presentation of the exhibition and launch of the scientific publication

Dirk Dobke (Senior President, Dieter Roth Foundation, Hamburg), Björn Roth (artist, son and collaborator of Dieter Roth), Hansjörg Mayer (artist and publisher, London) Matthew Zucker (publisher and rare book specialist, New York) in conversation with Elena Volpato (Curator of Exhibitions at FLAT; Conservator and Curator at GAM – Civic Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art, Torino)

A round table discussion entirely dedicated to the work of Dieter Roth, to his books and manuscript diaries which are on view at FLAT in the Dieter Roth. Le Pagine exhibition curated by Elena Volpato. Through a wide and careful selection of books that represent the entire chronological span of the artist’s activity, Dieter Roth. Le Pagine highlights two fundamental themes of his research: copies and autobiographies.
With this in mind, personalities very close to the artist and his work meet at FLAT to explore the themes of the exhibition, reflect on the vitality of Roth’s oeuvre, and on the importance of the book as an essential medium of his work. Elena Volpato discusses with Björn Roth – son and faithful collaborator of Dieter Roth; Hansjörg Mayer – his historic and eclectic publisher; Dirk Dobke – Senior President of the Dieter Roth Foundation, Hamburg, one of the greatest experts in the artist’s work; the publisher and rare book specialist Matthew Zucker.
The conversation is also an opportunity to present the scientific publication that accompanies the exhibition  – Elena Volpato (ed.) dieter roth. pages (Torino: FLAT, 2018). The volume presents a critical essay by Elena Volpato, a tribute to Dieter Roth by Lawrence Weiner, contributions by Björn Roth and Pavel Büchler, and collects all the books, copy books, and diaries of the artist with the related images and technical information.

launch of the catalogue and round-table discussion

with David Grosz (President, Artifex Press, NY), Lindsay Aveilhé (Editor, Sol LeWitt Wall Drawings Catalogue Raisonné), Chris Vacchio (Director of Research, Sol LeWitt Wall Drawings Catalogue Raisonné), Adachiara Zevi (curator and art historian, Roma), Nicola De Maria (artist, Torino) and gallerists Valentina Bonomo (Roma), Alessandra Bonomo (Roma), Alfonso Artiaco (Napoli)

event organized in collaboration with Artifex Press, New York

The launch of the Sol LeWitt Wall Drawings Catalogue Raisonné celebrates the definitive compilation of LeWitt’s most celebrated body of work, recently published by Artifex Press – a New York based publishing house specialized in the production and distribution of catalogue raisonnés in digital format. The publication features comprehensive information for LeWitt’s approximately 1,350 wall drawings, comprising approximately 3,500 installations at more than 1,200 venues.
LeWitt lived in Italy for much of his life, and hundreds of his wall drawings have been installed across the country. After an introduction to Artifex Press by President David Grosz and a demonstration of the catalogue raisonné by Editor Lindsay Aveilhé and Director of Research Chris Vacchio, curator and scholar Adachiara Zevi will contextualize LeWitt’s wall drawings historically and critically. This will be followed by a panel discussion with Zevi, artist Nicola De Maria as well as gallerists Valentina Bonomo, Alessandra Bonomo, and Alfonso Artiaco, covering LeWitt’s move to Italy, the relationships he built across the country, and their impact on his work.

talk and presentation of the book

with León Muñoz Santini (self-taught designer, photographer and founder of Gato Negro Ediciones, Ciudad de México)

After briefly introducing the mission and activities of Gato Negro Ediciones – the independent and anti-authoritarian publishing project specialized in Riso printing which León Muñoz Santini founded in Mexico City in 2013 and through which he challenges the limits of what the book format and more generally the editorial language can convey –, Muñoz Santini will present the book by Zoe Leonard, El río / The River with texts by Dolores Dorantes (Ciudad de México: Gato Negro Ediciones, 2018). The book collects unpublished photographs that the American artist Zoe Leonard has taken along the Rio Grande (or Río Bravo) in 2017 and texts commissioned for this project from Dolores Dorantes, Mexican poet and activist, who has been exiled to the United States for years. The book is an immersion into the physical context, the actual barrier; the very heart of the border between Mexico and the United States: the waters of the Río Bravo or Rio Grande. A number of figures in the water recall something else: skin, scars, wrinkles, genitals, the writing of an unknown language. A poem made of photographs, and the depiction of that sequence with a poem made of words. Or rather, a broken bilingual, visual-textual attempt of conversation over the tensions in between a simple, ever-changing but always the same flow of water, and all the terrible complexities around, above, beneath it. The argument could be simple: at the end and at the beginning, it is only water. As simple, complex, beautiful and terrible as that. Or maybe not: to complete the argument it is necessary to summon the ghost of the body that runs through it.
In the words of Dolores Dorantes: I’m going to walk on water. Say. Bring me all those parts of the body and put them here. Say. I’m the body and I’m on the table. Soy tu cuerpo y estoy sobre la mesa, en la estructura divisoria del mundo. Soy tu cuerpo y estoy sobre la mesa del mercado del mundo. Soy tu cuerpo y estoy sobre la mesa, donde se encausa la corriente del mundo. I’m the farce, arranged at strategic points of our territories. Between the face and neck, for example. Between the anchored ankle and satisfaction.

presentation of the book

Presentation of Form Your Character! (Münich: Hammann von Mier Verlag, 2018), the project winner of the FLAT Prize 2017

Hammann von Mier (Stefanie Hamman and Maria von Mier) in conversation with Richard Flood (Director of Special Projects and Curator at Large, New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York and FLAT scientific committee member) and Ken Soehner (Chief Librarian Thomas J. Watson Library, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York and FLAT scientific committee member)

The public conversation between Hammann von Mier (Stefanie Hammann and Maria VMier) and FLAT scientific committee members Richard Flood and Ken Soehner aims at presenting Form your Character! – the book project which was awarded the FLAT Prize 2017.
The starting point and framework of Form your Character! (Münich: Hammann von Mier Verlag, 2018) is Hammann von Mier Manifesto (see excerpt below).
Through the artistic collaboration as a duo and by running a publishing house for artist books, Hammann von Mier (henceforth HVM) engage with the current possibilities and conditions of artistic production from multiple point of views and location-specific perspectives. In Form Your Character! the reflections developed throughout the Manifesto are linked, specified and extended with materials from their stays in the USA and in particular the two-and-a-half-month research stay in NYC (Summer 2018) where HVM met artists in their studios, did research in archives, went to lectures and readings, read books and visited exhibitions. Moreover, Form Your Character! includes art and cultural-political events and initiatives which recently took place in Munich (the city in which HVM are based), thus documenting the current status of HVM ongoing examination of the social/political aspects of art and artistic collaboration. The book Form Your Character! consists of five parts, which differ in paper, format and printing techniques and are held together by a rubber band. It formally invokes elements found in Zine culture and self published artists’ books. Texts are mainly bilingual (German/English).

Manifesto (excerpt):
[…]

THE PUBLISHING HOUSE IS AN ASSERTION
THE PUBLISHING HOUSE IS A STRATEGY
THE PUBLISHING HOUSE IS A CONSTANT
THE VERLAG IS A HOUSE

FOR US
FROM US
FOR OTHERS

THE VERLAG IS A HOUSE
A PHYSICAL, VIRTUAL AND DIGITAL SPACE
A SPACE FOR PRODUCTION
A SPACE FOR REALIZATION
A SPACE FOR MANIFESTATION

PACKED SHELVES, THE POTENTIAL OF A COMPLEX
AND COMMON MATTER
PATHS AND NETS AND TRACES

THE PUBLISHING HOUSE AS A STRATEGY
FOR NOT HAVING TO WAIT
WE WANT TO DO THIS NOW
AND WE DO IT HOW WE THINK IS RIGHT

WE INVENT OUR OWN STRUCTURES
WE ORGANIZE WHAT WE NEED
THE PUBLISHING HOUSE IS A CONSTANT
THE DECISION TO CREATE SOMETHING PERMANENT

WE WANT TO REACT
TIME PLAYS A ROLE

THE PUBLISHING HOUSE IS AN ASSERTION
WE DON’T PUBLISH SUBJECT MATTERS
BUT WE PUBLISH ARTISTIC APPROACHES

WE DON’T PUBLISH SUCCESS
WE PUBLISH PEOPLE FROM OUR ENVIRONMENT

BECAUSE WE WANT TO MEET EACH OTHER ON EYE LEVEL
BECAUSE WE DON’T WANT TO PROFIT OF OTHER PEOPLE’S FAME
BECAUSE WE TRUST IN THE ARTISTS!

WE CAN’T GO BACK TO FORMER PROTESTS
WE ARE WRITING OUR OWN HISTORY

winner announcement

with Fondazione per l’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea CRT and FLAT Scientific Committee

Announcement of the project winner of the Premio FLAT – Fondazione Arte CRT, selected among FLAT 2018 exhibitors’ proposals, produced thanks to the support of Fondazione per l’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea CRT.

performance and book presentation

with Jurczok 1001 (spoken word artist, Zürich/New York)

event supported by the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia and organized in collaboration with Edition Patrick Frey, Zürich

For the first time in Italy, Jurczok 1001 performs his Spoken Beats and tells the public of FLAT how his poems-cum-notations – scripts born to be performed – come to light and develop between different languages, cultures, subcultures, music, and beatbox.
The Spoken Beats of Jurczok 1001 impress not only for their lyrical, social and political relevance but also for the artist’s ability to make them unique through his performative skills, engaging the audience and creating a tragicomic as well as irresistible atmosphere.
At FLAT, the artist also presents his first book Spoken Beats – Jurczok 1001 (Zürich: Edition Patrick Frey, 2018) which contains a representative selection of his works, starting from the very first raps and pieces inspired by concrete poetry. The abundant use of repetitions generates meaning and amusing dissonance by exposing the patterns of discourse and rhetoric, revealing the sneakiness of political propaganda. Language puts itself at work, not only on stage but also within the text.

talk

with Martha Wilson (feminist artist, founder, and director of Franklin Furnace, Inc.)

This lecture chronicles the interwoven stages of Wilson’s creative contributions within the context of early feminist and socially engaged studio practice as well as her dissemination of the work of like-minded individuals through the auspices of Franklin Furnace – the artist-run center dedicated to the exploration and promotion of innovative art practices which Wilson founded in New York City in 1976. Central to the discussion is Wilson’s presence as an agent of transformative change, initially in her artwork and then her facilitation of cultural change through her leadership of Franklin Furnace.  Wilson’s selection of 40 projects from 40 years of programming at Franklin Furnace also becomes a self-portrait of sorts as she highlights works that are historically significant for pushing boundaries within exhibition and display culture as well as society at large.

talk

Luca Lo Pinto (Curator at Kunstalle Wien) in conversation with Francesca Valentini (independent researcher, Bruxelles and FLAT Curator of Public Programs)

What is the role of art publishing today and how has its perception changed? How have the artists of recent generations made publishing the object, the medium, and the instrument of their art? How has the notion of editorial activity of artists changed, given the ever-increasing number of fairs and book collections in contemporary art museums? These are some of the main issues addressed in Publishing as an Artistic Toolbox: 1989-2017, exhibition project curated by Luca Lo Pinto at the Kunstalle Wien in 2017 (Publishing as an Artistic Toolbox: 1989-2017, Kunsthalle Wien, 8 November 2017 – 28 January 2018). Starting from the restitution through words and images of the 11 sections in which the exhibition was organized (design and graphics by Rio Grande and Dallas), Luca Lo Pinto discusses with Francesca Valentini the themes and the basic assumption of the project: in recent decades especially, publishing (from the book to the magazine to websites) seems to have become a privileged tool for artistic experimentation, an alternative space in which and through which to produce and promote individual or collective discourses without restrictions; a privileged context to circulate knowledge and information – to produce art.

talk

with Antonio Brizioli (Edicola 518, Perugia, Italy), Achille Filipponi (ARCHIVIO), Silvia Ponzoni (Genda Magazine)

Antonio Brizioli, one of the founders of the non-profit association Emergenze, from which Edicola 518 was born, talks about his experience as a newsagent sharing some thoughts on the culture of the magazine in Italy and abroad, as well as on the challenges related to the distribution and dissemination of this instrument of artistic and cultural information. Edicola 518 is an actual newsstand dedicated to the sale and promotion of the most interesting experiences of Italian and international independent publishing: magazines, fanzines, artists’ books, anarchist writings are placed on the sales counter and at the same time are illustrated and promoted by the newsagents in dialogue with the public and through the numerous events organized ad hoc.
Starting from the testimony of Brizioli, Achille Filipponi, co-editor of ARCHIVIO – a twice-annual magazine of contemporary culture entirely made with archival materials – and Silvia Ponzoni, editor-in-chief of Genda Magazine – an interdisciplinary bilingual magazine (English and Chinese), at the meeting- and clash-point between the Western and the Eastern culture – present the reality, characteristics and vision underlying the respective magazines, discussing some of the challenges related to their production and dissemination.
The conversation is to be understood as a workshop, a real laboratory in which the speakers and the public can share questions, doubts and insights on the proposed themes.

talk

with Bernhard Cella (artist, Wien and Trieste)

Bernhard Cella’s talk reflects on the subversive potential of artists’ publications which are self-produced without ISBN.
The ISBN (International Standard Book Number) is a 13-digit number used to identify a title or edition of a title by a particular publisher/author internationally and unambiguously.
The ISBN is a paid-for service that transforms each book into an easily identifiable, traceable, and marketable product. What about those publications without ISBN? How can they exercise their subversive potential and call for alternative models of production, distribution, and circulation of knowledge? The Austrian artist Bernhard Cella has made buying and selling artists’ books an integral part of his art.
At FLAT Cella presents the second updated edition of his book NO-ISBN On Self Publishing (Wien: Salon für Kunstbuch, 2017), a historical-critical compendium that pays tribute to books that challenge the rules and conventions of international trade. The volume, richly documented, presents a list of 1,800 titles characterized by some common denominators: they are recent, printed on paper, and circulate without ISBN.
Furthermore, Cella shows and demonstrates no-isbn.net, a new online platform and archive entirely dedicated to self-produced publications without ISBN.

round table discussion

with Danilo Montanari (publisher and collector of artists’ publications), David Senior (Head of Library and Archives, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and FLAT scientific commettee member), Bruno Tonini (expert and collector of artists’ publications), Martha Wilson (feminist artist, founder and director of Franklin Furnace, Inc.); introduction and moderation Liliana Dematteis (curator of artists’ books, collector and FLAT scientific committee member)

Especially since the 1960s, in the context of the changes in the definition of art that marked the period, several generations of artists have experimented with and manipulated the conventions relating to the production and distribution of exhibition invitations to produce, camouflage, transform, extend the their artistic work.
The invitation card has thus become an original artwork, an extension or an integral part of it as well as a document of an event that took place at a certain time and place.
Invitations can therefore be considered as verbo-visual artistic statements with their own material, haptic, and aesthetic qualities. They are able to connect and recall atmospheres, thoughts, and spatio-temporal moments that are very distant from each other. The round table discussion SENT / RECEIVED: invitation as artwork gathers together Italian and American experts on this subject. David Senior, Head of Library and Archives, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art as well as member of the scientific committee of FLAT, discusses the subject by focusing on historical examples as well as on more recent materials to emphasize the persistence of paper invitations in the era of digital communication.
Martha Wilson, founder and director of Franklin Furnace Archive, Inc. shares her experience as a feminist artist engaged in the creation, promotion and documentation of ephemeral and time-based practices such as performance. Bruno Tonini, expert and collector of artists’ books and original documents of minimal and conceptual art and Danilo Montanari, publisher and connoisseur of the topic, contribute to the discussion showing interesting and innovative examples developed within the Italian context. Liliana Dematteis, a curator of artists’ books and collector as well as member of the scientific committee of FLAT, introduces and moderates the discussion.

talk

with Femke Snelting (artist and designer, member of Constant, Brussels)

Femke Snelting is an artist and designer who develops projects at the intersection of design, feminism, and free software. She is a member of Constant (http://constantvzw.org/), a non-profit and artist-run association for art and media founded in 1997 in Brussels. Constant generates performative publishing, curatorial processes, poetic software, and experimental research in local and international contexts.
According to Constant, books deserve the hallmark with an Attitude when they are made with Free, Libre, and Open Source Software and published under an open content license. Such books and their ingredients are free to be read, redesigned, redistributed, recompiled, and reprinted.
For more than ten years, Constant has collaborated with designers and collectives to experiment the interrelation between aesthetics, digital production, and content. Their catalog now includes e-books, manuals, software-releases, workbooks, pamphlets, text collections, literary works, and a cookbook.
The focus of Snelting’s talk are these Books with an Attitude – publication projects that through bespoke publishing platforms, custom-made fonts, and collaborative editing reflect on and subvert, each in a different way, the conditions and conventions related to the possibility of freely sharing contents, ideas, practices, and aesthetics.