Two independent publishers from Taiwan, Shen Shen Books and nos:books, have arrived in Berlin to showcase their exceptional works and publications at “The Calabash Show”, to take place at Motto Berlin from July 31 to August 30.

At The Calabash Show, the two publishers come to Berlin together with several of their artists. The show takes inspiration from an ancient mythical story about people entering the calabash for one day for spiritual practice. They left the calabash after many ordeals, without achieving immortality. When returned to the real world, one year had passed. At Motto Berlin,  the two mortal publishers and their artists present their latest works and publications, and share their thoughts behind the many ordeals of art and publishing.

Participating artists include Chihoi, Eva Lin, Ling Yu Tai, Pei Yu Shen, Son Ni and Ting Cheng. Come and meet them in person at the opening on July 31 at 6pm-9pm at Motto Berlin. The show is supported by the National Culture and Arts Foundation, Taiwan, and The Arts Development Fund of the Home Affairs Bureau, the Government of Hong Kong SAR.

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THE CALABASH SHOW

Live DJ: Dan Raw 

Drink: Motto Bar

Publishers from Taiwan: Shen Shen Books, nos:books, Waterfall

Issue 6 | Homotopia

Daniel Silver | Sami Jalili | Ahuvia Kahane | Alice Hattrick | Jason Hendrik Hansma/Bogdan Banu | Daniel Ayat | Jo Longhurst | Philippa Snow | Vanessa Place | Ben Wadler | Joseph McRae | John Russell | Rebecca Jagoe | Jacob Dreyer | Adam Jasper | Charlie Godet Thomas | Karen Di Franco | Emma Letizia Jones | Giulia Damiani | Rebecca LaMarre | Karen Knorr | Gabor Gyory | Pedro Alonso/Hugo Palmarola | Philip Shelley | Slavs and Tatars | Sharon Kivland | Annie Morris | School of the Event Horizon |Malcolm Quinn | Michelle Atherton | Jack Self | Sam Kriss | Timothy Perkins

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18. July 2015 / Sat / 15:00 – 16:00
Book Launch with Stefan Sulzer: The day my mother touched Robert Ryman

The artist book The day my mother touched Robert Ryman by Stefan Sulzer tells the story of a visit to the Dia Art Foundation in Beacon, New York, during which the mother of the artist felt so irritated by the elegant simplicity of Ryman’s paintings that she slowly let her hand slide over one of the paintings. Stefan Sulzer combines this story with statements and information about the work of Ryman and thereby creates a selective and poetic narration about the reception of art.

The reading, which comes on the 40th anniversary of Ryman’s first institutional solo in Switzerland—at Kunsthalle Basel, of course!—is followed by a talk in German with the curator Samuel Leuenberger (SALTS, Birsfelden).

The first 17 copies of The day my mother touched Robert Ryman were published as a special edition by Edition Taube, numbered, signed, and touched by the mother. Stefan Sulzer’s exhibition of the same title at Galerie Bernhard has just been extended until July 25.

Images:
-Robert Ryman during the installation of his solo show at Kunsthalle Basel, 1975. Photo: Christian Baur © photo archives Kunsthalle Basel
-Stefan Sulzer, The day my mother touched Robert Ryman, Special Edition published by Edition Taube

Motto @ Kunsthalle Basel
Steinenberg 7
CH-4051 Basel

P +41 61 206 99 00
F +41 61 206 99 19

With contributions by Christophe Boesch, Astrid Deuber-Mankowsky, Ines Doujak mit John Barker und Matthew Hyland, Cord Riechelmann and others.

»Ape Culture« traces the long cultural and scientific obsession with humanity’s closest relatives. In the Western historical representations of modernity, depictions of apes were traditionally used to show the absence of culture. Standing as a liminal figure separating humans and animals, the ape has, since ancient times, played a central role in the narrative of civilisational progress. This book, which appears in conjunction with the exhibition of the same nameseeks, however, to go beyond the mere examination of apes as signifiers of difference. The juxtaposition of artworks with documents taken from popular culture and the history of primatology gives the reader an insight into what the science historian Donna Haraway has termed the »primate order« — a hall of mirrors reflecting the scientific and cultural projections that turned the ape from an instrument of humanity’s self-definition into an integral element in testing out the possibility of reconstructing human »nature«. »Ape Culture« will be shown at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt from 30 April to 6 July 2015.

€29.00

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Window Seat presents a sequence of images by Vancouver photographer Jennilee Marigomen taken in sleepy beach towns in Mexico. Through a series of simple and beautiful gestures, the project both acknowledges the metaphor of photography-as-window and consciously resists reading the world metaphorically. Rather, the photographs show the benefit of careful attention to the overlooked and often ephemeral beauty in our everyday surroundings—suggesting that the world is made up of neglected sites imbedded in the everyday, which a keen sensibility can animate, arrange, and make deeply compelling for the viewer.

With an essay by Nich McElroy.

€38.00

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  Representations of animals are ubiquitous: from advertising hoardings, newspapers, books, magazines, and television shows, to the hundreds of thousands of images uploaded every day to the Internet. During the last twenty years, artists, too, have engaged with the animal in an effort to articulate more “beastly” visions. How can animals as autonomous creative entities take possession of an unshackled imaginative space cut loose from the human? Beastly/ Tierisch has an innovative, visually daring design, superimposing a selection of artistic works onto a host of pictures from the Internet. This rich image material is supplemented by four essays: about animality and the history of photography (Duncan Forbes), the political and philosophical animal (Slavoj Žižek), the virtual zoo of the Internet (Ana Teixeira Pinto), and the changing identities of animals under anthropogenic pressures (Heather Davis).

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ABOUT SPACE – Souvenirs; contains a series of playful artist interviews.

The project was initiated after some screenings of nature documentaries at the Field House of the Atlantic Centre for the Arts, New Smyrna Beach – Florida, a visit to NASA – Kennedy Space Center and some beach explorations at Canaveral National Seashore as part of a residency program at Atlantic Centre for the Arts.

€35.00

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Hardcover with dust jacket

€36.00

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The play I WAS NOT ABLE TO VISIT THE ENTIRE SHOW was created with the intention of being staged within the environment of gallery institutions. It opens a discussion over conventions that are commonly linked to the exhibition strategies: How contemporary display practices and institutional frameworks affects an artwork and vice versa?

The publication includes photographs by Daniela Dostálková who’s conception heads towards the perception of understanding of possible future gallery presentations with an attempt to make the act of viewing visible. What does the viewer see and what does he believe?

Linda Dostálková is a Czech-born, Netherlands-based independent graphic designer who, through her projects, implies variety of forms from close artistic and humanistic disciplines, delivering a specific input for a specific situation.

Text and graphic design: Linda Dostálková
Editor: Jana Kořínková
Photography: Daniela Dostálková
Published by The University of Ostrava, 2015
English edition, 190 x 285 mm (softcover), 160 pages

€- 25,00

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Printmaking by ECAL offers an inventory of the entire lithographic and silkscreen editions published by ECAL between 2008 and 2014. It gathers critical texts on the one hand about the history of the publishing activities within ECAL and also the role played by the multiple and printed art for those built ECAL in the 1990s and those who are graduates.

80 color illustrations

€26.00

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