138 artists at the beginning of the century:
The volume ART NOW, published by Taschen Verlag, provides an overview of the international contemporary art scene – and introduces Ayse Erkmen's Moment project Shipped Ships.


ART NOW, a new volume published by Cologne's Taschen Verlag three years after the publication of ART AT THE TURN OF THE MILLENNIUM, presents young artists at the beginning of the new century. While the first volume primarily introduced artists whose careers already began in the eighties and nineties, younger generations have now entered the field, as well. In addition, the artists' portraits that Uta Grosenik and Burkhard Riemschneider have assembled together here testify to the increasingly international character of the art scene: in ART NOW, Asian, African, and Latin American artists are opening up what has often proved to be a narrow view focussed entirely on Europe and North America. Along with numerous artists who, like Francis Alys, Andreas Gursky, or Ugo Rondinone are also represented by the collection of the Deutsche Bank, the Turkish artist Ayse Erkmen has been included in the publication, as well. "A work should be as real as it is serious. That implies an aesthetic aspect." This quote by the artist has been used to introduce her project Shipped Ships, which she realized in May of 2001 in Frankfurt am Main in the context of Deutsche Bank's new art series Moment.