Jelena Martinovic, Bold Climbers, Cordyceps Press, 2016
Bold Climbers traite des expériences collectives en altitude. Les grimpeurs d’hier comme d’aujourd’hui en ont fait le théâtre d’explorations esthétiques et d’expérimentations scientifiques. Dans ce livre grand format et richement illustré, les sentiers gravis par les artistes et les écrivains se croisent et s’entremêlent. Ils empruntent les parcours de la mythologie, de la géographie médicale, du récit et du cinéma, finissant par former un tableau moderniste. Qu’elle soit fameuse ou peu connue, l’ascension en altitude est cruciale dans la théorie de l’historien de l’art Aloïs Riegl, les aventures d’Aleister Crowley, le cinéma néobaroque de Daniel Schmid, ou l’hypothèse de l’immunité phtisique chez Henri Clermond Lombard. Quatre textes inédits de Vincent Barras (poète et historien de la médecine), Maxime Guitton (programmateur de musique et commissaire d’exposition), Jelena Martinovic (historienne des sciences et artiste) et Merel van Tilburg (historienne de l’art) témoignent de l’intérêt et de l’inspiration que l’alpinisme suscite dès le XIXe siècle.
Avec des œuvres inédites de Stefan Benchoam, Pauline Cazorla, Guillaume Dénerveaud, Aldric Lamblin, Sarah Margnetti, Mathias Pfund, Aude Richards, Vincent de Roguin, Pierre Szczepski, Luca Schenardi, Konstantin Sgouridis, Annabelle Voisin, Héloïse Verdan, Vivian Suter, Elisabeth Wild.
Haim Steinbach, Recent Works, CAPC, 1988
Catalogue published on the occasion of the exhibition Haim Steinbach at CAPC, Bordeaux, December 9, 1988 to February 26, 1989.
With texts by Jean-Louis Froment, Germano Celant, Elisabeth Lebovici and John Miller.
Heimo Zobernig, Books & Posters, Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, 2016
The Vienna-based artist Heimo Zobernig has achieved wide recognition for his sculptures, paintings, videos and performances. With works that respond to the legacy of the discourses and themes of formalist, abstract and Minimalist art, often establishing a close dialogue with the architecture and history of a specific place, he is an important representative of the artists associated with 'Kontext Kunst' (Context Art) in the German-speaking art scene of the 1990s. This survey book offers an original and comprehensive overview of the ways Zobernig has engaged since 1980 with an expanded notion of publishing as a way to explore the linguistic aspects of art. Ingeniously designed by the graphic studio Oficina de disseny based in Barcelona, it presents 114 artist's books, monographs and exhibition catalogues as well as 117 posters that, thanks to an essay by Anja Dorn that contextualises them, sheds light on a rarely commented side of Zobernig's multi-faceted practice.
With texts by Diana Baldon, Anja Dorn, Moritz Küng & Heimo Zobernig.
May #15, May Revue, 2016
"The 2000s were marked by the collapse of the fashion industry and art world into each other. Fashion brands started to engage in cross-collaborations with artists in a more ambitious manner. Independent fashion houses eventually were absorbed by luxury groups— this has been the case for Margiela, Helmut Lang—or disappeared. This was maybe seen as the end of the utopia of the bohemia seen as an existential experience. But more recently, a new rhetoric appeared in fashion, relayed by the press, with the terms of “crisis”, “burn out” or “accelerationism” due to the continuous fashion shows, openings, launches and the impact of social media like Instagram and its instant visual communication. (...)
This issue aims to understand what would be the other channels, contents, discourses, economical models and new aesthetics of fashion, outside the models of the traditional high fashion. We are interested in how all this effects the art world, what kind of parallel conclusions, side effects, impacts it has and could have in a close future." (extract from Preface)
Thomas W. Laqueur, Solitary Sex. A Cultural History of Masturbation, Zone Books, 2004
"Around 19700, masturbation morphed from a minor sociospiritual transgression into a moral-medical horror. Laquer explains why–better and certainly more exhaustively than previous scholars. As centralized monarchs and the church lost power and the individual assumed new importance in civil society, masturbation was revisioned as the most selfish, antisocial, and dangerous perversion of individualism. Much later, Freud remade masturbation into a temporary, youthful way station for individual socialization. Then after the 1960s, feminism and gay liberation helped engineer a third makeover of masturbation as fundamental for socialized individuals of any age."
Gilles Deleuze, Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, Masochism. Coldness and Cruelty & Venus in Furs, Zone Books, 1991
In his stunning essay, Coldness and Cruelty, Gilles Deleuze provides a rigorous and informed philosophical examination of the work of the late 19th-century German novelist Leopold von Sacher-Masoch. Deleuze's essay, certainly the most profound study yet produced on the relations between sadism and masochism, seeks to develop and explain Masoch's "peculiar way of 'desexualizing' love while at the same time sexualizing the entire history of humanity." He shows that masochism is something far more subtle and complex than the enjoyment of pain, that masochism has nothing to do with sadism; their worlds do not communicate, just as the genius of those who created them - Masoch and Sade - lie stylistically, philosophically, and politically poles a part. Venus in Furs, the most famous of all of Masoch's novels was written in 1870 and belongs to an unfinished cycle of works that Masoch entitled The Heritage of Cain. The cycle was to treat a series of themes including love, war, and death. The present work is about love. Although the entire constellation of symbols that has come to characterize the masochistic syndrome can be found here - fetishes, whips, disguises, fur-clad women, contracts, humiliations, punishment, and always the volatile presence of a terrible coldness - these do not eclipse the singular power of Masoch's eroticism.
Donna Haraway, Manifestly Haraway, University Of Minnesota Press, 2016
Breaking down the binaries: two manifestos and a conversation on dogs and cyborgs, the implosion of technology, and human and nonhuman beings.
Manifestly Haraway brings together the momentous “Cyborg Manifesto” and “Companion Species Manifesto” to expose the continuity and ramifying force of Donna Haraway’s thought. Haraway joins in a wide-ranging exchange with Cary Wolfe on the history and meaning of the manifestos that promises to reignite needed discussion in and out of the academy about biologies, technologies, histories, and still possible futures.
V.BLOCC Argent, self-published, 2016
Photographs: Frayser
Design: Maximage
Color separation: www.colorlibrary.ch
Published on the occasion of the exhibition GAMUT at Am[]bit London, 10 June to 16 July, 2016.
Marlie Mul, Bam Bam’ (bæm bæm), 2015
Edition of hand carved caveman clubs based on Marlie Mul’s large-scale installation ‘Ug’ (Ug), ‘Duh’ (dǝ), ‘Muh’ (mɜːɹ), ‘Bam Bam’ (bæm bæm)‘ that was a part of her solo exhibition Arbeidsvitaminen at Vilma Gold in 2015.
Materials: polyurethane, paper, sand, glue, varnish. Hand carved.
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Jörg Schellmann, Bernd Klüser, Joseph Beuys. Multiples, New York University Press, 1980
Catalogue raisonné, Multiples and Prints, 1965–1980.
This book documents this entire multiple output of German artist Joseph Beuys. In a conversation with the publishers Beuys indicates his intentions and explains his "extended concept of art" through single works.
Alfred Jarry, ubu cocu, Trois Collines, 1944
“Achras – O mais c’est qué, voyez-vous bien, je n’ai point sujet d’être mécontent de mes polyèdres, ils font des petits toutes les six semaines, c’est pire que des lapins. Et il est bien vrai de dire que les polyèdres réguliers sont les plus fidèles et les plus attachés à leur maître ; sauf que l’Isocaèdre s’est révolté ce matin et que j’ai été forcé, voyez-vous bien, de lui flanquer une gifle sur chacune de ses faces. Et comme ça c’était compris. Et mon traité, voyez-vous bien, sur les mœurs des polyèdres qui s’avance : n’y a plus que vingt-cinq volumes à faire.“
Seth Siegelaub, Bibliographica Textilia Historiæ, International General, 1997
“The Bibliographica Textilia Historiæ is the first general bibliography attempting to outline and document all facets of the literature of the world history of textiles. The work contains over 5'000 titles – printed books and pamphlets, serials, articles and offprints, disserations, royal decrees and laws – published in all languages, since the late fifteenth century to date, treating all aspects of the history of handwoven textiles, including woven textiles, printed textiles, embroidery, lace, tapestry, dyeing, carpets, weaving and fiber technology, pattern books, and costume, among many other subjects.
The bibliograpy covers the history of handwoven textiles as an art, a craft and its techniques of production, as well as its central role in early industrial and commercial history, from “primitive“ society, through antiquity, the middle ages, and the renaissance to early industrialization. To put all this material into perspective, it also contains a critical introduction on the history and character of the literature, and a selection of the most important books on textiles classified by subject and country.“
Published by the Center for Social Research on Old Textiles [CSROT] and International General.
Sara Martinetti, The Stuff That Matters. Textiles collected by Seth Siegelaub for the CSROT, Raven Row, 2012
Exhibition catalogue published on the occasion of The Stuff That Matters. Textiles collected by Seth Siegelaub for the CSROT, at Raven Row, London, from March 1 to May 6, 2012. The publication contains a survey of the rise and fall of the silk industry in Spitalfields, an interview with Seth Siegelaub and an essay on his bibliographic practice as well as a chronology retracing his manifold activities. The exhibition is curated by Sara Martinetti, Alice Motard and Alex Sainsbury, and is designed by 6a architects.
Seth Siegelaub was born in the Bronx in 1941. After running his own gallery in New York from 1964 to 1966, he played a pivotal role in the emergence of what became known as Conceptual Art, which resulted in a series of 21 art exhibitions in groundbreaking formats he organised between 1968 and 1971. In 1972 he left the art world and moved to Paris, where he published and collected leftist books on communication and culture and founded the International Mass Media Research Center. In the early eighties he began collecting textiles and books about textiles, and in 1986 founded the Center for Social Research on Old Textiles, which conducts research on the social history of hand-woven textiles. In 1997 he edited and published the Bibliographica Textilia Historiae, the first general bibliography on the history of textiles, which has since grown online to over 9,000 entries.
Seyoung Yoon, Dynamic Kids Club / Territory And Jealousy , self-published, 2016
Published on the occasion of the eponymous exhibition by Seyoung Yoon at Truth & Consequences, Geneva, January 22 – March 31, 2016.
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Lionel Bovier, Christophe Cherix, L'irrésolution commune d'un engagement équivoque. Ecart, Genève 1969–1982, mamco, 1997
L’histoire de l’art n’aime pas les groupes. Elle préfère les héros solitaires. Il lui faut de grands artistes, d’irréductibles individualités : trajectoires singulières, étoiles fixes, chefs-d’œuvre intemporels. Authenticité, sérieux, sincérité, originalité, cohérence, identité, continuité sont quelques-unes des vertus cardinales de son idéologie latente. Le collectif, le contagieux, l’échangisme, l’anonymat, l’éphémère, le négligé, l’erratique, le gratuit, l’infime, le divers, le multiple, l’indiscernable, le je-ne-sais-quoi et le presque-rien, le je-ne-sais-pourquoi et le presque-trop, l’insituable, l’infantile, le farfelu, la confusion des genres, le sans queue ni tête appliqué, le minutieux en vain, l’accumulé en pure perte, les loisirs de la poste, la promenade, le lacunaire, l’indiqué en passant, les désinvolte-face, les conversations inconservables, les bribes, le banal, l’ambigu, le bien imité, les dénégations de pouvoir, les délégations d’impouvoir, les stratégies du plus petit décalage commun, l’« infra-mince » vu au téléscope, les tactiques d’indifférence, le quotidien à géométrie variable, le thé à toute heure, les éternités parallèles, l’interchangeable généralisé, etc. – autant de trous noirs du discours historiographique dominant. D’où l’opportunité, par exemple, de cette première enquête méthodique sur l’un des confettis de l’empire invisible de l’art expérimental dans les années soixante-dix : Ecart, groupe (au moindre sens du terme) d’activistes de l’inutile, ayant sévi à Genève et ailleurs dans le monde, entre 1969 et 1982.
Harald Szeemann, Junggesellenmaschinen / Les machines célibataires, Alfieri, 1976
Catalogue for the eponymous exhibition at Kunsthalle Bern, July 4 to August 17, 1975.
Annebella Pollen, The Kindred of the Kibbo Kift: Intellectual Barbarians, Donlon, 2016
The Kindred of the Kibbo Kift: Intellectual Barbarians is the first full-length work to explore the innovative cultural production of the English camping and hiking organization (1920-1932). Founded after the First World War as a reaction to militarism in scouting, Kibbo Kift developed into an all-ages organization for men and women. It attracted the support of a range of high-profile writers, artists, scientists and campaigners from DH Lawrence to HG Wells. Underpinned by a complex, distinctive philosophy, Kibbo Kift's practices were wide-ranging, extending across health and handicraft, pacifism and propaganda, myth and magic, education and economics. These ambitious ideas can be seen most clearly in the group's mystical and modernist art and design. The Kindred of the Kibbo Kift: Intellectual Barbarians features over 100 largely unseen examples of the group's accomplished creative output. These include decorated tents, campaign banners, illuminated manuscripts, protest graphics, carved totems and ceremonial attire alongside previously unpublished photographs by Angus McBean. The textual content, underpinned by extensive research in public and private archives, provides comprehensive analysis of the group's original style and occult beliefs. Visually arresting in its own right, The Kindred of the Kibbo Kift: Intellectual Barbarians showcases a fascinating but overlooked body of work that has continuing resonance for twenty-first century oppositional art and culture.
Annebella Pollen is Principal Lecturer in the History of Art and Design at the University of Brighton, UK. Her publications include Mass Photography: Collective Histories of Everyday Life (IB Tauris) and Dress History: New Directions in Theory and Practice (Bloomsbury).
Tina Braegger, The Grateful Dead – A Diary by Gabriel Krampus, BECKBOOKS, 2016
Gabriel Krampus lives with his wife on a deserted island of the Idian ocean. They are both artists. At 84 years old, he decides to publish his diary, written 8 years earlier, in 2059.
“To have an island all by myself was my dream since forever, to be able to work without worldly distractions. My wife had always made conceptual work. She wanted to be buried in a beautiful place, and our private little island can definitely be described as such, so now for almost 44 years she has been watching the weather change, the time pass, the ocean come and go.“
Mara Züst, Simone Koller, Doris Stauffer: A Monograph, Scheidegger & Spiess, 2015
In addition to her contributions to art criticism, Doris Stauffer has produced an impressive body of artistic work that consists of photography, sculpture, and collage. The subject of exhibitions in her native Switzerland, Stauffer is among the founders of the F + F School of Experimental Design, and her explorations of form and color have long been recognized for engaging with feminism and the existing conventions and hierarchies within society.
With more than three hundred illustrations, Doris Stauffer documents for the first time the life and work of this important twentieth-century artist with a focus on her political engagement. Essays place Stauffer’s work in historical and political context, including her involvement with the Swiss women’s liberation movement and an interview in which the artist imagines alternative forms of feminism and art education. Additional essays look at the influence of Stauffer on other female artists, as well as some of the recurring themes in her art, including fairy tales and other forms of narration.
Andreas Dobler, Once Upon A Shine, Hacienda Books, 2014
“In my imagination I'm lord of the manor“
Published on the occasion of the exhibition Andreas Dobler – A Long Time Aglow at Hacienda, Zurich, Fall 2014. With a text by Arthur Fink.
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