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Crack Up — Crack Down: 33rd Ljubljana Biennial of Graphic Arts

14 May 2020 in Books Comment

Crack Up — Crack Down: 33rd Ljubljana Biennial of Graphic Arts

Published for the 33rd Ljubljana Biennial of Graphic Arts, this volume—edited by Slavs and Tatars—gathers essays by Emily Apter on the micropolitics of memes, David Crowley on punk as dissimulation, Vid Simoniti on the cult Bosnian satire Top lista nadrealista, and much more.

The Ljubljana Biennial was established in 1955 and has established itself as an event that presents art in global terms, hosting artists from both sides of the Iron Curtain and showcasing work from artistic traditions outside of Europe while recognizing new art movements and changes in style.

In 2019, curators Slavs and Taters posed the question: In the era of post-truth, can a joke set us free?

Thus, Crack Up, Crack Down deals with satire, a genre that brings together graphic arts and humorous political critique that has both a rich history and a vibrant present. One could almost claim that with every repolarization of political views, satire finds new ground and self-awareness. While humor has a political sting, it also cuts both ways: both political progressives and reactionary moralists of the past have used satire to get their messages across. What the Biennial poses as its central question is how does humor really work?

Edited by Slavs and Tatars and Melissa Constantine

With texts by Emily Apter, Melissa Constantine, David Crowley, Vid Simoniti, Metahaven, Mohammad Salemy, Raphael König & Arthur Fournier, and Goran Vojnovic

Softcover, 124 pages, full color, 9 × 11 inches

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The Elusive Archive

23 April 2020 in Books Comment

The Elusive Archive

A reinterpretation of the printed 50-year archive of Biennale Interieur, Belgium’s major international design exhibition.

The archive, comprised of over three hundred magazines and newspapers, offered Specht Studio and collaborator Levi Lanser the opportunity to (re)shape, (re)interpret, and (re)invent the archive by selecting and publishing scans from the publications.

Rational content was approached in an intuitive way, with just a few parameters: 1) Intuitive action (picking the magazine); 2) Structured action (setting a timeframe); 3) Structured action (three scans); 4) Intuitive action (a personal scan).

Because the results were unknown, Specht and Lanser called the work an “elusive archive.” Elusive—meaning difficult to find, catch, or achieve.

The final publication features forty posters, as well as a transcription of an email conversation about the project between Specht and Lanser. A full list of magazines used in the project is recorded on the cover noting title, publishing date, and type of content used for the publication.

Published by Stockmans, in collaboration with Specht Studio and Levi Lanser

Conceived for The New Masters, a project by DIFT for Biennale Interieur 2018 in Kortrijk, Belgium.

Printed in a limited, individually numbered edition of 300 copies

80 pages
Unbound broadsides
Full color
12 × 16.5 inches

ISBN: 978-9-07-720755-0

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Back Office 3: Writing The Screen

17 April 2020 in Magazines Comment

Back Office 3: Writing The Screen

This third issue of Back Office is devoted to various experiences of reading on screens. Over the course of the last decades, this change has introduced deep shifts, the effects of which are still being assessed.

Following the possible end of linear writing—predicted by the “communicologist” Vilém Flusser as early as the 1970s—the philosopher Jacques Derrida reflected on the “end of paper” as the primary medium for inscription. The proliferation of screens and the dawn of the internet paved the way for expressive forms falling under the category of an enlarged “graphosphere,” presumably still dominated by the norms and figures of paper (consider the concepts of lines, the sheet, the page, paragraphs, margins, etc.).

Could the task of the designer be to accompany, as smoothly as possible, this transition from one technical era to the next, or could it be, on the contrary, to postpone the passage from paper to screen?

Back Office is an annual review, encompassing graphic design and digital activities. It explores the creative processes at work in the diverse fields of contemporary media and digital practices. By dealing with themes such as the code/form relation, the challenges of creative tools, and the permeable nature of media, it represents a unique French-speaking think tank and a worldwide vehicle to raise the visibility of the French design scholarship.

Published by Éditions B42 and Fork Éditions, 2019
Bilingual, in French and English
144 pages
Color and b&w images
7.75 × 11 inches

ISBN: 978-2-49-007712-0

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Karel Martens: Re-Printed Matter

25 October 2019 in Books Comment

Karel Martens: Re-Printed Matter

The work of Karel Martens occupies an intriguing place in the present European art-and-design landscape.

Martens can be placed in the tradition of Dutch modernism, in the line of figures such as Piet Zwart, H.N. Werkman, Willem Sandberg. Yet he maintains some distance from the main developments of this time: from both the practices of routinized modernism and of the facile reactions against this. His work is both personal and experimental. At the same time, it is publicly answerable.

Over the decades of his practice, Martens has been prolific as a designer of books. He has also made contributions in a wide range of design commissions: including stamps, coins, signs on buildings. Also a renowned teacher of graphic design, Karel Martens is co-initiator of the Werkplaats Typografie, a two-year master’s design program related to ArtEZ, Arnhem, and guest professor at Yale University, New Haven.

Intimately connected with this design work has been his practice as an artist. This started with geometric and kinetic constructions and developed in work with the very material of paper. And he has been making monoprints over a long period.

This book looks for new ways to show and discuss the work of Martens as a designer and artist and is offered in the same spirit of experiment and dialogue that characterizes the work it presents.

Its first edition was published in 1996 on the occasion of the award to Karel Martens of the Dr A.H. Heineken Prize for Art. In response to continued demand, the book has been extended to 2019 and appears now in this fourth edition presenting almost sixty years of practice.

Published by Roma Publications, 2019

Softcover, 280 pages, full color, 6.75 × 9.15 inches

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Karel Martens: Still Moving

20 October 2019 in Books Comment

Karel Martens: Still Moving

This catalog accompanies a 2018 exhibition of both new and old work by Karel Martens at Platform-L Contemporary Art Centre in Seoul, Korea, curated by Sang Un Jeon.

In both format and content, Karel Martens: Still Moving offers a succinct overview of the world of the renowned Dutch graphic designer, who has produced an extensive array of works over the six decades of his career.

The various influences he has absorbed during this period, combined with his socially conscious approach, have made him an idiosyncratic designer who brings together rational schemes and literary sensibility in a remarkable way.

The publication was designed by Sulki Choi and Min Choi, former students of Martens at Yale University.

Published by Platform-L Contemporary Art Center, 2018
In Korean and English

Softcover, 128 pages, color and b&w, 6.75 × 9.5 inches

ISBN: 979-1-19-578745-6

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Visions By: Issue No. 1

18 March 2019 in Magazines Comment

Visions By: Issue No. 1

VISIONS By people, about Material Cultures

A biannual magazine focused on exploring material culture and its infinite meanings by giving free voice and space for people with something to share and add. There is no specific theme per issue, no specific contributor profile, no specific reader.

Visions By embraces different perspectives on materiality and material culture from a critical and speculative focus. Issue No. 1 is an eclectic mix of articles, photographic essays, interviews, and case studies.

Contents of this first issue include BLOBJECTS, GOOD VIBES, PULSATING SHIELD, FLUIDS, and TOYS.

Featuring Arnau Anglada, Berta Cambra, Ramon Faura, Judith Gómez, Mireia Luzárraga, Miguel Mesa, Alejandro Muiño, Jorick de Quaasteniet, Arnaut Schaap, Dominic Sebastian, and Signe Ralkov

Designed by Oficina de disseny (Diego Bustamante, Katharina Hetzeneder, Ariadna Serrahima)
Edited by Saúl Baeza and Laura Clèries
Published by Elisava Research, 2018
Softcover, 52 pages, 9.1 × 12.6 inches
Cover affixed with a removable iron-on patch (“VISIONS BY INTERGALACTIC ENVIRONMENTALISTS”), 4 × 3.5 inches

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