A collection of texts Art without Tax. Art in the Era of Planetary Civil War presents for the first time in a more comprehensive collection the thought of the important German artist, documentary filmmaker and intellectual Hito Steyerl.

As Zbyněk Baladrán, the editor of the book, writes, it is an introduction to our lived reality, helping us to better orient ourselves in it, to understand and name the situation in which we find ourselves. The author’s critical reflections are projected into the field of visual art, from which they also originate. By pointing to the conditions of contemporary art operations – the abundance of unpaid “voluntary” work, tax evasion, money laundering and deregulated financial markets – Steyerl reveals a view of the autonomous world of art. An accessible tool for students and workers across generations and disciplines, the book can be inspiring, but at the same time, with its emphasis on problematic levels not only of culture, but of society as a whole, it provokes considerable concern, if not skepticism. The individual chapters consist of texts written on various occasions – as lectures given at conferences such as the Tate Modern in London, the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven, the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, the Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin, the Akademie der Künste der Welt in Cologne, Artists Space in New York, and the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. They have also been published, for example, in October magazine or e-flux. The author’s background in the art world is also evident in her writing style, which is interdisciplinary, full of associations, new shapes, metaphors, insight and detailed analyses.

The book is available only in Czech.

Umění bez daně. Umění v éře planetární občanské války (Art without Tax. Art in the Era of Planetary Civil War)