'A much-needed critique of the wrong turns taken by contemporary left thought, offered by one of our savviest cultural critics. Anyone who needs a reminder as to the myriad ways in which we can still today engage in progressive cultural and political expression should read Vanguardia.'
Imre Szeman, Canada Research Chair in Cultural Studies, University of Alberta

'At the start of the twenty-first century, geopolitics took a turn for the worse. Fuelled by the market and controlled by an elite class, loosely aligned with the neoconservative forces enacting disaster in the world, the mainstream cultural field remained silent. Dissenting voices were selectively suppressed. In this fascinating collection of texts, Marc James Léger documents the ways in which those energies found alternative modes of enacting culture and politics. Angrily opposing the technocratic capture of our cultural and educational institutions, Vanguardia rejects simple solutions to instead interrogate the rife contradictions of politico-cultural praxis and reclaim a systematically stifled vanguardism.'
Rebecca Gordon-Nesbitt, author of To Defend the Revolution Is to Defend Culture

'Plugs a gaping hole in the political theory of contemporary art.'
Dave Beech, Art Monthly, (June 2019)

Marc James Léger is an independent scholar living in Montreal. He is editor of The Idea of the Avant Garde - And What It Means Today and author of Brave New Avant Garde, The Neoliberal Undead, Drive in Cinema and Don't Network.