Monstruo. Gerardo Montiel Klint. librosmorg

Posted in photography on November 24th, 2023
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Edited and designed by Gerardo Montiel Klint
Photographs by Gerardo Montiel Klint
Text by Mauricio Ortiz
Printed in Mexico

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THE LINE. Atlas of Remoteness. Midwest USA. Luis Hilti; Matilde Igual Capdevila (Eds). Infinite Publication Series – Institute for Linear Research.

Posted in geography, photography, writing on November 23rd, 2023
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THE LINE – Atlas of Remoteness documents the exploration of contemporary landscapes by walking along a straight line around the Earth. The present volume focuses on a series of walks in the American Midwest, from Wisconsin to Nebraska and across the Mississippi River.

Authors: Mary Dahlman Begley, Gabriel Cuéllar, Sophie Durbin, Meg Lundquist, Jakob Mahla, Athar Mufreh, Derek Ronding, Drew Smith

Series design by: Studio Krispin Heé (Krispin Heé, Tim Wetter)

Realization by: Luis Hilti & Matilde Igual Capdevila

Atlas of Remoteness is a project by the Institute for Linear Research published by the Infinite Publication Series.

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HaFI 018 – Skip Norman: On Africa. Skip Norman. Harun Farocki Institut; Motto Books

Posted in Film, history, Motto Books, writing on November 17th, 2023
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HaFI 018 reprints a document containing the script of Skip Norman’s film On Africa (1970). Norman, born in Baltimore in 1933, had left the U.S. in the early 1960s to study German, theater, and medicine in Göttingen. In 1966 he moved to Berlin to join the newly founded German Film and Television Academy (DFFB). By 1969, he had made the films Riffi (1966), Blues People (1968), Cultural Nationalism (1969) and the graduation film Strange Fruit (1969). He shot On Africa together with Joey Gibbs after graduating from the school. The filmmaker about his film: “The starting point is the relationship between Europe’s prosperity and Africa’s poverty; Europe’s destruction of societies and cultures, and the simultaneous use of Christianity and racial theories as justification for a massive exploitation of the colonized.” On Africa was first shown at the Festival in Mannheim in 1970 and then broadcast on television by WDR in 1972.
The script is accompanied by images from the film, and followed by five short commentaries by Sónia Vaz Borges, Madeleine Bernstorff, Marie-Hélène Gutberlet, Tom Holert, and Volker Pantenburg.

Das Heft enthält das Skript für Skip Normans Film On Africa (1970). Norman, 1933 in Baltimore geboren, hatte die USA zu Beginn der 1960er Jahre verlassen, um in Göttingen Deutsch, Theaterwissenschaft und Medizin zu studieren. 1966 zog er nach Berlin, um an die neugegründete Deutsche Film- und Fernsehakademie Berlin (DFFB) zu wechseln. Bis 1969 entstanden die Filme Riffi (1966), Blues People (1968), Cultural Nationalism (1969) und der Abschlussfilm Strange Fruit (1969).
On Africa entstand gemeinsam mit Joey Gibbs nach Normans DFFB-Abschluss. In Normans Worten: „Der Ausgangspunkt dieses Films ist das Verhältnis zwischen Europas Wohlstand und Afrikas Armut; Europas Zerstörung von Gesellschaften und Kulturen, und gleichzeitiger Einsatz von Christentum und Rassentheorien als Rechtfertigung einer gewaltigen Ausbeutung der Kolonialisierten.“ On Africa wurde am 7. Oktober 1970 bei der XIX. Internationalen Filmwoche Mannheim in der „Informationsschau“ aufgeführt; 1972 lief der Film im WDR.
Das Skript wird begleitet von zahlreichen Bildern aus dem Film und kontextualisiert durch fünf Kurzessays von Sónia Vaz Borges, Madeleine Bernstorff, Marie-Hélène Gutberlet, Tom Holert und Volker Pantenburg.

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item Magazin #5 – kursiv. HTW Berlin, Department of Design and Culture.

Posted in graphic design, magazines on November 13th, 2023
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item (Independent platform for the Transfer of Educational impulses via a student Magazine) is the student magazine of the Department of Design and Culture at HTW Berlin. 

item #5 steht unter dem Titel kursiv und behandelt Veränderung als fließenden Prozess. Kursiv (lat.), das bedeutet so viel wie fließend, immer weiterlaufend, aber auch eilend. Ist das nicht eine ziemlich treffende Repräsentation unserer heutigen Zeit? Der digitale Wandel eilt so schnell voran und verändert unser Leben stetig. Doch muss das unbedingt bedeuten, dass das analoge Handwerk ausstirbt? Oder kann Digitales und Analoges miteinander vereint werden und zusammenfließen? Des Weiteren befassen wir uns mit Heimat und Identität. Was hat unsere Kultur mit unserer Arbeit zu tun? Wie identifizieren wir uns mit verschiedenen Kulturen und wie beeinflussen uns diese? Was bedeutet eigentlich Heimat? Was treibt uns an und was inspiriert uns?

In item #5 fokussieren wir uns auf junge Kreativschaffende aus Berlin und haben viele spannende Beiträge zusammengestellt. Du kannst dich unter anderem auf Interviews mit Hannah Mühi, Andrej Dúbravský, Berfin Karakurt, Nikolas Iturralde und dem Kreativ-Duo Lisa Ertel und Jannis Zell freuen. Außerdem gibt es individuelle Texte von dem Künstler Angst Yok, den Poetryslamerinnen Hala und Lucia Lucia, der Rockband Westhafen und dem Typedesigner Hubert Jocham. Zusätzlich stellen wir Arbeiten von 23 Studierenden des Fachbereichs Gestaltung und Kultur vor und ermöglichen so Einblicke in die verschiedenen Studiengänge und die Arbeiten, die an der HTW entstanden sind.

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Mike Kelley. Ghost and Spirit. Mike Kelley. Dilecta; Bourse de Commerce

Posted in Exhibition catalogue, Monograph on November 11th, 2023
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Catalogue published on the occasion of the retrospective exhibition devoted to the artist Mike Kelley, Ghost and Spirit, presented at the Bourse de Commerce (Paris) from 13 October 2023 to 19 February 2024, in collaboration with the Tate Modern (London).

One of the most influential artists of the late 20th century, Mike Kelley is an unclassifiable visionary who has explored notions that are still at the heart of contemporary debates: collective and individual memory, gender and social class relations, conflicting tastes, etc. The Detroit-born artist is interested in the way in which individual subjectivity is shaped by family and institutional power structures in post-modern capitalist American society.

In his performances, drawings, sculptures, paintings, installations and videos, he has consistently portrayed the role of the artist and the way in which the artist appears and disappears, like a ghost or spirit whose influence persists through the ages.

With texts by John C. Welchman, Laura López Paniagua, Cauleen Smith, Suzanne Lacy, Catherine Wood, Jean-Marie Gallais, Glenn Phillips, Fiontán Moran, Jack Halberstam, Marie de Brugerolle and Hendrik Folkerts.

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All The Beauty And The Bloodshed (Special edition). Soundwalk Collective. Analogue Foundation

Posted in Film, music, photography, Vinyl on November 11th, 2023
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LIMITED ART EDITION WITH ORIGINAL ART PRINT FROM NAN GOLDIN, SIGNED BY THE ARTIST 

Laura Poitras’ Oscar-nominated film »All the Beauty and the Bloodshed« is an epic, emotional and interconnected story about internationally renowned artist and activist Nan Goldin. Told through intimate interviews, photography, and footage, central to the story is her personal fight to hold the Sackler family accountable for the opioid crisis. The film cuts to the bone with its incandescent celebration of life and condemnation of those who threaten it. Art and activism are one and the same. 

Helping to interweave Goldin’s past and present, multi-disciplinary duo Soundwalk Collective soundtrack her personal and political struggles to sublime effect. The contemporary sonic arts platform of founder and artist Stephan Crasneanscki and producer Simone Merli, the pair work with a rotating constellation of artists and musicians, developing site-and-context-specific sound projects through which to examine conceptual, literary, or artistic themes. And for all the beauty and the bloodshed on show here, the duo strike the balance just right; their compositions in collaboration with Zacharias Falkenberg and Johannes Malfatti producing a trance that oscillates between grace and madness. 

Within the score, Crasneanscki draws connections with the life and work of German poet Friedrich Hölderlin, who was removed from society through confinement in institutions. In his last poems, written as fragments while he was plagued by mental illness, Hölderlin renders nature, in all its fragility and ephemerality. Similar themes merge in Laura’s portrait of Goldin and serve as an inspiration for the composition of the choral songs and cantus within the soundtrack. Through the repetition of words and the layering of voices, the lyric scansion operates like a language possessed, echoing various styles from sacred music to modern minimalist techniques. The music is characterised by quivering strings and swells, de-tuning and lingering, shifting around the surreal, and creating a spectrum of musical experience. Exerts of Nan’s narration are featured in two of the tracks, her powerful narration offering a more direct approach to the storytelling. 

In »All the Beauty and the Bloodshed,« Poitras shows protest is really Goldin’s great artwork: Her entire life had been leading to this moment of passionate expression, an inspired situationist gesture which fused the personal and the political. Art can change the world, which Poitras and Goldin tell us with powerful results. While there are multiple threads in this remarkable portrait which could have carried entire films, the soundtrack provides a sonic identity that helps keep track of proceedings. Utterly unique in their approach, Soundwalk Collective have delivered a gripping and thoughtful score, helping turn Goldin’s personal pain into culture-rattling impact.

A1 Half Of Life
A2 Schimmer Sanft Den Klang Des Tages
A3 The Land And The Sea
A4 Sisters I – Feat. Nan Goldin
A5 Des Geistes Werden
B1 Before The Light
B2 Witnesses
B3 Zeitgeist
B4 To Zimmer
B5 Sisters Ii – Feat. Nan Goldin

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Elska Issue 42 Almaty Kazakhstan. Liam Campbell (Ed.)

Posted in magazines, photography, travel, writing on November 10th, 2023
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This issue was made in Almaty, the largest city in Kazakhstan and a burgeoning centre of LGBTQ culture in Central Asia. This is the sort of place that we expect the bulk of our readership to know little about, and before coming here we were also rather in the dark. 

‘Elska Almaty’ features ten chapters, dedicated to the following local participants: Zhassulan S, Nicholas S, Aski K, Roman P, Nurzhan T, Denis Z, Sanzhar A, Samgat A, Edward S, and Nan N.

Ten ordinary local boys from this city’s LGBTQ community, shot both in the city streets and at home, dressed in their own style and often not dressed at all. Each also contributed a personal story, written themselves in either Kazakh or Russian (and followed by English translations) on any subject of their choosing, enabling an even closer connection. These texts touch upon a variety of topics, from stories of falling in love with a closeted celebrity, to chronicles of learning to not just live but flourish as an HIV-positive person, to tales of being a dedicated cat dad who can’t stop growing his feline family. 

Extra special thanks this issue goes to: Josiah Blackmore, Frank Dalton, Joe Pinto.

elskamagazine.com

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PAL-WOL. Renata Kats. Berlin Photobook Distribution

Posted in photography on November 9th, 2023
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Photography 

The subject of love: it’s a universal concept. At the time when I started my research, was in desperate need of a story that would help reshape my perception of love in a modern world. When I began my search, many stories I encountered lacked sincerity and depth. I was searching for an out of this world pulsating energy. Then I met Pierre and Jiyeonne, a French-Korean couple who, once they met on a dating app on the 21st of August 2018, have not left each other’s sides since.

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Planet A. Kati Gausmann. Textem Verlag

Posted in geography, photography, poetry, writing on November 4th, 2023
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Planet A versammelt Werkserien der letzten fünfzehn Jahre zu Bewegungen der Erde und der Elemente, die sich in äußerst unterschiedlichen Zeiträumen und Ausmaßen vollziehen und so in jeweils anderer Relation zum menschlichen Maß in Raum und Zeit stehen. Das Buch gibt einen sinnlichen Einblick in die künstlerischen Prozesse Kati Gausmanns, die natur- und geisteswissenschaftliche Studien, Atelierarbeit und in Fieldwork vor Ort eingesetzte künstlerische Mittel verbinden. Auf poetische Weise vermitteln sich die unterschiedlichen Landschaften, in denen die Werke entstanden sind, und die ihnen zugrunde liegenden natürlichen Prozesse. Ein Essay von Hanne Loreck entfaltet die Komplexität dieser künstlerischen Praxis, ordnet sie in den aktuellen Diskurs ein und zeigt Bezüge zu aktuellen Fragen des Planetaren und des Anthropozäns auf. 

Planet A presents work series from the last fifteen years that focus on the movements of the earth and of the elements which occur across vastly different scales of age and scope, thus establishing a distinct relationship with our human measure of time and space. The book provides a sensual insight into Kati Gausmann’s artistic practice, which combines studies in natural science and the humanities, studio work, and artistic methods deployed in on-site fieldwork. The various landscapes in which the works were created and the natural processes underlying them are poetically conveyed. Hanne Loreck’s essay unfolds the complexity of this artistic practice, situates it within the current discourse, and highlights topical questions related to the planet and to the Anthropocene. Fotografie: Miranda Blennerhassett, Angela von Brill, Astrid Busch, Carsten Eisfeld, Barbora Gallová, Kati Gausmann, Michael Jezierny, Katharina Pöhlmann, Eric Tschernow, Martin Zellerhoff

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Theft is Vision – Dirty Books. Dan Mitchell. Edition Patrick Frey

Posted in photography on November 3rd, 2023
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The works in this publication were commissioned by Fredi Fischli and Niels Olsen. I was asked to remake each of artist’s work as ‘posters’, with the direction that they should be at least 85% ‘Dan Mitchell’. The joke was to appropriate the appropriators. Additionally I included, as subjects, the architect of the show’s design, Petra Blaisse / Inside Outside, and also the curators themselves.

Things got a little confusing between 2020 and 2021 as there were 3 book projects on the go at the same time – the official catalogue for Theft is Vision, the book ‘Dan Mitchell Posters’* (both designed by Teo Schifferli and an unofficial lolz style book/ catalogue of the posters now published here. Only the book of my posters made it to print. Cultural fashion shifts and Covid put paid to the desire to produce a physical publication, appropriation, as a subject didn’t seem to be cool anymore.

Pocket Guide: Dan Mitchell Posters

With: Casima von Bonin. Maurizio Cattelan, Maria Eichhorn, Marie Louise Eman, Syvie Fleury, Isa Genzken, Richard Hamilton, Charline von Hey, Pierre Joseph, Valentina Liernur, Dan Mitchell, Mathieu Malouf, Malcolm Morley, Albert Oehlen, Betty Tompkins and Gili Tal.
Exhibition architecture by Petra Blaise / Inside Outside

The notion of ‘Theft’ establishes a site of investigation. This exhibition examines the desire to appropriate – a fundamental theme in the production of art. Throughout art there are typologies that ensue from the appropriation of motifs or of other works of art. As just one form of aggressive theft, the act of citation was already a cultural strategy long before Appropriation Art manifested itself.

At Luma Westbau the following questions are posed from a contemporary perspective:
What are the genres established through appropriation today? What does stealing mean for artistic production? Is it an act of removal and subtraction? Or can it be a productive strategy as suggested by the art history of Appropriation Art? In the context of this exhibition, ‘Theft is presented as dialogues and translations between artists. In essence, the exhibition confronts two opposing concepts in appropriation: the desire to appropriate as the idolization of sources or as an attack on and subversion of the established.

The typology of the enfilade a suite of rooms in grand architecture – is reconfigured in translucent plastic inthe exhibition design by Petra Baisse / inside Outside and inserted into the White Cube spacent encloses formative typologies of works of art productively used by numerous artists. The investigation leads to a wild variety of iconic and unexpected results: reconfigurations of Marcel Duchamp’s readymades, Kazimir Malevich’s Black Square, Lucio Fontana’s Concetto Spaziale, Jasper John’s Target, Fra Angelico’s Annunciation, Jacques-Louis David’s Napoleon Crossing the Alps, book illustrations by Bernard Buffet, and Courbet’s L’Origine Du Mode or variations on shopping-bag installations. By gathering these typologies together, the exhibition reveals and contrasts different appropriation strategies in art, and invites to discern and encounter sources, counterparts, and sundry partners in crime.

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