Lenz publishes books on contemporary art, photography, architecture and design.
Our imprint includes catalogues, monographs, theory and artist books.
Strata raccoglie 37 conversazioni con artisti il cui lavoro ha dato un contributo significativo alla scena artistica italiana e internazionale a partire dal 2000. Questo libro è il resoconto personale di una serie di incontri, amicizie e relazioni professionali che Vincenzo de Bellis e Alessandro Rabottini hanno coltivato negli ultimi vent’anni.
Strata compiles 37 conversations with artists whose work has made a significant contribution to the Italian and international art scene since 2000. This book is the personal account of a number of encounters, friendships, and professional relationships that Vincenzo de Bellis and Alessandro Rabottini have nurtured over the past twenty years.
Pardon Façade documents the artistic output of Luca Monterastelli, showcasing almost all of the sculptures and installations that he produced between 2011 and 2022. Across four chapters—corresponding to four solo shows that he staged in Milan, Otegem, Antwerp, and Naples—the publication provides the first overview of the artist’s work.
More than half a century after its premiere, Yvonne Rainer, in collaboration with choreographer and dancer Emily Coates, directed the 2019 revival of her 1965 performance Parts of Some Sextets. This book poses questions about the trajectories of artworks, performers, and audiences, all while tracing the life—and afterlife—of a dance.
How does technology organize life? This book documents and reflects on the exhibition Proof of Stake: Technological Claims at Kunstverein in Hamburg, curated by Simon Denny and Bettina Steinbrügge. It brings together a unique group of artists and scholars who investigate the technological apparatuses and power relations of organized life.
This artist’s first monograph brings together sketches, documentation and installation shots, as well as an in-depth analysis of her practice. It highlights her process of making art, from the conception of an idea to the finished work, and from the deconstruction and re-assembling of her characters’ identities to the relentless creation of new worlds.
Edited by Daniel Baumann
Trajal Harrell in conversation with Daniel Baumann
Designed by Lorenzo Mason Studio
Co-published with Kunsthalle Zürich
2026, English, softcover, 11 × 18 cm, 184 pages
ISBN 979-12-82771-00-9
This is the first monograph on the influential American choreographer and dancer Trajal Harrell. It takes the form of an entertaining, far-reaching conversation on the entirety of his choreographies and performances—hence its title of “Catalogue Raisonné.”
Since starting out on his prolific career in 1999, Harrell has presented his work worldwide and in a variety of contexts, on scales both large and small: from renown theaters to international festivals, libraries to public panels, prestigious little art galleries and museums to Kunsthalles and biennials. The long list includes, among many others, the Museum of Modern Art and the New Museum in New York, the Barbican Centre in London, the Schauspielhaus Zürich, the Kunsthalle Zürich, the Münchner Kammerspiele, the Fondation Cartier Paris, the Festival d’Avignon, and the Manchester International Festival.
The conversation with Swiss curator Daniel Baumann unfolds along the multiple trails blazed by Harrell’s career. It brings into sharp focus not only the artist’s interests and influences but also his own creative practice, encompassing both successes and failures. With disarming frankness and a tangible sense of vulnerability, Harrell walks the reader through the history of dance: He explains how he fought with it, how it has shaped him (and vice versa), and how he has gradually carved out a space of his own within it.
Harrell gained international acclaim for his seven-year project Twenty Looks or Paris is Burning at the Judson Church. Across eight different versions, he imagined an encounter between 1960s Harlem voguing and early downtown postmodern dance. These different choreographies share a sense of historical speculation: What would have happened in 1963 if someone from the voguing ballroom scene had come down to the Judson Church in Greenwich Village to perform alongside the early postmoderns? The voguing dance tradition refers to the competitive balls that were staged in Harlem dance halls, beginning in the 1960s. These were a form of social performance practiced primarily by African American and Latino gays, and trans people. One of the main elements of voguing is the performing of social and gender identities through fashion, movement, and behavior. At the same historical moment, in the 1960s, the pioneers of postmodern dance broke with the traditional representations of classical and modern dance, becoming interested in dance without artifice and concerning themselves instead with “authenticity.”
This is only one of several dance forms that, throughout his career, Harrell has investigated in order to transform and transgress the history of dance. By engaging with Hoochie Coochie, the culture of fashion and runway, butoh, and the dances of Greek Antiquity, Harrell challenges us to re-think dance from a multiplicity of different and sometimes conflicting perspectives.
Photos: Nicola Gnesi