BOOK CLUB #47: Biennale Bitch by Nadja Sayej

Biennale Bitch: Adventures of an Arts Reporter. A new must read book by Berlin based Nadja Sayej. Let’s face it. There’s more to the art world than just auctions and appetizers. One arts journalist has a sense of humor, and she isn’t afraid to share it in her witty new book, and that’s Nadja Sayej. But if you think what she says on the record is one thing, wait until you read her adventures! Berlin do not miss the Biennale Bitch book launch. 26.09.18 at Vögelchen
Eisenbahnstraße 6, 10997 Berlin. Find out more here

 

Now is your chance with the release of her new book Biennale Bitch, 30 short stories about 9 years of traveling through the European art scene. From biennale to art fair and back, she plows through a food review of the Venice Biennale, butterfly kisses Cate Blanchett and meets David Hasselhoff at the Berlin Wall. Oh and is it ‘biennial’ or ‘biennale?’ Nobody cares… except maybe the Italians.

A follow up to the smash hit, The Celebrity Interview Book, Nadja rolls through the art scene with a Nikon camera full of off-therecord snapshots of Salma Hayek, Patti Smith, Lady Gaga, Claude Picasso, John Waters, Thom Yorke and the Wu-Tang Clan…

This book highlights a run in with A$AP Rocky at Miami Beach, calling up Patton Oswalt in Marrakech and snoring her way through Documenta (even though Brad Pitt was there). There are cameos from Robert Crumb, doing vodka shots with Anish Kapoor and meeting Helmut Newton’s wife Jane Newton for her very first selfie. From bad weather to missed flights and food poisoning, this is a book about the art world indeed—except it’s about everything but the art. Rather, it’s about the chaos that surrounds and fills the art world like a bad pastry filling.

But also, since she has been trotting the European art scene for 8 years, there are many scandalous reports from the trenches. From artists with fake press passes to sneaking into film festivals, this legendary book is a slice of art history from the voice of one female art critic and art journalist who has seen it all.

Nadja Sayej is an internationally-acclaimed art critic and culture journalist who has interviewed hundreds of art stars and celebrities over the past 15 years. From chatting up art world icons to film stars, fashion designers and famed media personalities, she writes for The New York Times, The Guardian, The Economist, Harper’s Bazaar and Forbes, among others, interviewing everyone from Jean Paul Gaultier to Yoko Ono and Pamela Anderson.

Sayej is known as the acclaimed host of the YouTube art world comedy show ArtStars*, which was founded in Toronto in 2009, and has shaken the art world with spectacular and scandalous interviews with the cultural elite–all done with humor, wit and unmatchable style. Sayej has self-produced and hosted 70 episodes, including popular interviews with contemporary artists Gilbert & George, Eva & Adele and Julian Schnabel.

Nadja Sayej

Voted by the CBC as one of the most influential vlogs in the contemporary art world, the show has been a leading pioneer of Gonzo journalism in the arts and has blazed through the pages of Artforum and Art in America.

On the topic of the media, the arts and business, Sayej has spoken at New York University’s Berlin campus, the University of Toronto, Ryerson University, The Helsinki Art Academy and the Ontario College of Art & Design, among others. nadjasayej.com

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