For the 2012 Bucharest Biennale, artist Jill Magid will exhibit her novella Failed States, which chronicles her experiences as she trained in 2010 to be an embedded journalist in Afghanistan as well being witness to a shooting at the Texas state capitol building that same year. An interdisciplinary artist who engages with institutional structures and notions of intimacy, attempting to materialize phenomena like secrets and risk, Magid’s work encompasses performance, prints, sculpture, video, and writing. The biennale is on view from May 25 to July 22, 2012.

WHAT IS A WITNESS AND WHAT IS PARTICIPANT? This is a vital question that arises in Failed States, a project I began working on in Austin, Texas, which consists of multiple pieces, such as