Théophile’s Papers Panorama n°10,
a big panorama, a series of talks & launches.

Guests: BAT editions, Cy Press, Figure, Girl Like Us, Komplot, Les Editions de la Houle, MerPaperKunsthalle, Pacifique Record, Shelter Press, Eléonore Joulin, Ghislain Amar, Valerian Goalec.

May 18 – June 24, 2012
Abilene gallery, Brussels

Zak Group presents the Sternberg Press Solution series, edited by Ingo Niermann and designed by Zak Group beginning in 2008.

The Solution series invites authors to develop an abundance of compact and original ideas for countries and regions, contradicting the widely held assumption that after the end of socialism, human advancement is only possible technologically or requires a yet-to-be-established world order. In Solution 9: The Great Pyramid, Niermann writes: “When I told Rem Koolhaas about my title idea for the book series, he seemed earnestly alarmed. ‘Solution’ is a word he never uses. He demonstrated how his hand automatically begins to shake as soon as he even wants to write it.”

May 25 – June 16, 2012
OMMU, Athens

*Latent Stare* – David Bennewith

The motivating concept behind a *Latent Stare* exhibition is the suggestion, exploration and illustration of the idea that a typeface, as a systematic design and as a (digital) product, is something that carries or projects a meaning (into civil society) beyond commercial – antecedent and subsequent aesthetic – imperatives and derivatives.
The main thesis to explore is how these phenomena might be realized and played out through a typefaces programmed intention, production and distribution. Tacit historicism, security and familiarity; the suggestion of dependability; reliability and ‘truthfulness’ are deep-rooted concepts and tensions within the discipline of type-design. Consequently, these embodied ideas may simultaneously mold & reflect the values and rules of the public a typeface is intended for. This premise burdens the type-designer as an agent in the proliferation of – both – stead-fast and /un-/certain messages sent into the world (‘based on patterns of variation and repetition’, Paul Elliman). Concentrating on the type-designer as a practitioner who is aware of their position through the discipline of design and to conceptions of a society at large, a question emerges: Can type-design be (self-)critical?

July 8 – September 9, 2012
Casco, Utrecht

Wood’s bad vs RoBoClop – Mathias Schweizer
Paysages polymorphes en kit

Tantôt Dr Jekyll, tantôt Mr Hyde, Mathias Schweizer investit l’espace de la galerie m190, puis les rues de la ville… Comme une horde sauvage, ses affiches feront naitre de nouveaux enjeux domestiques et urbains et engageront une bataille…

jusqu’au 13 juin, 2012
m.190, Villeneuve sur Lot

Fernand Baudin Prize 2011 – Catalogue

The Fernand Baudin Prize, the Prize for the Most Beautiful Books in Brussels and Wallonia, has been initiated by several graphic designers/ teachers active in the world of the book.
The Baudin Prize wishes to privilege above all distinct approaches of some books and the coherence in the interaction between the different players who contributed to the book: graphic designer, publisher and printer-binder. At the same time, the Prize wants to highlight certain remarkable aspects of a book of graphic, conceptual or technical nature. The Prize doesn’t want to honour a books that is flawless, but that also doesn’t take risks and is without soul.

“A couple of years ago I thought it would be a great idea to provide a book with a bugging device (a tiny MP3 recorder of some sort) and then to hand it in at the Most Beautiful Swiss Books competition just in order to get a full protocol of the jury’s discussions. Unfortunately, I could never come up with neither the technological part nor the book content that would suit a project like this.
For this year’s Fernand Baudin Prize, a similar venture would have been totally useless, as the catalogue you’re holding is exactly this: a blackbox-like recording of all we said on Tuesday, January 17, about these 109 books in the competition that at least received one bookmark (aka. one request to be discussed) from one of the 9 jurors. The aim behind this attitude of complete transparency (no Wikileaks needed) is to focus on the process and the progress of our discussions rather than on the resulting selection.”
Urs Lehni, president of the jury of the fourth edition.

Eline Mul

Tiffany Malakooti

Christian Lange

Publishing as (part-time) Practice,
a seminar on independent publishing organised by Iaspis together with graphic designers and small-scale publishers Matilda Plöjel (Sailor Press) and Mattias Jakobsson & Peter Ström (Konst & Teknik / Andperseand).

Over the last few years, a wide range of new publishing initiatives have developed within the visual arts and design fields. New book fairs are emerging in major cities, small publishing houses and independent presses are frequently initiated and the alternative bookshop seems to be reborn in new forms. Something that seems to tie these activities together, is that they are run by practitioners themselves — photographers, artists, authors and graphic designers — often with a visionary idea of how to redefine the world of publishing.

Confirmed participating publishers: Elin Maria Olaussen / Karen Christine Tandberg from Torpedo Books and Press, Georg Rutishauser from Edition Fink, Matthew Stadler from Publication Studio, Anna Gerber / Britt Iversen from Visual Editions, Nille Svensson from Nilleditions, Jacob Grønbech Jensen / Rikard Heberling / Emi-Simone Zawall from Drucksache. Andrew Blauveld from Walker Art Center will introduce the event as well as provide a concluding reflection at the end of the evening.

May 25, 2012, 3-8pm
Iaspis, Stockholm

Another Exhibition:
Artist’s Books by Hans Peter Feldmann,
about hundred books on display made by Feldmann between 1968 and 2012.

Hans-Peter Feldmann is renowned for a distinctive use of photography and ready made objects in his work. At the end of the sixties Feldmann started to collect series of images from widespread visual culture as well as his own photographs. These series are displayed differently in printed matter as well as exhibitions.

From 1968 onwards Feldmann produced artist’s books, comprising a substantial part of his oeuvre and of major influence on the development of artist’s books as an independent medium. In the first period Feldmann made Bilder Hefte, a series of tiny books at times containing only one image. Some books demonstrate a photo series of a single theme, like Die Toten, press photos of victims of political terrorism in Germany, and Alle Kleider einer Frau, a sequence of individually photographed objects. Other examples encompass disparate imagery without any enforced interpretation.
In 1995 Feldmann founded the magazine Ohio together with fellow photographers. This exhibition includes six issues of Ohio magazine that were made by Feldmann himself. Ohio magazine and Feldmann’s artist’s books greatly inspired younger generations of artists.

The exhibition is curated by Frank Mandersloot from his own collection supplemented with a loan from the private collection of the c/o Konrad Fischer Galerie, Düsseldorf, and organized in close collaboration with the librarians. Feldmann’s work is displayed on exhibition tables specially designed by Mandersloot for this occasion.

May 12 – June 2 2012
Gerrit Rietveld Academie – Library, Amsterdam

The Reading Room

Founded by by artists Ciarán Walsh and Dominique Hurth, The Reading Room is a project based in Berlin, with the aim to maintain, archive and represent products of contemporary art practices evolving within printed and published formats. The Reading Room presents a curated selection of over 75 artist’s publications (books, zines, magazines and newspapers) and related projects (such as fold-out posters or published audio projects), from a range of internationally based artists, both established and emerging.

In addition to the traditionally known artist-made books, artist monographs or exhibition catalogues, the published format itself is now regularly viewed as a primary site for an artist’s engagement. While often considered as secondary to the more prevalent presentation space of the gallery, the act of publishing has developed itself into a self-contained and highly resonant method of artistic expression. The Reading Room focuses on the publication utilised as medium and context for art practices, in which the artists choose deliberately and critically to engage with the format, using its materiality, edges and frame as tools for both visual and semantic communication.

For this exhibition at Grand Union, their collection will displayed dynamically according to six curatorial axes, exploring the spectrum of relationships between conceptual content, physical publication formats and the experience of the Reader. Grand Union will also show a programme of screen based works that expand on these ideas and the act of reading.

May 19 – June 23
Grand Union, Birmingham

Impressed,
une exposition de Xavier Antin, Jonas Delaborde,
Jérémie Paul, Pierre Paulin, Benjamin Triouleyre.

Le titre rappelle phonétiquement le mot français « impression » et fait écho à l’ensemble des technologies permettant de reproduire des écrits ou des illustrations. Sa traduction littérale signifie « être impressionné » et renvoie à un champ plus affectif proche de ce qui anime un fan, l’admiration. Motivés par le désir de partager des contenus qui les passionnent, les créateurs de fanzines activent des circuits qui échappent au radar de la grande distribution.
Mais si l’on peut définir ces pratiques par une certaine autonomie et une philosophie du « do it yourself », on peut aussi souligner les nombreuses connexions avec le monde de la micro-édition autoproduite et constater que la distinction n’est plus très claire entre ce que l’on nomme aujourd’hui fanzine et d’autres pratiques éditoriales indépendantes.

Plutôt que de donner des réponses ou des définitions précises, Impressed s’attache à montrer l’extrême créativité, la liberté de ton et l’énergie qui président à de telles initiatives, cherche à en explorer les mécanismes de fabrication et s’intéresse aux résonances et frottements possibles avec d’autres pratiques artistiques.

L’exposition joue sur les deux axes de partage et d’intimité, de moyens collectifs et de désir individuel, de réseau et d’amateurisme et réunit non seulement des fanzines et des éditions mais aussi des œuvres d’artistes. Le travail des artistes invités se positionne aussi par rapport à la diffusion et la circulation de contenus, les procédés d’impression, les moyens économiques de fabrication et les notions de goût ou de fascination pour des sujets ou des images aussi diverses que spécifiques.

12 mai – 21 juillet 2012, Médiathèque Jean Jaurès & Galerie Arko, Nevers
25 mai au 22 juin 2012, Collège Adam Billaut, Nevers

La Typographie moderne

S’appuyant sur le postulat de Jürgen Habermas selon lequel la modernité est un «projet inachevé», Robin Kinross situe les débuts d’une véritable pratique moderne de la typographie aux alentours de 1700, avec la publication, en Angleterre, du premier traité de typographie, les Mechanick exercises (1683-1684) de Joseph Moxon, et la création du romain du roi en France. Il livre ici une histoire de la typographie moderne envisagée dans un sens large, bien au-delà du modernisme formel, en privilégiant les démarches et les praticiens qui, en Europe ou aux États-Unis, ont su articuler savoir et pratique – à l’instar des réformateurs anglais ou des membres de la nouvelle typographie. En prenant en compte les avancées techniques et le contexte dans lequel les typographes opèrent, Robin Kinross met ainsi l’accent sur les aspects sociaux, politiques, techniques et matériels qui informent leur pratique. L’originalité de cet essai se situe à plusieurs niveaux : récit vivant et critique des développements de la typographie au cours des siècles, il est enrichi par des exemples représentatifs, rarement montrés auparavant, et propose une ouverture pour d’autres investigations.

Les éditions B42 poursuivent leur travail de traduction de textes majeurs de l’histoire du design et de la typographie et constituent ainsi un fonds critique indispensable. Cet ouvrage au point de vue inédit et jamais paru en français est une proposition nouvelle et extrêmement bien documentée sur l’histoire de la typographie depuis le XVIIIe siècle. Il vient combler un manque dans la théorie et l’histoire de la typographie par l’ouverture et la précision du point de vue critique de l’auteur.

Conférences, avec Robin Kinross:
10 mai, 14h30, École supérieure d’art et de design, Valence
11 mai, 19h, Centre Pompidou, Paris

Rencontre et signature, avec Robin Kinross:
12 mai, 18h30, Librairie Yvon Lambert, Paris

Art=Life=Art. Dada>Fluxus highlights the connections and elements of continuity between the Dadaism of the 1920s and the Fluxus movement which started in the 1960s. Presented on mobile shelving, the works invite interaction, encouraging visitors to study them close up and compose their own personal exhibition layout.

Art as part of life (art=life), and not the opposite; breaking down barriers between what is deemed art and what is not, between playful and socially committed works of art. In 1916 Dadaism completely upended the prevailing concept of art, and the Fluxus movement of the early 60s drew on many elements and principles of Dada works.

The exhibition opens with Marcel Duchamp’s famous “Boîte-en-valise”. The installation, a limited edition production of the late 1930s which was reproduced by the artist himself in 1961, gathers around 60 miniature versions of his most important works, from his post-Futurist paintings to the legendary urinal. In the work Duchamp plays with the concepts of original and replica: the work is just one of the numerous ready mades and multiples in the show, typical manifestations of Dada and Fluxus. Both the ready mades – appropriations of everyday items – and the multiples, multiple editions of existing works, reject the idea of the work of art as a precious, unique one-off. The value of the work therefore lies not in the skill that went into producing it, but the artist’s intellectual operation. And if the conceptual aspect prevails over the manual one, it follows that even a piece of cake or a biscuit can become part of a work of art.

The exhibition features works by Erik Andersen, Joseph Beuys, George Brecht, John Cage/Calvin Sumsion, Christo, Giuseppe Chiari, Philip Corner, Marcel Duchamp, Ken Friedman, Raymond Hains, John Heartfield, Geoffrey Hendricks, Dick Higgins, Joe Jones, Charlotte Moorman, Nam June Paik, Ben Patterson, Lamberto Pignotti, Robert Rauschenberg, Pierre Réstany, Mimmo Rotella, Sarenco, Daniel Spoerri, Ben Vautier, Jacques Villeglé, Wolf Vostell and Bob Watts; and artists’ books by: Marcel Duchamp, Christo, Joseph Beuys, George Brecht, John Cage, Giuseppe Chiari, Philip Corner, Dick Higgins, Diter Roth, Daniel Spoerri, Klaus Staeck, Ben Vautier and Wolf Vostell.

Until February 24, 2013
Museion, Bolzano

Pratique+Critique: Sara De Bondt & Antony Hudek

Founded in 2008 by Sara De Bondt and Antony Hudek, Occasional Papers is a non-profit publisher of affordable books devoted to the histories of architecture, art, design, film and literature.

About Graphic Design features a comprehensive selection of writings by renowned graphic designer, graphic design theorist and historian Richard Hollis, including interviews, essays, letters, articles, lectures and course outlines. About Graphic Design is densely illustrated with over 500 thumbnail images.

Conférence Pratique+Critique: Sara De Bondt & Antony Hudek

3 mai, 2012, 17h
École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs, Paris

GRAPHIC #22 YALE

Yale Special. Planned, edited & designed by graphic design department, Yale School of Art.

Participants and contributors: Ming Bai, Xavier Cerrilla, Matthew Chrislip, Inva Çota, Kate Dewitt, Golnaz Esmaili, Harry Gassel, Njoki Gitahi, Janghyun Han, Suckzoo Han, Maxime Harvey, Kristian Henson, Tiff Hockin, Eric Hu, Azusa Kobayashi, Jen Lee, Weiyi Li, Andrew Lister, Yen-Wei Liu, Qiuye Liu, Rob Matthews, Nontsikelelo Mutiti, Cecilie Nellemann, Julia Novitch, Daniel Pizarro, Aurora Robles, Heesun Seo, Jaewon Seok, Jessica Svendsen, Chris Svensson, Stefan Thorsteinsson, Ghazaal Vojdani, Ryan Weafer, Jeseok Yi, Jack Balkin, James Berger, Julian Bittiner, Karla Britton, Craig Buckley, Francesco Casetti, Gregory Crewdson, Glen Cummings, Sheila Levrant De Bretteville, Keller Easterling, Paul Elliman, Michael Faison, Peter Halley, Roni Horn, Matthew Jacobson, Wayne Koestenbaum, Karel Martens, Dan Michaelson, Sigi Moeslinger, Alexander Nemerov, Margaret Olin, Sarah Oppenheimer, Mark Owens, Kevin Repp, Michael Rock, Elihu Rubin, Julika Rudelius, Holly Rushmaier, Susan Sellers, Rob Storr, Masamichi Udagawa, Daniel Van Der Velden, Linda Van Deursen, Lyneise Williams, Yale Gdmfa ’11, Timothy Young.

The 25th Brno Biennial consists of A an international competition, B an exhibition under a guest curator, C accompanying thematic shows and D an introductory three-day series of Biennial Talks.
The core of the upcoming jubilee 25th Brno Biennial is its international competition, the aim of which is to present a broad spectrum of contemporary graphic design and its metamorphoses across media and forms. The related exhibition is based on works selected by a specialist board featuring designers and design theoreticians.

Lectures and presentations by designers and design theoreticians: Andrew Blauvelt, Sulki & Min, Zak Kyes, R. V. Novák and Jan van Toorn, Na Kim, Kasia Korczak, Adéla Svobodová & Tereza Hejmová & Pauline Kerleroux, Karel Haloun, Jon Sueda, Experimental Jetset and Milan Knížák, Karl Nawrot, James Langdon, Linked by Air, Christoph Keller and Katerina Sedá.

June 23-24, 2012
Moravian Gallery, Brno

Moving Picture Show
by Jürg Lehni

The current migration from analogue to digital movie projections in cinemas across the globe is slowly rendering the medium of 35mm motion picture film obsolete, along with the technical equipment used to produce and screen such film.
In Moving Picture Show, a scenario of production of animated drawings and text is created by reappropriating a process normally used by the film industry to etch subtitles into the emulsion layer of 35mm film using a high-powered precision laser. By etching away the emulsion, only the clear base of the film remains. Projected onto the screen, the lines appear bright and clear.
Changing the working range of the laser and replacing the software interface to such a machine leads to new possibilities: Animations and full-frame drawings can be realised on top of film. The film can either consist of existing material, film created purely for this purpose, or black, non-developed film.
During the 23rd International Poster and Graphic Design Festival in Chaumont, the jesuits chapel will be transformed into a workshop, a scenario of conception, production and projection of a series of short films produced in this way. Several contributing designers and artists are invited to engage with the production facility and collaborate on the contents of the show, producing films that will be projected repeatedly during the festival. Meanwhile the laser machine which is also present in the chapel is slowly producing new films for future screenings.
Invited Artists (not final): David Reinfurt, Karl Nawrot, Konstantin Grcic, Triin Tamm.

May 26 – June 10, 2012
International Poster and Graphic Design Festival, Chaumont

La Grande Ourse est une résidence de recherche, pensée et élaborée comme une master class proposée par les trois Écoles Nationales Supérieures d’Art, Bourges, Cergy, Dijon, le pôle graphisme de Chaumont, et le Parc Saint Léger-Centre d’art contemporain.
Trois artistes issus des écoles partenaires, un théoricien et un graphiste émergents seront sélectionnés pour cette résidence de recherche qui se déroulera durant trois mois, de janvier à mars 2013, sur le site du Parc Saint Léger, centre d’art contemporain de Pougues-les-eaux.

Par ce biais, La Grande Ourse souhaite renforcer l’interaction entre recherche plastique, théorique et graphique. Pensée sur un mode expérimental, son ambition est de créer les conditions de développement d’axes de recherches personnelles dans un environnement collaboratif. La rencontre dans un même espace-temps d’une micro communauté issue de trois disciplines distinctes de la création contemporaine poursuit une logique de dissipation des frontières propre au champ de l’art afin de privilégier le partage de méthode, de recherche et de production.

Au terme de cette période, un objet éditorial, territoire commun aux résidents, sera réalisé. Cet objet collectif constituera un espace d’échange des positions artistiques de chacun, de convergence des réflexions conduites en commun, de questionnements et de dialogue de leur recherche et de leur pratique. Quelle que soit sa forme, espace d’exposition, journal de bord, album de famille, manuel d’histoire, cet objet collectif s’inscrira au croisement de la théorie et de la pratique, des arts visuels et des arts appliqués, de l’art et de sa transmission.

STEINBERG, SAUL. THE NEW YORKER. NEW YORK, 1945–2000.
(HAROLD, WILLIAM, ROBERT, TINA, DAVID, EDS.)

For more than fifty years, Saul Steinberg was The New Yorker’s in-house observer, visual epitome, and its chief cartoonist. This exhibition, naming The New Yorker’s consecutive editors, collects some two hundred of his one thousand published contributions, presented as is: magazines, collected through time, some slightly yellowed and hung with that irrevocable library smell…

We can’t imagine how you could see Steinberg’s stenographic line without seeing the page it is on. “Everything has a message,” Steinberg noted. The circulatory system has a message, the page has a message, the ads have a message, the neighborhood of fiction and news have a message, all of it makes for juxtapositions as eerily apposite as anything the French surrealists or a blender could come up with.

The exhibition program will include a lecture by the exhibition coordinators Robert Snowden and Scott Ponik, a talk by Stuart Bailey of Dexter Sinister on July 3, and a screening of The Right Way by Fischli and Weiss on Saturday, August 4.

June 16 – August 10, 2012
YALE UNION (YU), Portland

“We are ABOUT to make history” is the motto of the first ABOUT Independent Publishing Fair in Mainz. With more than 25 participants from all across the country and a focus on the presentation of student’s publications from various art academies, it facilitates exchange and dialogue with like-minded people as well as the general public.