Are You...Friends with Books? / Public Programmes 2016
Saturday, 10 December, 2016
13:00 h Artists Darío Corbeira, Jorge Miñano, Miguel Ángel Rego and Hugo López-Castrillo of the art publishing collective brumaria, based in Madrid, discuss art and politics in relation to their artist book Impasse, work #8 (brumaria, 2016), with a critical reflection on recent developments affecting the European Union (EU) such as racist phenomena, lack of political autonomy and the crisis of the welfare model. Presented by brumaria.
14:00 h Defne Ayas, Director of Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, will read from Alexandre Singh: Causeries (Witte de With Publishers, 2016) detailing a series of encounters between the artist and various academics, writers, scientists and philosophers who covered topics from cosmology, pictorial satire, Woody Allen, South Park, scatology and shit & civilization, during his time preparing his ambitious theatre play The Humans. Presented by Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art.
15:00 h Wilfried Huet, founder of GAGARIN – the Artists in their Own Words, in conversation with artist Olaf Nicolai upon the occasion of the final issue of the international artists’ magazine that spanned the last 16 years. Documenting the first decade(s) of this century in artists’ writings, the publication has strived for a compilation of artists' texts whose content is artistic and refers directly to the work of the artist. Presented by GAGARIN.
16:00 h Gerhard Theewen (Salon Verlag & Edition) in conversation with artist Karin Sander about Salon magazine, founded 40 years ago, a 'magazine as art and not ABOUT art' with original contributions by contemporary artists. In the spring of 2016 Salon was reissued, and contains neither texts nor essays but contributions by artists specially created for the magazine. The current 3rd edition will launch at Friends with Books. Presented by Salon Verlag & Edition. Programme in German.
17:00 h Artist Jonathan Monk and novelist and publisher John Holten discuss Monk's recently published artist book A Number of Points Randomly Connected (Broken Dimanche Press). Derived from an ongoing project of the same name, this edition uses as paper stock the medium of the project itself, namely A1 posters. For the publication Holten wrote an essay-fiction that looked at the expanded possibilities the work posits, both as multi-locational project and artist book. Presented by Broken Dimanche Press.
18:00 h Interdisciplinary art group Discoteca Flaming Star (CGB, Consuelo Guijarro, WM, Sara Pereira) perform ‘Hate Verses’, 2016, inspired by the sober drunkenness of Dorothy Parker, and Guy Debord's thoughts on Asger Jorn's "Le Jardin de Albisola", against the backdrop of their original White Banner 1, 2001, a textile work as a form of ‘spatial transformation within which disorders are formed into words’. Performance presented by Friends with Books as part of the temporary exhibition it is this flash itself that seduces.
Sunday, 11 December, 2016
14:00 h Artist Stefanie Seufert in conversation with Reinhard Braun, editor of Camera Austria International, and contributor to her recently published artist’s book Wood Survives in the Form of Postholes (Edition Camera Austria, 2016), an archaeology of the present, tied to the medium of photography, which claims universality, and that can, as Seufert shows, stand up to all critique of representation despite that promise. Presented by Camera Austria International. Programme in German.
15:00 h Artist and editor Cecilia Grönberg and translator and editor-in-chief Jonas (J) Magnusson of OEI magazine/OEI editör discuss Grönberg’s recent publication, Event Horizon. Distributed photography (OEI editör 2016), exploring how photography as a technology has in recent decades undergone a series of transformative changes, which have entailed different renegotiations of the functions of photography – as image or information, as inscription or transmission. Presented by OEI magazine/OEI editör.
16:00 h A presentation by Uwe Sonnenberg on his book Von Marx zum Maulwurf: Linker Buchhandel in Westdeutschland in den 1970er Jahren (From Marx to the Mole: Leftist book trade in West Germany in the 1970s) (Wallstein Verlag, 2016), and a discussion with representatives of the Berlin publishing initiative Drucken Heften Laden (DHL): Christian Berkes (botopress), Jörg Franzbecker and Heimo Lattner (Berliner Hefte), Achim Lengerer (Scriptings), Yves Mettler (magazine), Janine Sack (A Book Edition) and Simon Worthington (Mute). Presented by DHL. Programme in German.
17:00 h A conversation featuring the artist collective Lou Cantor, Julia Moritz, Curator Theory & Programs at Kunsthalle Zürich, and editor Ariane Müller of Starship. The event marks the release of the publication Intersubjectivity 1 – Language and Misunderstanding (Sternberg Press, 2016), a collection of poems and essays edited by Lou Cantor, to which Moritz and Müller contributed. Presented by Sternberg Press.
18:00 h Artist Daniela Comani launches her new book Sunsets (Edition Patrick Frey, 2016), a photographic series with '...an excursis into perception as it relates to the media', presented together with with a music performance by artist and composer Doron Sadja. Presented by Edition Patrick Frey.