief curator Tina Kukielski introduces the issue in her “Letter from the Editor,” in which she examines the rise of chatbots on social media as a twenty-first century example of the power of digital speech. Also included in today’s issue launch is a unit plan by Educator-in-Residence Jeannine Bardo that asks students to explore the theme of home through research that centers on facets of their community: themselves, their family, and their friends. The final piece in today’s issue launch is an essay on the role of fables today by a founding member of the Russian collective Chto Delat, Dmitry Vilensky. Founded in 2003, the collective experiments with speech’s potential through work that merges art, political theory, and activism across a range of media including film, newspapers, and radio.

Check back on the Art21 Magazine through the end of September for new essays and articles on knowledge-sharing, truth, and the power of the collective and individual voice.