The infidels. Marzel Dzama

Marcel Dzama (born 1974) is one of contemporary art´s hottest stars, and The Infidels is the most beautifully produced and substantial monograph on his work to date. Housed in a beige cloth cover featuring a tipped-in image, The Infidels contains fantastically sharp reproductions of paintings, drawings, film storyboards, collages and dioramas from the past two years, and installation shots from Dzama´s exhibition of these works at Sies + Hoke Gallery in Dusseldorf. The book also records an increased politicization in the artist´s concerns,with references to American history and current events erupting in evocations of torture, terrorism and warfare (a partial result of Dzama´s relocation from Winnipeg to New York). One special highlight of The Infidels is a new series of dioramas, housed in wooden boxes and vitrines,which transports Dzama´s world of knife-wielding ghouls,mutant animal men and hooded, gun-toting girls into a three-dimensional wunderkammer, with figurines made of plaster, little cages with white cubes (a homage to Duchamp´s "Why Not Sneeze?" assemblage), inscriptions and even taxidermied mice and birds, all recruited into the enacting of historical and mythic scenarios. These magical dioramas prove that the borders of Dzama´s fantasy land continue to expand and find new forms and stages for their expression.