John talks with Kristian Vistrup Madsen. We have a fascinating conversation about Kristian’s correspondence with a prisoner in the USA, what it means to tell people’s stories and how writing can lead to a better understanding of ourselves and the world at large. Kristian is a writer based in Berlin. He is a contributor to magazines such as Artforum, Frieze, Texte Zur Kunst and Kunstkritikk, and the recipient of the 2020 Broken Dimanche Press Writing Prize. DOING TIME, a collection of essays about prison correspondence, appropriation, and the boundaries of fiction, was published by Floating Opera Press in Summer 2021.

In the penultimate episode of Season 4 – across which Momus: The Podcast has been engaging writers on the genesis and reception of a particular piece of criticism – Sky Goodden speaks with Kristian Vistrup Madsen about writing Artforum Diary through the pandemic, and bringing the historic column to a more isolated, romantic, and literary space. The conversation also touches on Madsen’s first book, Doing Time: Essays on Using People (Floating Opera Press), which has just been released and features a series of “reflections about the politics of solidarity and appropriation, but also about writing itself and what happens when life is turned into art.” Madsen says, “There’s such ...