Events

Artists’ Publications – A Critical Approach to Historical and Contemporary Formats of Artistic Publishing

June 28-29, 2024: Centre for Artists’ Publications at the Weserburg Museum für moderne Kunst, Bremen

On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Research Association Artists’ Publications and the Centre for Artists’ Publications at Weserburg Museum für moderne Kunst in Bremen, early career researchers have been invited to present their current work on artistic publishing with the goal of reinforcing the international network of researchers dedicated to this artistic format. Contributors will focus on artists’ publications from a variety of countries and academic perspectives, with particular emphasis on the work of female artists.

Artists’ publications – such as books, flyers, magazines, multiples, posters, radio art and records – have always been associated with alternative forms of production, often with an inherent critical potential. This is evidenced by the many contributions to the symposium that concern the subversive power and resilience of these mostly small artworks: participative and collaborative formats which, in most cases, are diffused independently of established institutions.

In the context of Mail Art, for example, artists used the postal system as a basis for building up a network for their artistic communication. For many artists living in totalitarian systems, Mail Art was a way of establishing contacts worldwide through the exchange of their artworks. They used all media that could be sent by post for their artistic correspondence. These distributed artworks represent new forms of aesthetic expression and networking and thus challenge the traditional channels and formats for the production and reception of art.

By addressing diverse publics in unconventional ways, artists’ publications reflect upon common modes of perception as well as dominant mechanisms within the art market. It is on the experimental field that the artists (in)voluntarily focus, thus positioning themselves in relation to the established art system: it is the “Dropping Out”, the “Thinking” and the “Writing beyond Sense” which becomes a “Revolutionary Act”. Their artistic response to an androcentric system in general or to a totalitarian regime in particular becomes a question of power.

The symposium aims to reflect on the open forms and aesthetics of artistic publishing, focusing on specific aspects of the working process and distribution strategies of individual and collaborative art production. Which media, materiality and format are chosen and for what reasons? What is the role played by the possible active recipient and how do notes, postcards, books, magazines or catalogs constitute social and/or political relevance? Concentrating on works from the “peripheral” zone of art history indicates the many research gaps, while simultaneously revealing the potential for further investigation.