In our culture, in which the media play a predominant role, there is an increasing emphasis on achieving visibility and transparency. Openness and communication are subservient to that visibility, and even seem to coincide with it more and more emphatically. At the same time, both notions form the foundations for social order and political power. In our over-visualized culture, however, it seems as if every message or social agenda is being squeezed out in favour of styling, commerce and fashion. What position does art occupy in this, or what position should it occupy?

In our culture, in which the media play a predominant role, there is an increasing emphasis on achieving visibility and transparency. Openness and communication are subservient to that visibility, and even seem to coincide with it more and more emphatically. At the same time, both notions form the foundations for social order and political power. In our over-visualized culture, however, it seems as if every message or social agenda is being squeezed out in favour of styling, commerce and fashion. What position does art occupy in this, or what position should it occupy?

In Open 8, guest editors Willem van Weelden and Jan van Grunsven write a general introduction, Brian Holmes explores (in)visibility as a tactic in art, and Jouke Kleerebezem asks who actually decides about (in)visibility in the public space; Camiel van Winkel writes over the visual deficit of contemporary culture; Dieter Lesage critically examines the proposals by OMA/AMO for a new iconography of Europe; Henk Oosterling investigates the FBI's prosecution of the Critical Art Ensemble; Jorinde Seijdel considers how media images are used as evidence for social and political events. Open 8 includes interviews with Arno van der Mark of DRFTWD, an Amsterdam-based multidisciplinary design bureau, and with the French research organization Bureau d'Etudes, as well as an account of a roundtable discussion about a possible new legitimation for academic training in 'art and the public space'. The cahier also presents a column by the Belgian architect/author Wouter Davidts, photographic essays and book reviews.