Noah Barker (1991) is an artist based in New York. Recent solo exhibitions include Fanta-MLN, Milan (2020 and 2019); Lodos, Mexico City (2019); Air de Paris, Paris (2018); Éclair, Berlin (2017); AndNow, Dallas (2016).

installation views, Five Summer Stories by Noah Barker, Fanta-MLN, Milan, 2020
Courtesy of the artist and Fanta-MLN, Milan
Photo: Roberto Marossi

installation views, We walked toward the music and away from the party, Fanta-MLN, Milan, 2019

For “We walked toward the music and away from the party”, Barker proposed a publishing pavilion against the idea of a publishing house for the reintroduction of a text trapped in time. Manfredo Tafuri’s “Lavoro intellettuale e sviluppo capitalistico” (“Intellectual Labor and Capitalist Development”) was originally printed in the pages of Contropiano following his earlier and more famous “Per una Critica dell’Ideologia Architettonica” (“For a Critique of Architectural Ideology”). Over the course of the exhibition the text was translated into English for the first time by architect Alessandro Bava and updated with the artist. The gallery was staged for the reception of the republication in regular installments, while the finalized manuscript was held in suspension by the rights holder.

Intellectual work and augmented intelligence, Alessandro Bava, Nero Magazine, July 2019