Spring 2011
2
title
PaPercraft2
Papercraft 2 subtitle
Design and Art with Paper category
release
Graphic Design
March
editors
R. Klanten, B. Meyer features
full color, hardcover, incl. videos pages
size
256
24 × 30 cm
price
€ 44 (D) £ 40 $ 68 isbn
978-3-89955-333-8 new
sample cover
about the book
Outstanding creative work with paper. Paper is arguably the most influential material in human civilization. In our digital age, paper has become less important as a medium for the immediate transmission of information. As this shift occurred, designers and artists increasingly discovered the creative possibilities of paper’s endurance. Today, designing with paper continues to be a trend.
and cardboard. The book documents how techniques such as cutting, folding, gluing, and collage help designers craft innovative communication design, products, and artwork from these materials that reach new creative heights. Recent examples include illustration, sculpture, and 3D graphic design as well as complex spatial installations, fashion, and objets d’art. Clearly advancing the handicraft used in earlier pieces, these are setting prevailing In the last three years, a broad range of creative disciplines including scenog- trends and inspiring the future evolution of work with paper in ever more creraphy, fashion design, and advertising have discovered the versatility of this ative disciplines. basic material. These new areas have contributed fresh ideas and perfected existing techniques. The areas of application and forms of expression for work- Its more than 250 pages and additional bonus video material make Papering with paper have now reached an unforeseen breadth and level of quality. craft 2 a comprehensive documentation of the creative potential that can be realized with the traits of what was once our primary material for communiWith an unparalleled collection of new and groundbreaking projects, Paper- cating information. craft 2 presents current developments in contemporary design with paper
3
title
Doppelganger IMAGES OF THE HUMAN BEING
subtitle
editors
Images of the Human Being
R. Klanten, S. Ehmann, F. Schulze features
full color, hardcover
category
release
Style
January
pages
size
240
24 × 30 cm
price
€ 39.90 (D) £ 37.50 $ 60 isbn
978-3-89955-332-1 new
sample cover
about the book
The ongoing quest to capture the visual identity of the human being in our digital age. The digital age has fundamentally changed traditional notions of who we are and how we wish to be perceived. The music producer Chris Walla puts it this way: “Confronted with our significantly more banal everyday life, we’re measuring our actual selves against our online selves with hopeful resignation.”
These take their visual cues from such diverse aesthetics as Dada, surrealism, high tech, cutting-edge fashion design, and the folklore of other cultures. Masquerades and artificial characters are used imaginatively to enhance and obscure true identities.
Doppelganger presents current trends in the depiction of human beings. In today’s images and sculptures, personal identities are being intensified, altered, or created through the use of techniques such as deformation and construction/deconstruction as well as the obliteration of classical proportions, visual traditions, and what is generally considered beautiful and fashionable.
With examples ranging from the intimate to the radical, Doppelganger explores how many or how few effects the depiction of a person can take in order to function as such. In doing so, the book shows that the unique visual appearances being created today often reveal more about the identities of their subjects and creators than their “real” faces ever could.
The book shows permutations of the outer human shell created with costumes and masks as well as photo-technical and artistic manipulation.
4
title
Art & Agenda subtitle
Political Art and Activism category
release
Art
March
editors
R. Klanten, M. Hübner, A. Bieber, P. Alonzo features
full color, hardcover pages
size
288
24 × 30 cm
price
€ 44 (D) £ 40 $ 68 isbn
978-3-89955-342-0 new
sample cover
about the book
Young and established artists are putting political subjects, protest, and resistance back on the personal and public agenda. Life has become significantly more political in the new millennium, especially in the aftermath of the worldwide banking crisis. Art is both driving and documenting this upheaval. Initially, it was mostly young artists and activists who were raising their voices to protest globalization and the pollution of our environment, but increasingly the work of established artists is also becoming dominated by political topics.
Some of the younger artists featured in the book are fighting against poverty and for women’s rights. Others are working to rebuild Haitian communities in the wake of that country’s devastating earthquake. Still others are using mass communication to criticize transnational oil companies. While Latin American artists are expressing their powerlessness in the face of totalitarian governments, Chinese artists are commenting on the radical changes taking place in their country, calling for human rights and freedom, and an Art & Agenda explores the impact of political activism on contemporary art. end to cronyism and environmental destruction. The book introduces a variety of artists who are advocating political and social reform on a local or a global scale. Some are influenced by the tradi- The book examines the interplay between the forms of protest used by tions of Agitprop and the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s and work with environmental and civil rights activists and the techniques used by artists, posters, urban interventions, or graphic design. Others prefer established which are of interest since both groups often address the same topics. It art forms such as painting, sculpture, or performance. The personalities and looks at how art and the media are not only reflecting a political agenda, but approaches of the featured artists are as diverse as their subject matter— also how they are influencing political reaction. Consequently, Art & Agenda the artists’ goals, techniques, and degrees of radicalness depend on the is not only an insightful documentation of current artwork, but also points to cultures to which they belong as well as the social and political circles in future forms of political discourse and decision-making. which they move.
5
title
My Green City Back to Nature with Attitude and Style
new
My Green City subtitle
Back to Nature with Attitude and Style category
release
Style
March
editors
R. Klanten, S. Ehmann, K. Bolhöfer features
full color, flexicover pages
size
240
21 × 26 cm
price
€ 38 (D) £ 35 $ 60 isbn
978-3-89955-334-5
1
sample cover
about the book
A stylish compilation of the work and ideas of designers, activists, and architects, who are bringing nature back into our cities. The last few decades were dominated by the urban, the digital, and the sleek as well as a notable esteem for speed and consumption. Today, a growing countermovement is advocating for a sustainable and more responsible way of dealing with our environment and bringing nature back to our cities. My Green City celebrates this turnaround as well as the way of life and creativity of the designers, artists, architects, activists, and passionate laypeople involved. The book presents inspirational projects from around the world—from urban farming initiatives and architectural visions that are changing our cities as a whole, to furniture and other everyday objects that can make our own streets and homes greener. Guerilla gardeners are decorating urban eyesores with
flowers. Glamping resorts offer hip, yet environmentally friendly vacations amid beautiful landscapes. Designers are creating projects, products, and works of art that use plants in a functional or aesthetic way—or are perhaps just trying to get people to think differently. My Green City is an entertaining and socially relevant compilation for everyone who has an interest in a more responsible and environmentally friendly lifestyle. The book shows us how we can care for our planet without falling into hopelessness or dwelling on a bad conscience. Its manifold visual examples and insightful descriptions make it clear that we can instead design our urban future in a way that is green, innovative, vibrant, and constructive.
6
title
Utopia Forever subtitle
Visions of Architecture and Urbanism category
release
Architecture
April
editors
R. Klanten, L. Feireiss features
full color, flexicover pages
size
256
24 × 28 cm
price
€ 44 (D) £ 40 $ 68 isbn
978-3-89955-335-2 new
sample cover
about the book
An exploration of utopias and radical approaches to city planning—the predominant themes in contemporary architecture. A map of the world that does not include Utopia is not worth even glancing at, for it leaves out the one country at which Humanity is always landing. —Oscar Wilde The cities in which we live today are unfortunately not the cities that we need for a humane and sustainable tomorrow. Societies and politicians are desperately looking for solutions and ideas for the urban areas of the future. That is why the development and discussion of utopias are–next to sustainability–the most current topics in contemporary architecture. We have learned from the 1960s and 1970s that utopian visions are one of the most important catalysts for fundamental change. Modern wind farms for generating energy, for example, were initially contemplated at that time and are now permanent fixtures in our landscapes.
Utopia Forever is a collection of current projects and concepts from architecture, city planning, urbanism, and art that point beyond the restrictions of the factual to unleash the potential of creative visions. In contrast to the largely ideal-theoretic approaches of the past, today’s utopias take the necessity for societal changes into account. The projects in this book explore how current challenges for architecture, mobility, and energy as well as the logistics of food consumption and waste removal can be met. Whether created by established architects and artists or new talents, the projects in Utopia Forever are radically shaping our notions of life in the future.
7
title
Cutting Edges subtitle
Contemporary Collage
cutting edges
categories
release
Graphic Design, Art
January
editors
R. Klanten, H. Hellige, J. Gallagher features
full color, hardcover pages
size
224
24 × 30 cm
price
€ 39.90 (D) £ 37.50 $ 60
Contemporary Collage
isbn
978-3-89955-338-3 new
sample cover
about the book
The renaissance of collage in art, illustration, and design. Collage has an outstanding tradition in the modern visual arts. Influenced by surrealism and Dada as well as constructivism, the technique was firmly established as an art form in the 1920s and 1930s through the work of artists such as John Heartfield, El Lissitzky, and Hannah Höch. Today, a new generation of young artists and illustrators is rediscovering collage.
elements that is important to the work, but also their deliberate omission, deletion, and destruction. While the combination of very different materials is charmingly reminiscent of the past, the innovative work in Cutting Edges proves that a new era of collage has begun.
Cutting Edges is a collection of current artistic work that unites unrelated elements to create something new. Although the artists also use the com- Texts by curator Dr. Silke Krohn put this current rediscovery of collage into an puter for the purpose of montage, most of the featured collages are made art-historical context. by hand and often include found objects. It is not only the addition of visual
8
title
Precursor ±
An Essential Watchlist of Creativity
± ± Precursor ±
subtitle
An Essential Watchlist of Creativity categories
release
Graphic Design, Art
April
editors
R. Klanten, A. Mollard features
full color, hardcover pages
size
288
24 × 30 cm
price
€ 44 (D) £ 40 $ 68 isbn
978-3-89955-345-1 new
sample cover
about the book
A new breed of creatives has grown up with computers and is now using them—and any other tools they can get their hands on—to challenge, revive, question, and interconnect the classic categories of design. Thanks to ever-increasing digitalization, design has gone through a process of democratization since the 1990s. Because the internet has made the digital tools of various creative directions so easily accessible, many young designers are currently working in a multidisciplinary way.
egorizations, the work of these designers may seem random at first glance. Still, despite or because of the way the work, they are profoundly innovative as well as remarkably determined when it comes to realizing their creative visions and establishing a personal style.
Today, the most compelling work is being created where classic design categories intersect. Young designers are moving fluidly between established job descriptions such as graphic designer, advertiser, street artist, video director, typographer, illustrator, product designer, and musician—often working as several at the same time. Because they customize their fields to suit their individual needs and their output often meanders through very different cat-
Precursor introduces outstanding young design talent from around the world and documents their most recent work. Although regional creative differences and design traits still exist, the examples collected here show how a new transnational style is currently being established. This work exists beyond current trends and retro looks; its only obligation is to innovate.
9
title
A T O U C H O F C O D E
A Touch of Code subtitle
Interactive Installations and Experiences categories
release
Product Design, Architecture
April
editors
R. Klanten, S. Ehmann, L. Feireiss features
full color, hardcover pages
size
240
24 Ă— 28 cm
price
â‚Ź 44 (D) ÂŁ 40 $ 68 isbn
978-3-89955-331-4 new
sample cover
about the book
Innovative designers are creating compelling atmospheres and interactive experiences by merging hardware and software with architecture and design. Thanks to the omnipresence of computers, cell phones, gaming systems, and the internet, a broad audience has traded its past reservations against technology for an almost insatiable curiosity for all things technical. Against this background, unprecedented new tools and possibilities are opening up for the world of design. In addition to sketchbooks and computers, young designers are increasingly using programming languages, soldering irons, sensors, and microprocessors as well as 3D milling or rapid prototyping machines in their work. The innovative use of powerful hardware and software has become affordable and, most of all, much easier to use. Today, the sky is the limit when it comes to ideas for experimental media, unconventional interfaces, and interactive spatial experiences.
A Touch of Code shows how information becomes experience. The book examines how surprising personal experiences are created where virtual realms meet the real world and where dataflow confronts the human senses. It presents an international spectrum of interdisciplinary projects at the intersection of laboratory, trade show, and urban space that play with the new frontiers of perception, interaction, and staging created by current technology. These include brand and product presentations as well as thematic exhibits, architecture, art, and design. The comprehensive spectrum of innovative spatial and interactive work in A Touch of Code reveals how technology is fundamentally changing and expanding strategies for the targeted use of architecture, art, communication, and design for the future.
10
title
Jung + Wenig SingleBoerSe
“Hello, not so long ago I have received your letter. I sincerely hope that you are looking for the same as I.”
Behind the
Selfpublishing culture
Thierry SomerS
“I guess, making a magazine on your own is a labour of love that requires a lot of discipline, perseverance and unconditional devotion."
zines
Behind the Zines subtitle
Self-Publishing Culture category
release
Graphic Design
April
William morriS
“To own the means of production is the only way to gain back pleasure in work, and this, in return, is considered as a prerequisite for the production of (applied) art and beauty.”
new
editors
R. Klanten, A. Mollard, M. Hübner features
full color, softcover pages
size
240
24 × 28 cm
price
€ 39.90 (D) £ 37.50 $ 60 isbn
978-3-89955-336-9
sample cover
about the book
Zines and their role as a catalyst in the evolution of media and graphic design today. Social networks are dominating today‘s headlines, but they are not the only platforms that are radically changing the way we communicate. Creatives such as designers, photographers, artists, researchers, and poets are disseminating information about themselves and their favorite subjects not via predefined media such as Twitter or blogs, but through printed or other selfpublished projects—so-called zines. Those who publish zines are mostly interested in sole authorship, namely that all components including text, images, layout, typography, production, and distribution are firmly in the hands of one person or a small group. At their best, the results convey a compelling and consistent atmosphere and push against the established creative grain in just the right way. They provoke with surprising and non-linear food for thought. In short, zines are advancing the evolution of today‘s media.
function as a new kind of project-oriented portfolio to showcase a self-profile or document an exhibit. While some act as (pseudo) scientific treatises to call the reader‘s attention to a specific topic, others serve as playrooms for creatives to run riot and express themselves and communicate with each other in a space that is free from editorial restrictions. The book examines the key factors that distinguish various zines. It introduces projects in which the printing process significantly influences aesthetics or in which limited distribution to a small, clearly defined target audience becomes part of the overall concept.
Behind the Zines not only documents outstanding work, but also shows how the self-image of those who make zines impacts the scene as a whole. With a cutting-edge selection of international examples, Behind the Zines in- Through interviews with people involved in zine production and distribution, troduces the broad range of zines that exists today. These include zines that the book sheds light on various strategies for this evolving media form.
11
title
The Modernist The Modernist category
release
editors
Graphic Design
April
R. Klanten, H. Hellige features
full color, softcover pages
size
192
24 × 28 cm
price
€ 35 (D) £ 32.50 $ 55 isbn
978-3-89955-344-4 new
sample cover
about the book
The discovery of classical modernism in current graphic design. After going through an eclectic, baroque, and iconic phase, today’s design is again taking its visual cues from functionalism and pragmatism. Young graphic designers and illustrators are working in a way that is influenced by the principles of classic modernism. They avoid excess or exaggeration to create enduring work of the highest quality. The Modernist is a collection of work in graphic design and illustration that is created with minimal intrusions. The deliberately limited palette of colors, tools, and geometric forms that it uses makes the work seem both contemporary and timeless. The book makes clear that today’s work does not simply copy the classic design of the 1960s and 1970s. Rather, it seamlessly includes the best
aspects of the 1990s such as vector graphics and construction. Although computers do not dominate this design, they are clearly used as tools to play with elements that did not yet exist in the past and to merge the components and styles at hand in the best possible way. The Modernist documents the current trend of a reduced, matter-of-fact, and practical design approach. It presents examples of unobtrusive but effective design solutions that appear to have been created in a past era. Instead, the book shows that it is only our idealistic conception of modernism that gives earlier work attributes that it never actually had.
12
title
Ruby subtitle
Otherworldliness categories
release
Illustration, Art
April
editor
Irana Douer features
full color, flexicover pages
size
240
21 × 26 cm
price
€ 29.90 (D) £ 26.99 $ 45
RUBY
isbn
978-3-89955-343-7 new
sample cover
about the book
A collection of work by young artists, whose captivating surreal worlds are at the nexus of contemporary visual culture and art. There is a continual exchange between the fields of visual culture and art. Techniques, concepts, and motifs inspire each other, and the fields where they intersect are in constant flux. In the tradition of Salvador Dalí, Robert Rauschenberg, and Andy Warhol, today’s young artists are just as influenced by the old masters as they are by popular culture. They are inquisitively exploring and expanding the possibilities for visual forms of expression. Ruby collects current work by 65 talented young artists with one thing in common: whether working in fantastical illustration, hyper-real photography, or figurative painting or sculpture, these artists all depict or conjure up sur-
real otherworldliness. The examples in this book document current trends at the place where art meets contemporary visual culture. Ruby is a project by Buenos Aires-based curator, editor, and artist Irana Douer. The book presents artists, illustrators, photographers, and designers from around the world with whom she has worked over the last five years.
NUEVO UEV MUNDO UEVO MUN LatiN aMERicaN St StREE t aRt StREEt
13
title
Nuevo Mundo
Maximiliano Ruiz
subtitle
editor
Latin American Street Art
full color, hardcover pages
size
category
release
Art
April
256
21 × 26 cm
Maximiliano Ruiz features
price
€ 35 (D) £ 32.50 $ 55 isbn
978-3-89955-337-6 new
sample cover
about the book
The first comprehensive documentation of the vibrant street art scene in Latin America. One could argue that today’s most innovative street artists come from Latin insightful texts describe the history and context of each scene as well as America. The work of Os Gêmeos, Nunca, Vhils, Basco-Vazko and Vitché is the region as a whole. highly respected in the international art scene and has been exhibited at renowned museums including the Tate Modern and Fondation Cartier. The explosive mixture of indigenous cultures, local folklore, and the history of European colonization has created a unique visual style. The high regard Nuevo Mundo is the first book to provide a comprehensive documentation of in which these young street artists are now held around the world is a sign current street art in Latin America by exploring the full spectrum of regional of the new self-confidence of an entire continent. scenes in their impressive diversity. The book is structured into chapters that introduce work from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Central America, Chile, Maximiliano Ruiz has explored for years the subject of Latin American street Columbia, Cuba, Ecuador, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay. art as author, curator, and film director. Previously based in Buenos Aires, he now works from Barcelona. Nuevo Mundo features not only established artists from Latin America, but also promising new talents. In addition to inspiring images, the book’s
new
BEAUTIFUL STRUGGLE
the art of dzine
title
The Beautiful Struggle
14
by
Dzine features
subtitle
The Art of Dzine
full color, hardcover
category
release
Art
April
pages
size
224
24 × 30 cm
price
€ 39.90 (D) £ 37.50 $ 60 isbn
978-3-89955-329-1
sample cover
about the book
Dzine melds ghetto, baroque, bling, and psychedelic influences to create work that ranks among the most unique in American contemporary art today. The work of Dzine, who was born in Chicago as Carlos Rolon in 1970, alludes to Latin American Kustom Kulture and aesthetics from ghetto to baroque. By combining these influences in a playfully ironic way, he has created a unique visual language that has already found its place in renowned museums, collections, and galleries.
perfected versions subsume their original functions and the visual excess causes those viewing his art to question their own value systems.
The Beautiful Struggle is the first comprehensive collection of the full spectrum of Dzine’s work in the areas of sculpture, painting, and installation. A foreword by filmmaker Morgan Spurlock (Super Size Me) as well as texts and Dzine’s art stems from the place where the conflicting worlds of luxury quotes by other creatives and art insiders such as Dallas Contemporary diand the street intersect—where desire, identity, beauty, and meticulous- rector Peter Doroshenko round out this unique monograph. ness collide in kaleidoscopic colors. He reworks everyday objects, bicycles, ghetto blasters, or Latino status symbols—including lowrider cars—until his
title
15
by
Taxing Art
Beta Tank
subtitle
When Objects Travel category
release
Product Design
April
features
full color, softcover pages
size
160
16 × 21 cm
price
€ 29.90 (D) £ 26.99 $ 45 isbn
978-3-89955-346-8
new
sample cover
about the book
An illustrated essay about the influence of tax laws and customs officials on what constitutes art and design. In recent years, the boundaries between art and design have become more and more blurred. It is not the object itself, but rather its economic functionality that determines where design stops and art begins—and this functionality is reassessed at every link in the chain of the object’s dissemination. In fact, it is often customs officials who subjectively decide what constitutes art and design based on their personal views and erratic local tax laws.
ties. The book is a buoyantly ironic, clever documentation and analysis of the effect of traditional, bureaucratic procedures on innovative work. Beta Tank, explains cofounder Eyal Burstein, hopes Taxing Art will fuel a dialog about “how true innovation and creativity, that which crosses boundaries and moves into the unknown, can be actively pursued and matched within existing categories and assumptions about business practices and results.”
Taxing Art is an insightful case study by Beta Tank that illustrates the influence of tax laws on art and creativity. The Berlin-based studio created a se- The book puts a spotlight on the effect that tax laws have on art and design. Beries of “blended” work, which was partly handmade and partly machine-made, cause this aspect is largely underestimated, Taxing Art is as revealing for artists, and sent it around the world. Naturally, this resulted in differing customs du- designers, curators, and event managers as it is for lawyers and tax officials.
title
Hyperactivitypography from A to Z
16
by
Studio 3
category
release
features
Typography
available
full color, hardcover pages
size
192
16 × 21 cm
price
€ 19.90 {D} £ 17.99 $ 29.90 isbn
978-3-89955-327-7
new
about the book
Everything you always wanted to know about typography but were too afraid to ask. Who knew that a publication with the charm of an attractively designed children’s book could take such a revealing look at the demanding topic of typography.
Hyperactivitypography from A to Z allows beginners to learn the ropes of typography but also gives experienced typographers ample opportunity to hone their skills and take away new insights. The tone of this clever how-to is light and friendly without any raised index fingers or self-congratulatory Hyperactivitypography from A to Z is a practical handbook that presents ty- smugness. pography in a simple and fun, yet deeply insightful way. Its appealing illustrations, personal explanations, and entertaining exercises explain common This book was created by Studio 3, the design agency of Oslo’s renowned terms and useful details from the world of typography in a way that is easily Westerdals School of Communication. understood.
17
title
The Design Hotels™ Book subtitle
editor
Edition 2011
Design Hotels™ features
category
release
Style
January
full color, hardcover pages
size
432
23 × 32.5 cm
price
€ 44 (D) £ 40 $ 68 isbn
978-3-89955-340-6 new
sample cover
about the book
The new edition of The Design Hotels™ Book is a comprehensive overview insight into trends and developments in hospitality design. With its images of the most original design hotels worldwide. By presenting 200 spectacu- of striking architecture and interior design, this opulent hardcover brings the lar hotels, including 47 properties that are new for 2011, the book provides experience of staying in a Design Hotels™ property to life.
title
The Design Hotels™ Books subtitle
Limited Collector’s Edition category
release
Style
January
editor
Design Hotels™ features
full color, hardcover, 2 volumes in carton set pages
size
800
23 × 32.5 cm
price
€ 69.90 (D) £ 60 $ 99 isbn
new
978-3-89955-341-3 sample cover
about the book
The Design Hotels™ Made by Originals Book is the perfect opportunity for those who are interested in learning more about the inspiring people behind these unique design hotels. This book introduces more than 30 individuals who explain how they make their distinct properties thrive. The behind-
the-scenes interviews take an insightful look at their creative processes as well as the travel and leisure industry today. The book is only available in an exclusive limited collector’s edition together with The Design Hotels™ Book: Edition 2011.
title
Danielle de Picciotto
The Beauty of Transgression subtitle
category
release
March
Danielle de Picciotto features
A Berlin Memoir Style
18
by
b/w, 16 pages full color, language: English pages
size
288
14 × 21 cm
price
€ 22 (D) £ 19.99 $ 30
The Beauty of Transgression
isbn
978-3-89955-328-4
A Berlin Memoir
new
sample cover
about the book
An insider’s memoir that captures the evolution of Berlin’s underground from the 1980s to today. Today, Berlin is celebrated around the world as a magnet for creative talent. But many people do not know or have forgotten how this came to be. In the 1980s, the island city surrounded by the Wall was a sanctuary for musicians, artists, avoiders of West Germany’s mandatory military service, and other outsiders, who were inspired by Berlin’s distinct atmosphere. Berlin winters were cold, long, and especially delirious. When the Wall fell, an unparalleled vacuum of authority was created that further fueled the city’s already uniquely free creative climate.
part of this transition and experienced how societal changes influenced and changed the city and its inhabitants over the years.
The Beauty of Transgression is Danielle de Picciotto’s memoir of Berlin. The book brings together her accounts of musicians, fashion designers, and club owners as well as other artists and their milieus with unique firsthand descriptions of milestone places and events. It is not only a fascinating collection of stories about key individuals, but also gives an authentic and detailed overview of why Berlin has become one of the most appealing The American artist Danielle de Picciotto moved to Berlin in 1987. She was metropolises for creatives from around the world. there when the Love Parade was founded and infamous clubs such as Tresor and E-Werk opened their doors. For decades, she witnessed up close the Danielle de Picciotto’s intimate text and personal selection of images upheaval in the city and the evolution of its underground from post-punk penetrate through hype and commercialization and make The Beauty of through techno to the mixed experimental creativity of today. She was a Transgression a uniquely genuine documentation of the creative history of Berlin’s underground.
home—in other words, the usual restless twilight assembly, looking for inspiration or jobs . The owner, a charismatic, good-looking man with pitch-black, curly hair and sparkling white teeth was a regular fixture on the “Kölner” nightlife scene until he suddenly went bankrupt due to his cocaine addiction, and left town in a hurry, scared of large, angry beer companies and imaginary space-ships pursuing him . I was working for an advertising agency that had contacted me in New York, explaining that they needed somebody to design costumes for them . After having studied painting and costume design, racing through the courses in a madcap manner, wanting to leave the cumbersome, claustrophobic air of home and school as quickly as possible, it seemed like a good deal . Today the agency advertises large shoe and restaurant chains in Germany . In the mid-1980s they were officially poor and could only pay tiny salaries, especially to visual artists like me . Young and naïve, I believed them when they told me that was all they could afford, ignoring the fact that even back then they were driving Porsches, wearing expensive designer suits, and ordering chrome refrigerators from Hawaii . I was too happy to be in the “real world” and didn’t mind doing additional jobs on the side to pay my rent, greeting guests at wedding parties in penguin suits on roller skates, or serving cocktails at Café Central to Martin Kippenberger, a genial German artist who drank himself to death in the 1990s and who would sometimes invite me over to his apartment for food after work . Selling self-produced tapes of Die Tödliche Doris and Mania D . in punk stores, or go-go dancing to their music in bars, were a couple of other occupations easing my financial state . Eventually I settled for serving drinks in the Rose Club while designing costumes in the form of seafood, or cubic ballet uniforms (worn by robot models), during the day . The contrast of moving between these two universes, each convinced of its own irrefutable importance, quenched my thirst for outrageous clashes, relying on the noise and garbage of Luxemburger Strasse to camouflage the rest of my fundamentally restless nature . The night shift was my favorite . Christa and Dietz, a friendly couple consistently dressed in black leather, who carried whips to most events, invited underground heroes from all over the world to play at their venue . It was there, working at the Rose Club, that I witnessed a lineup of celebrated outlaws that would change my life forever . Snakefinger, the former front man of the famed Residents, a band known for appearing on stage masked and unrecognizable, proudly explained and showed me his legendary, self-made guitar in loving detail one week before he died of heart failure; Laibach, the Slovenian avant-garde industrial band, raising the roof with heavy Eastern choruses and bold symbolism; the Celibate Rifles, who were Australian and claimed to be the only band to have been kicked out of CBGBs in New York for being too loud; and many others, including Psychic TV, Blur, Crime and the City Solution, and Nikki Sudden . Several of these musi10
cians became my friends, and their unconventional lifestyle and roaming natures struck a chord with me, an outcast . What I felt when I met them was comparable to when I saw The Good, the Bad and the Ugly as a small, unhappy girl living on US army bases . Being an outcast and living life by one’s own rules, succeeding in keeping up integrity inspite of injustice was a lifestyle I admired and had decided to follow . Heiner Ebber, lanky drummer of The Waltons, a German rock-and-roll band, was the first of these musicians whom I spoke to in depth . After having excessively drunk, wildly danced, and unreservedly spoken to me throughout the night after his performance, he invited me to come and pay him a visit, pulling out photos, describing Kreuzberg, a beautiful drum set, and his girlfriend . Heiner had the edgy, driving passion typical of Berliners in the 1980s . He ignored convention and experimented with music, initiating numerous bands ranging from easy listening to hard core, organizing ludicrous Adriano Celentano theme parties in tiny nightclubs, appearing as his second personal, Palminger, wearing colossal tinted sunglasses, reading surreal lyrics written the night before, DJing unknown singles or exhibiting his black-and-white prints reminiscent of early George Grosz . His sense of humor, paired with compassion for others and an intense longing for the exceptional, impressed me deeply . It was after one of these nights at the Rose Club, around eight in the morning, that I was kicked out of the bakery by the buxom, blond, red-cheeked baker lady, who, after taking one look at my tired face, tartan skirt, and heavy black boots, immediately came around the counter hissing, “We do not serve people like you here, I will call the police if you do not leave immediately,” pushing her fat face into mine . She strongly smelled of detergent and onions . I stared at her cold, red eyes, square cut fingernails, the tiny beads of sweat on the blond mustache of her upper lip and envisioned the parade of air-headed models I would have to dress up as asparagus in the morning, my arrogant bosses in the background, smoking Cuban cigars with bored business associates . Although I had been treated rudely in boutiques and department stores befor, due to my colorful, homemade outfits and odd accessories, unable to afford the luxury goods they were offering, this was the first time I had actually been threatened with the police for having entered a place only wanting to buy bread . I decided it was time to abandon Cologne . Leaving the high-pitched salesperson behind slamming glass doors, I continued down the street, contemplating my possibilities . Manhattan was not an alternative; it was too soon to go back . Remembering Heiner’s invitation and a fascinating movie I had seen the day before, Wings of Desire by the German film director Wim Wenders, which depicted Berlin drenched in the golden glow of 11
Berlin Fashion Berlin’s slogan during the 1980s was “initiate and create .” No one sat around waiting for offers or ideas . Interaction consisted of friendly competition between those who wanted to break new artistic boundaries . Beautiful women pounded away on drums and spiky-haired, ashen-faced men screamed intricate, intellectual lyrics to metallicsounding accompaniment . At wild festivals, experimental bands and performance artists outdid each other in excessive provocation, hazardously performing with fire, hanging precariously by their feet, initiating spiritual rituals, and defying gender roles . Living in Berlin meant always doing the opposite of what would normally be expected of you . Besides being provocative, dangerous, and positively destructive, this atmosphere was rich in magic and humor, meaning that it was easy to savor the surreal aspects of the most insignificant, routine events . The day after I arrived in Berlin I called Heiner, who was on his way to what he mysteriously called a “second-hand party .” He told me to meet him in Wiener Strasse; a street in Kreuzberg known for its many rock cafes—the Madonna, Wiener Blut, or Wild at Heart, all of them usually filled with rock musicians and exhilarated fans . I set out curious to see what kind of event awaited me . We met at a storefront overflowing with colorful 1970s fashion victims adorned in flared pants, short straight dresses, platform shoes, oddly colored patterned shirts, floral ties, and fake eyelashes . Inside the stucco-ceilinged room, a band was playing violently in the middle of hundreds of second-hand articles decorating the vicinity . A tiny, rough wooden board placed over two chairs served as the bar, which sold vodka or beer in chipped porcelain cups . The basement, accessible by a steep, narrow ladder, consisted of the same mixture of clothes and people, the sole variation being a toilet standing in the middle of the room . A continuous flow of people would nonchalantly sit and pee whenever necessary . Heiner introduced me to his friends: chatty bass players, giggly percussionists, and randy drummers, and he got a beer for me while commenting on different sock-and-tie combinations . The party stretched into the early morning hours with riotous dancing sprees, drunken guitar solos, séances, and impromptu fashion shows held on the toilet . Everybody was very friendly . I soon realized that in Berlin everyone knew each another because of the Wall, which made getting in or out difficult and tedious . It was a situation comparable to a nightliner, filled to the brim with musicians who have to get along for months, ultimately developing a very courteous manner of approaching one another . People preferred fun parties and creating the legend of Berlin’s insanity together . 34
A new acquaintance who was also an expat, Donna, took me to a similar gettogether in East Berlin a couple of weeks later . She had been offered 10,000 DM to marry an East Berlin resident to help him escape the GDR, a common proposition that usually didn’t pan out . She was supposed to meet him at a party that Udo Lindenberg, a German rock musician, was hosting, and had invited me to come along . We arrived later than expected because of being held up at Checkpoint Charlie, and the party was at its peak . After being handed two straight vodkas in the narrow hallway of the entrance, we were invited into the living room, which was bursting with singing, laughing, and crying people . It was almost impossible to hear the music coming from an old tape recorder in the corner, especially as two men started fighting in the back room, which was filled with bunk beds . Donna was interested in fashion, which is how I came to be introduced to Sabine von Öttingen, member of an underground East Berlin fashion group called Allerleirau . After telling her about designing costumes in New York and Cologne she described GDR fashion shows in detail, describing abandoned swimming pools, coats made of leather that looked like trees, the difficulties of finding good materials in the East, and the band Rammstein, who were good friends of hers, and usually played music at the fashion events . We became friends, meeting as often as possible, exchanging stories and gossip about life on opposite sides of the Wall . Hanging out in her apartment was a precious introduction into how people survived under the strict regime . They were constantly helping each other out, thinking not only of their own but five other families, always on the lookout for nice buttons, good shoes, unusual makeup, good bread, foreign newspapers, and so on . They met each other excitedly to distribute the loot, smelling the different perfumes brought over by friends from the West or recounting stories of relatives escaping . It was a closeknit society with enviable friendships . Sabine and her friends were like sisters, each more beautiful and creative than the other, and they turned the sad, drab, gray East into a colorful installation of imaginative objects . In general I was fascinated by the discipline, which combined the different art scenes on both sides of the Wall, and in spite of long drinking sprees and excessive parties the creative output was constant . These eccentrics not only wrote music, lyrics, manifestos, and books, many of them designed their clothes, and jewelry, organizing concerts, readings, or fashion happenings to go along . Nothing was left to chance—a consumer mentality was non-existent . This was an atmosphere I felt comfortable in . I had been doing music and art for as long as I could remember, combining them with fashion after studying costume design in New York, and it quickly became apparent that creating apparel in Berlin was quite different from the commercial guidelines I had been taught to follow in my classes . 35
GERMAN FASHION DESIGN (1946–2012)
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title
German Fashion Design 1946–2012 category
release
editor
Fashion
July
Nadine Barth features
full color, hardcover, bilingual: German / English pages
size
300
24 × 30 cm
price
€ 44 (D) £ 40 $ 68
Distanz new
isbn
978-3-942405-26-3
sample cover
about the book
The exciting history of German fashion from the 1940s until today. In the mid-1980s, people began to speak about German fashion designers. At this time, fashion shows with plenty of press hype and international flair took place at the Düsseldorf Fair. The old labels no longer exist; Wolfgang Joop now does Wunderkind, the Igedo fair is called CPD, and instead of traveling to the Munich Fashion Week, you go to the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in Berlin. But the scene’s self-confidence grew. Full of verve, its aim was to advance awareness for the history of fashion made in Germany, which had begun around 1900 with the studios near Berlin’s Hausvogteiplatz and reached a glamorous zenith with the post-war designers Heinz Oestergaard and Uli Richter. Today, the annual sales volume of the German textile and clothing industry is about 20 billion euros, with exports ranging near 40 percent. Labels like
Hugo Boss have stores all over the world. How did this all come about? When was which fair first launched, what is the story behind Willy Bogner and the James Bond movies, who is the Indian woman Megha Mittel who saved Escada from bankruptcy, and how will it all continue in Berlin? This book is a reader about the background of German fashion, its developments, trends, and its prospects. Featured in the book: Bogner, Boss, Caren Pfleger, Daniela Bechtolf, Escada, Firma, Heinz Oestergaard, Iris von Arnim, Jil Sander, Joop!, Kaviar Gauche, Kilian Kerner, Kostas Murkudis, Manfred Schneider, Michalsky, Rena Lange, Schumacher, Strenesse, Uli Richter, and Wunderkind.
title
20
by
Girls (used to) Wait!
Tatjana Doll
category
release
features
Art
February
full color, softcover pages
size
320
16.5 × 23 cm
price
€ 39.90 (D) £ 37.50 $ 60 isbn
978-3-942405-22-5
Distanz new
sample cover
about the book
Drawings by the painter Tatjana Doll. Her oversized enamel canvasses of everyday objects put Tatjana Doll’s name on the map: cars, trains, containers, pictograms, babushkas and yet the pictures do not show reality. Instead they retain their independence. This is also true of her fine drawings—often done in pencil—which make an interesting contrast to the massive paintings. Although the viewer is immediately reminded of commercial photographs typically seen in fashion magazines, they are disembedded from their instumentalization, i.e. the sale of goods. Like the objects in her paintings, Tatjana Doll lends her figures an independent existence. By transforming them into the drawing medium, on the one hand Tatjana Doll reveals the figures’ desires and on the other hand she shows precisely what they can trigger in the spectator. At the same time, she exhibits a part of herself, which is cleverly hidden behind the drawn element. 022
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Tatjana Doll was born in 1970 in Burgsteinfurt, Germany. In 1998, she graduated from Düsseldorf’s Kunstakademie. After working as visiting professor for painting at the Kunsthochschule Weißensee, Berlin (2005–2006), she was made professor at the Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste Karlsruhe in 2009–2010. Tatjana Doll lives and works in Berlin. This is the first publication of 350 sheets derived from Tatjana Doll’s drawing oeuvre and dated between 1998 and 2010. With a text by Ulrich Loock, deputy director of the Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Serralves, Porto.
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Portfolio Berlin 01 category
release
editor
Art
December 2010
Stephan Koal / Kunsthalle Rostock features
integrated booklet, six foldout pages, bilingual: English / German pages
size
96
23.5 × 33.5 cm
price
€ 24.90 (D) £ 22.99 $ 40
Distanz
Kunsthalle Rostock
DISTANZ
new
isbn
978-3-942405-25-6
sample cover
about the book
Berlin artists visiting the Kunsthalle Rostock. After the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the East German regime’s boundaries, Berlin experienced an unprecedented upsurge as a center for contemporary art. Meanwhile, there is no other European city where more artists are living and working than in Berlin. It is thus no surprise that works are created here that cut across classical categories and place special emphasis on dialogue and intercontextual qualities. The exhibition at the Kunsthalle Rostock will show Berlin artists who have received an increased public exposure during the past decade and whose work addresses the interface between painting and other media.
Participating artists: Norbert Bisky, Peggy Buth, Katharina Grosse, Gregor Hildebrandt, Antje Majewski, Thomas Rentmeister, Thomas Scheibitz, and Amelie von Wulffen. Essays: Dominikus Müller, Sebastian Preuss, and others.
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Privat zu gang
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title
Privatzugang
Private Kunstsammlungen in Deutschland, Österreich und der Schweiz
subtitle
Private Kunstsammlungen in Deutschland, Österreich und der Schweiz
editor
Skadi Heckmüller features
full color, softcover pages
size
256
15 × 21 cm
category
release
price
Art
April
€ 34.90 (D) £ 32.50 $ 55 isbn
Distanz new
978-3-942405-08-9
sample cover
about the book
A comprehensive guide to private art museums in German-speaking Europe. A practical mix between museum and travel guide, this handy and richly illustrated publication introduces some 60 private collections of contemporary and modern art in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. All of the places included, many of which were specifically designed for the private collections, are open to the public. For the most part, they are true insiders’ tips the general public is unaware of. Many of them did not open until 2010.
The private collections that are introduced include: Herbert-GerischStiftung, Neumünster; Sammlung Falckenberg, Hamburg-Harburg; Sammlung Hoffmann, Berlin; Axel Haubrok/haubrokshows, Berlin; Julia Stoschek Collection, Dusseldorf; Museum Frieder Burda, Baden-Baden; Kunstraum Alexander Bürkle, Freiburg; Gratianus Stiftung, Reutlingen; Museum Ritter/ Sammlung Marli Hoppe-Ritter, Waldenbuch (near Stuttgart); Sammlung Klein, Eberdingen-Nussdorf (near Stuttgart); Sammlung Domnick, Nürtigen (near In addition to exciting facts about the numerous collectors, the exhibitions, Stuttgart); Schauwerk Sindelfingen, Sindelfingen; Stiftung für Konkrete Kunst and the architecture of the structures, Privatzugang provides plenty of valu- Reutlingen; Sammlung Goetz, Munich; Sammlung Essl, Klosterneuberg (near able information for art aficionados such as opening hours, how to get there, Vienna); Museum Liaunig, Neuhaus (near Klagenfurt); Fondation Beyeler, admission fees, as well as other nearby highlights. Riehen (near Basel); Sculpture at Schoenthal, Langenbruck (near Basel); Sammlung Rosengart, Lucerne; Daros Collection, Zurich; Villa Flora Winterthur/ Sammlung Hahnloser, Winterthur; and Fondation Pierre Gianadda, Martigny.
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title
Under Destruction category
release
editors
Art
December 2010
Gianni Jetzer, Chris Sharp / Tinguely Museum Basel, Swiss Institute New York features
full color, hardcover, bilingual: English / German pages
size
136
24 × 28 cm
price
Under.Destruction.Blad.101020.indd 1
Distanz
10/21/10 10:51 AM
new
€ 34.90 (D) £ 32.50 $ 55 isbn
978-3-942405-17-1
sample cover
about the book
If nothing can be created, then something must be destroyed. In 1960, the Swiss artist Jean Tinguely was asked to build a sculpture to be installed in the Sculpture Garden of New York’s Museum of Modern Art. In collaboration with other artists and engineers, he constructed the self-destructive machine Homage to New York, which operated for 27 minutes during a public happening. It paid homage to the energy of a city that keeps recreating itself. To commemorate the 50th anniversary of Tinguely’s action, the Museum Tinguely in Basel and the Swiss Institute in New York will mount a group show entitled Under Destruction, presenting today’s aesthetic potential of destruction, in which 20 international artists will investigate the role of destruction in contemporary art. Reflected from different angles, destructivity can be anything ranging from a creative act to a memento mori of the environment, from prosperity trash to a poetic transformation. Fifty years
ago, the focus was the vision of an apocalypse through atomic wars. Today, the many different works are primarily inspired by critical evaluations of consumerism and surplus production. Artists: Nina Beier + Marie Lund, Monica Bonvicini, Pavel Büchler, Nina Canell, Jimmie Durham, Alex Hubbard, Alexander Gutke, Martin Kersels, Michael Landy, Liz Larner, Christian Marclay, Kris Martin, Ariel Orozco, Michael Sailstorfer, Arcangelo Sassolino, Jonathan Schipper, Ariel Schlesinger, Roman Signer, and Johannes Vogl. Texts: Barbara Casavecchia, Boris Groys, Martin Herbert, Justin Hoffmann, Gianni Jetzer, Piper Marshall, Chris Sharp, Roland Wetzel, and Michael Wilson.
Under.Destruction.Blad.101020.indd 10-11
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NINA BEIER & MARIE LUND PIPER MARSHALL
NINA BEIER 1976 GEBOREN IN AARHUS, DÄNEMARK, LEBT IN BERLIN, DEUTSCHLAND
MARIE LUND 1975 GEBOREN IN HUNDESTED, DÄNEMARK LEBT IN LONDON, GROSSBRITANNIEN
Das vorwiegend aus performativen Interventionen bestehende Werk von Nina Beier und Marie Lund untersucht den Kontext, in dem eine künstlerische Arbeit funktioniert. Nicht selten bitten die Künstlerinnen Mitarbeiter, sich grossen Anstrengungen zu unterziehen, um ein Kunstwerk zu vollenden. Man könnte die frühe Institutionskritik von Mierle Laderman Ukeles als Vorläufer betrachten. Wie Ukeles’ Performances thematisieren auch die Aktionen von Beier und Lund die Instandhaltung des Ausstellungsraums. Dieser körperliche Einsatz suggeriert, dass die theoretischen und physischen Bedingungen eines Kunstwerks von der Kunst an sich nicht zu trennen sind. In Autobiography (If these Walls Could Speak) (2009) wurde die Belegschaft einer Galerie aufgefordert, alle vergangenen Ausstellungsspuren – die durch Nägel und Schrauben verursachten Löcher in den Wänden – offenzulegen. Dieses Konzept zeigt sich in einem politisch reflektierteren Extrem auch in Beiers Projekt für die Zoo Art Fair 2008, für das sie Messearbeitern auftrug, immer dann die sozialistische Arbeiterhymne zu pfeifen, wenn sie körperlich höchst anstrengende Arbeit verrichteten. Das gemeinschaftliche Kunstwerk beinhaltet Arbeitsbedingungen, die nicht auf den White Cube begrenzt sind, sondern auf einen grösseren Raum ausgedehnt werden, in dem der Arbeiter und die Kunst operieren. Diese Aktionen beziehen die unmittelbaren Gegebenheiten mit ein: die Arbeiter, die Wände, die zu erfüllenden Aufgaben; und fast noch wichtiger untersuchen sie die historischen Rahmenbedingungen, die das Werk konstituieren. Für History Makes a Young Man Old (2008) haben Beier und Lund die Kuratoren gebeten, in einem lokalen Esoterikladen eine Kristallkugel zu kaufen und diese an ihren Bestimmungsort im Museum zu rollen. Dort wird das nunmehr blinde Objekt auf dem Boden (auf einem Stück schwarzem Fliess liegend) präsentiert, wobei die oberflächlichen Abnutzungen und Sprünge der Kugel von der Anstrengung zeugen, derer es bedurfte, um das Kunstwerk zu schaffen. Diese ausgedehnte Entstehungsgeschichte bedingt und erleichtert die Lesart von Zeit und Gebrauch, die die Klarheit des Objektes zunichte gemacht haben. So ähnlich wie die Kunst des Wahrsagens, Bilder im Kristall zu sehen, hält dessen beschädigte Oberfläche den Betrachter dazu an, langsamer zu werden, zu stoppen, nachzudenken und zu verstummen angesichts des Kunstgriffs, der die Beziehung zwischen Kunstwerk, Ausstellungsraum, Künstler und Kurator problematisiert. Mit der Bitte an die Kuratoren, ihre Arbeit zu vollenden, betonen die Künstlerinnen deren Ko-Autorschaft sowie Macht, sind sie es doch, die das Kunstwerk in der grösseren Matrix einer Gruppenausstellung verorten. Solch ein Prozess verschleiert einerseits die Einteilung der Arbeit und andererseits die Kriterien, mit denen Kunst zur solchen erhoben wird. Als Ausgangspunkt für Fragen nach Gestaltung und Originalität ist die Abnutzung der Kugel eine wichtige Referenz. Von Natur aus allegorisch, wird Destruktion hier als eine künstlerische Strategie verstanden, um der Last der Produktion innerhalb einer zeitgenössischen Atmosphäre, die „das Neue“ fordert, zu begegnen.
NACHFOLGEND / FOLLOWING:
Under.Destruction.Blad.101020.indd 8-9
NINA BEIER 1976 BORN IN AARHUS, DENMARK LIVES IN BERLIN, GERMANY
MARIE LUND 1975 BORN IN HUNDESTED, DENMARK LIVES IN LONDON, UK
Mainly consisting of performative interventions, the practice of Nina Beier and Marie Lund examines the context in which the artwork operates. The artists often ask staff and workers to go to hyperbolic extremes, their labor completing the work of art. One might consider the early institutional critique of Mierle Laderman Ukeles as a predecessor. Like Ukeles' performances, those instigated by Beier and Lund elucidate the maintenance of the exhibition space. This physical engagement suggests that the theoretical and physical conditions of a given piece be indivisible from the art itself. In Autobiography (If these Walls Could Speak) (2009) the gallery staff was invited to uncover all the holes from nails and screws that had been used in the exhibition space. Taking this concept to a more politically reflective extreme was Nina Beier’s 2008 project for the Zoo Art Fair, where fair laborers were requested to whistle the socialist workers’ anthem only when performing grueling physical labor. The collaborative work implicates conditions of working which are not limited to the white cube, but extend to a larger structure in which the laborer and the artwork operate. These artworks engage the immediate circumstance: the workers, the walls, the labor required; yet more importantly, they also explore the historical framework in which the work is inscribed. For History Makes a Young Man Old (2008) Beier and Lund asked the exhibition curators to purchase a crystal ball at a local occult shop and to roll it to its final destination in the museum. Positioned on the gallery floor, the installation is comprised of the dulled object atop a square of black fabric. The scuffs on the surface of the ball are an indication of the production required to create the piece. The prolonged activity simulates and facilitates a reading of time and use, which occlude clarity. Not unlike the art of scrying, seeing images in crystals, the marred surface invites the viewer to stop, slow down, contemplate and stutter over the sleight of hand that complicates the relationship between artwork, exhibition space, artist and curator. In asking the exhibition curators to complete their work, the artists emphasize the co-authorial power of the curators, who ensconce the artwork within the larger matrix of a group exhibition. Such a process renders opaque the division of labor on one hand, and the means by which art is ordained as such on the other. A source point for questions regarding creation and origin, the attrition of the ball is a rich point of departure. Allegorical in nature, here destruction is demonstrated as an artistic strategy to counter the burden of production within a contemporary atmosphere that demands “the new.”
HISTORY MAKES A YOUNG MAN OLD, 2008 COURTESY CROY NIELSEN, BERLIN
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Under.Destruction.Blad.101020.indd 14-15
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title
Ausstellung
AUSSTE LLUNG
24
by
Eberhard Havekost
category
release
features
Art
January
full color, flexicover, trilingual: English / German / French pages
size
264
21 × 31 cm
price
€ 58 (D) £ 50 $ 88 isbn
EBERHARD HAVEKOST
978-3-942405-14-0
Distanz new
sample cover
about the book
Paintings that question the pictures’ claim to reality. Thanks to the almost complete absence of figurative elements, Eberhard Havekost’s recent works mark a visible caesura vis-à-vis his previous oeuvre. He questions the authenticity of pictures, broaching the issue within the medium of painting. This is where means that were developed earlier get connected: reflective or matte areas of projection, frontal views and changes in perspective, or the examination of culturally standardized design. The focus of Eberhard Havekost’s artistic practice is the critical reflection of our imagesaturated present.
Eberhard Havekost was born in Dresden in 1967. From 1991 until 1996, he studied painting at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste in Dresden. Today he is one of the most important artists of his generation. In October 2010, he began his tenure as professor at Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. This book shows all the paintings from Eberhard Havekost’s last five exhibitions: Entrée (2008), Style & Still (2009), Le maniement nonchalant d’accessoires chers (2009), Retina (2010), Guest (2010) as well as his latest show entitled Ausstellung (2010) at the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden.
He uses photographs as his model—images from TV and video recordings, from magazines and pages torn from cataloges, as well as pictures he takes The authors of the texts are Ulrich Loock (deputy director, Museu de Arte himself. He chooses matter-of-fact motifs, sometimes he only selects de- Contemporânea de Serralves, Porto), Barry Schwabsky (editor, Artforum, New tails and turns them into inkjet prints with the aid of the computer. They then York), and Jean-Charles Vergne (director, FRAC Auvergne, Clermont-Ferrand). serve as points of departure for his painting. However, his works are not depictions of reality but “a reconstruction of the complexity of the real,” as he states himself. In his purposeful investigations, he examines the visual rhetoric of media images and the typical contemporary image types that condition our everyday consumption of images.
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105 106 107 108 109 110
Plan Plan Plan Plan Plan Plan
Wald 7/7, B09 SECRETS(of Success) 1/4 (Carpet), B10 SECRETS(of Success) 2/4 (Projection), B10 SECRETS(of Success) 3/4 (Forever Unfinished) SECRETS(of Success) 4/4 (German Window) We are Ocean, B08
2009 2010 2010 2010 2010 2008
oil on canvas oil on canvas oil on canvas oil on canvas oil on canvas oil on canvas
90 x 60 cm 35 ½ x 23 2 ⁄ 3 in 180 x 120 cm 70 ¾ x 47 ¼ in 190 x 120 cm 74 ¾ x 47 ¼ in 30 x 50 cm 11 ¾ x 19 2 ⁄ 3 in 160 x 100 cm 63 x 39 1⁄ 3 in 200 x 340 cm 78 ¾ x 133 ¾ in
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title
Michael Sailstorfer: S
Michael Sailstorfer
S
category
release
editors
Art
January
Veit Görner, Martin Germann, Philippe van Cauteren, Ellen Seifermann features
full color, hardcover, cloth bound, bilingual: English / German pages
size
200
16.5 × 24 cm
price
€ 39.90 (D) £ 37.50 $ 60
Distanz new
isbn
978-3-942405-24-9
sample cover
about the book
Between shooting stars and tires: an overview of Michael Sailstorfer’s spectacular works. Michael Sailstorfer (born 1979 in Velden/Vils, lives and works in Berlin) focuses primarily on the relationship between motion and stillness and the object’s pure physical condition, which he enriches using his ideas and modes of operation. His works go far beyond visual perception and speak through sound, vibrations, and even smells that address the viewer’s other senses. Transformation and dematerialization are recurring focal points in his work process. Sailstorfer removes the most ordinary objects from their original context, dissecting and deforming, and then reassembling them, thus cre-
ating powerful installations and sculptures; he transforms street lamps into falling stars, makes popcorn in a cement mixer, or he turns a police car into a drum kit. This comprehensive monograph features Sailstorfer’s oeuvre in chronological order with many color illustrations. The contributing authors include Birgit Sonna, Martin Germann, Kristin Schrader, and Ellen Seifermann, as well as Thomas Caron, who interviews the artist.
Heimatlied, 2001
Wagen wir den Blick in eine mögliche Zukunft: In einem Wohngebiet in zentraler Randlage in der Stadt Pulheim, zwischen der Metropole Köln und der Kölner Bucht gelegen, wird ein verrotteter Briefumschlag zu Tage kommen. Darin steckt ein kleiner Goldbarren. Es kommt erneut die Diskussion auf, ob nicht doch noch mehr davon unter der Erde lagert. Der Mythos, dass seinerzeit nicht alles gefunden wurde, hält sich stetig. Folgendes hatte sich ereignet: Der Bildhauer Michael Sailstorfer wurde 2009 zum jährlich stattfindenden Projekt Stadtbild.Interventionen eingeladen. Die Hälfte des Ausstellungsbudgets für seinen mit Pulheim gräbt betitelten Beitrag hatte er im Sommer in 28 Goldbarren im Gesamtwert von 10.000 getauscht, in Briefumschläge eingetütet und auf einer ungenutzten Fläche nahe der Pulheimer Stadtmitte vergraben, wie auch unzählige Metallstücke, um die Suche nicht zu einfach zu gestalten. Anschließend wurde das knapp 300 qm große Grundstück mit Senfsaat überzogen, die zur öffentlichen Bekanntgabe des Projektes in prächtiger Herbstblüte stand. In den folgenden Wochen wurde der Ort zum Schauplatz einer Goldsuche mit unzähligen Teilnehmern. Neben einigen handfesten Beweisen für Funde kursierten laufend Gerüchte um weitere Erfolgsmeldungen, exakt protokolliert wurden diese indes nirgends. Nachdem die Euphorie ihren Höhepunkt erreicht hatte, leerte sich der Schauplatz wieder und die kurzfristig entflammte mediale Berichterstattung flaute ab. Es wurde immer kälter. Mitte November blieb schließlich ein notdürftig gesichertes Stück Land, des140 x 200 x 135 cm Stahl eines Polizeiautos Steel from a police car
36
37
Waldputz – 2000
Schlagzeug, Polizei – 2007
Wagen wir den Blick in eine mögliche Zukunft: In einem Wohngebiet in zentraler Randlage in der Stadt Pulheim, zwischen der Metropole Köln und der Kölner Bucht gelegen, wird ein verrotteter Briefumschlag zu Tage kommen. Darin steckt ein kleiner Goldbarren. Es kommt erneut die Diskussion auf, ob nicht doch noch mehr davon unter der Erde lagert. Der Mythos, dass seinerzeit nicht alles gefunden wurde, hält sich stetig. Folgendes hatte sich ereignet: Der Bildhauer Michael Sailstorfer wurde 2009 zum jährlich stattfindenden Projekt Stadtbild.Interventionen eingeladen. Die Hälfte des Ausstellungsbudgets für seinen mit Pulheim gräbt betitelten Beitrag hatte er im Sommer in 28 Goldbarren im Gesamtwert von 10.000 getauscht, in Briefumschläge eingetütet und auf einer ungenutzten Fläche nahe der Pulheimer Stadtmitte vergraben, wie auch unzählige Metallstücke, um die Suche nicht zu einfach zu gestalten. Anschließend wurde das knapp 300 qm große Grundstück mit Senfsaat überzogen, die zur öffentlichen Bekanntgabe des Projektes in prächtiger Herbstblüte stand. In den folgenden Wochen wurde der Ort zum Schauplatz einer Goldsuche mit unzähligen Teilnehmern. Neben einigen handfesten Beweisen für Funde kursierten laufend Gerüchte um weitere Erfolgsmeldungen, exakt protokolliert wurden diese indes nirgends. Nachdem die Euphorie ihren Höhepunkt erreicht hatte, leerte sich der Schauplatz wieder und die kurzfristig entflammte mediale Berichterstattung flaute ab. Es wurde immer kälter. Mitte November blieb schließlich ein notdürftig gesichertes Stück Land, des-
140 x 200 x 135 cm Stahl eines Polizeiautos Steel from a police car
Wagen wir den Blick in eine mögliche Zukunft: In einem Wohngebiet in zentraler Randlage in der Stadt Pulheim, zwischen der Metropole Köln und der Kölner Bucht gelegen, wird ein verrotteter Briefumschlag zuTage kommen. Darin steckt ein kleiner Goldbarren.
12 Zwischen der Metropole Köln und der Kölner Bucht gelegen, wird ei
36
37
Wagen wir den Blick in eine mögliche Zukunft: In einem Wohngebiet in zentraler Randlage in der Stadt Pulheim, zwischen der Metropole Köln und der Kölner Bucht gelegen, wird ein verrotteter Briefumschlag zuTage.
34
35
26
title
Neues Rheinland subtitle
Die postironische Generation
editors
Markus Heinzelmann, Stefanie Kreuzer features
full color, softcover, bilingual: English / German
category
release
pages
size
Art
December 2010
244
21.5 × 28 cm
price
€ 39.90 (D) £ 37.50 $ 60
Distanz new
isbn
978-3-942405-20-1
sample cover
about the book
An overview of the Rhineland’s young art scene. Neues Rheinland: Die postironische Generation (The New Rhineland: The PostIronic Generation) assembles works by 30 artists who were born in the late 1960s or the 1970s. They grew up during the 1980s in an era during which Communist regimes collapsed, East-West relations changed radically, and globalization was a dominant feature. In this dissolving world, a provocative inclusion of irony as an integral part of art was indeed the thing to do.
The book will introduce the individual post-ironic artistic attitudes and different essays will place them within the larger social context of the early twenty-first century.
It features Jan Albers, Alexandra Bircken, Eli Cortiñas, Katja Davar, Björn Dressler, Luka Fineisen, Manuel Graf, Gesine Grundmann, Tobias Hantmann, Diango Hernández, Markus Karstieß, Konsortium (Lars Breuer, Sebastian The quite diverse post-ironic positions included in this exhibition reveal that Freytag, Guido Münch), Andreas Korte, Matthias Lahme, Vera Lossau, Rosilene the cutting edge of irony appears to have lost its momentum and that “new Luduvico, Ulrike Möschel, Elke Nebel, Martin Pfeifle, Michail Pirgelis, Anne old” artistic strategies, which formulate a changed attitude, seem to have Pöhlmann, Cornelius Quabeck, Martina Sauter, Jan Scharrelmann, Christoph taken its place. Using diverse media, the post-ironic standpoints reflect the Schellberg, Gregor Schneider, Felix Schramm, Monika Stricker, Gert and Uwe multifaceted and highly exciting panorama of the Rhineland’s contemporary Tobias, and Paloma Varga Weisz. art production.
title
Katharina Grosse
Eat, Child, Eat!
Eat, Child, Eat!
27
by
Katharina Grosse
category
release
features
Art
February
full color, hardcover, bilingual: English / German pages
size
112
22 × 32 cm
price
€ 39.90 (D) £ 37.50 $ 65 isbn
978-3-942405-19-5
Distanz new
sample cover
about the book
Sprayed color explosions. German artist Katharina Grosse is one of the internationally most important representatives of contemporary painting. For more than a decade now, she has been working on a picture type that nullifies all borders and hierarchies between painting and space. In doing so, she replaces the brush with airbrush and compressor, the canvas with floors, walls, ceilings, as well as found, deliberately arranged or specially fabricated objects. The viewer finds himself in the middle of the picture, within a painting spreading into all directions that appears to fall off the walls or where the ground below one’s feet seems to falter. At the same time, Katharina Grosse continued the further developing of her canvas paintings in her studio. They will be published here for the first time. Whereas these pictures’ method of production and
their approach are directly tied to Katharina Grosse’s extensive installation works, in their treatment of volume, they appear to be almost diametrically opposed to them. Ulrich Wilmes, chief curator at Haus der Kunst, Munich, wrote the essay. Katharina Grosse was born in 1961 in Freiburg. She lives and works in Berlin. She studied at the Münster and Düsseldorf art academies with Norbert Tadeusz and Gotthard Graubner. Since the summer 2010, she has been professor for painting at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf.
28
title
Yin Xiuzhen subtitle
Universes in My Universe
editors
Uta Grosenick, Alexander Ochs features
full color, hardcover, bilingual: English / German
category
release
pages
size
Art
May
200
25 × 32 cm
price
€ 39.90 (D) £ 37.50 $ 65 Distanz
new
Èds. Uta Grosenick Àlexander Ochs
Distanz
isbn
978-3-942405-23-2
sample cover
about the book
“What is gentle is not weaker …” Yin Xiuzhen is one of the most prominent contemporary artists from China, where it is still much more difficult for women to achieve acceptance in the art scene than for their male colleagues. Thanks to prestigious exhibitions, among them at the Museum of Modern Art, New York (2010), and her participation at the Venice Biennale (2007), Yin Xiuzhen attained international recognition. The artist deals with the political, social, historic, economic, and human conditions that surround her by turning old clothes and used textiles into sculptures. For the artist, the worn pieces of clothing possess an aura that conjures memories, preserves human experiences, and can convey notions of time and space. Among her most important works are Collective Subconscious from 2007, wherein Yin Xiuzhen sawed up a minibus and inserted cloth extensions at the front and back, transforming it into an almost 40 foot
long vehicle; and the series Portable Cities, begun in 2003, with moveable models of large cities fitted into suitcases. Popular landmarks, which make it easy to identify the cities, are all sewn from clothing once owned by people of the respective places. The aspects of commemoration and perishableness are juxtaposed with the modern requirements of flexibility and intentional change. Born in Beijing in 1963, Yin Xiuzhen received her formal training as painter in the mid-1980s at Beijing’s Capital Normal University. In the early 1990s, she began creating sculptures and site-specific installations. She lives and works in Beijing.