here & now » literature

ALTERNATIVES IN PRINT: THE WHITE REVIEW

kvr — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 06:01:05 +0000

The White Review revives that ancient and venerable tradition of print again: the literary journal – and it does so with style and chuzpe. A savvy and addictive mixture of intellectual rigour and modern pop culture, the Review effortlessly presents theoretical essays, short stories, art criticism, poetry and interviews side by side, all held together by a sharp sense for the contemporary and the relevant.

Their current and fourth issue has darker undertones of the economic crisis running throughout the content, aligning infectious poetry and fiction, essays on ruins, landscape art and concepts of the future in philosophy with fantastic interviews with political author and journalist Ahdaf Soueif and fashion photographer Juergen Teller – it’s a curious mixture and no mean feat indeed, but all executed with aplomb and pressing passion.

It is strikingly beautifully designed by Ray O’Meara, who adheres to the rules of traditional book design to a point where it almost turns radical – meanwhile subverting the tight grid by slipping in various inserts, a poster as cover and plenty of little details that infect the minimalist traditionalism with a tactility and sense of playfulness that is enviable.

At times, The White Review reminds me a little of McSweeneys’ The Believer, albeit without the pop factor, but generally on a more serious and European note. It’s a surprising and more than worthwhile publication, and one of the best magazines I’ve seen emerge in a while. Highly Recommended.

If you are in Berlin, then you can see for yourself at a presentation at Motto, once again, on April 20.

The word to cure the world. A praise for Broken Dimanche Press

emg — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 09:30:19 +0000

In the beginning was the word and the man didn’t know how to use it.
Expelled from Paradise, he kept erratically wandering, expanding and populating, while the world grew old, hurt and tired. The dawn of the days approaches, unless we look for the cure.
The administration of prescribed word compounds, in exact and very precise quantities might be a solution, and that’s what Broken Dimanche Press‘ edition of Morten Søndergaard’s Wordpharmacy tells me; something as simple as the word might be the cure to the world.
Indeed, let european economies fail, let the countries and the boundaries fall, as long as we can still speak to each other, sing and claim poetry out loud, we will still be human.

Wordpharmacy is not the usual book you buy, read and give back to your shelf. If you buy it, you’ll be acquiring a set of ten small medicine boxes, which you will have to open one by one, patiently unfold the leaflet and put your enlarging glasses to read the small size writings. Each of the boxes represents one word group (interjections, verbs, adjectives, numerals and so on) and the practical and technical information is discreetly replaced with an instructional poem that extends the efficiency of the original leaflet while still guiding the readers’ ingestion of the given word group.

Though it’s frequent (as frequent as daily, indeed) that we come to hear about new independent publishing efforts, it’s also something close to a rule, that a big percentage of those projects, end up disappearing and falling into complete oblivion sooner or later. And that, we believe, is happening due to a total reborn of the love for print, to the extent that there is so much content out there right now that it becomes hard to keep up to date. And therefore few publishing projects meet true success and last.
The projects that fall in this group are the ones successful enough in distinguishing themselves from their surroundings, and if Broken Dimanche Press is accountable for other things else than publishing great books/editions is also by the capacity of establishing itself as one of the most promising publishing projects currently out there.
The recipe for the success? The simple combination of interesting subjects, I would say, with intriguing and captivating writing, amazingly well designed editions, a very good promotion work, a good dose of surprise, and most of all, the humbleness of not trying to be more than what it already is — a very good publishing project.

And since there’s no time to waste, another book has just been published: Mountainislandglacier, a compilation or art, writing and investigation that departs from the event of Eyjafjallajökull in May 2010, edited by the group ‘Correspondence from Eyjafjallajökull’.

HABBA HIDEOUT

rh — Sat, 17 Mar 2012 07:37:30 +0000

Perhaps not as overwhelming as SXSW, but there’s some good stuff happening over at the amazing Hablizel Verlag this weekend.

A New Turn of the Screw

rh — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 11:05:59 +0000

A new edition, a new chance to discover the “ur-text of postwar fiction” – and indeed it feels like the only book to (re-)read right now, given the kind of soundbites that are going to show up here over the next few weeks…

KRYTYKA POLITYCZNA IN BERLIN #3

tw — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 13:42:59 +0000

Martin Zet’s campaign Deutschland schafft es ab (‘Germany gets rid of it‘) in the framework of the 7th Berlin Biennale gave rise to strong reactions and polarized the public opinion. His call for donations of Thilo Sarrazin’s book Deutschland schafft es ab was criticized not only in numerous media reports, but the Berlin Biennale also received an unexpected amount of e-mails which accused Zet amongst other to disregard the freedom of speech or to cultivate a destructive intention.

One month after the call for donations Krytyka Polityczna—media partner of the 7th Berlin Biennale—organizes a debate at KW Institute for Contemporary Art that contextualizes this incident and the extreme reactions. In light of the discussion about right-wing demagogic tendencies in Europe the panelists will talk about Zet’s original intention and offer a critical dialogue with the audience.

Tonight, February 20, 2012, 7 pm:
Krytyka Polityczna in Berlin #3
A debate on the occasion of Martin Zet’s campaign ‘Deutschland schafft es ab’
Debate in English, free admission
KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Auguststrasse 69, 10117 Berlin

With:
- Ingo Arend (taz – die tageszeitung)
- Stéphane Bauer (Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien)
- Sebastian Wehrhahn (Mobile Beratung gegen Rechtsextremismus Berlin)
- Koray Yilmaz-Günay (specialist for migration, Rosa Luxemburg Foundation)
- Artur Żmijewski and Joanna Warsza (7th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art)
Moderated by Igor Stokfiszewski (Krytyka Polityczna)

Photo: Artist Martin Zet

YOU KILLED ME FIRST

tw — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 07:07:34 +0000

Nightmarish scenarios of violence, dramatic states of mind, and perverse sexual abysses – the films of the Cinema of Transgression that were consciously aimed at shock, provocation, and confrontation, bear witness to an extraordinary radicality. In the 1980s a group of filmmakers from the Lower East Side in New York went on a collision course with the conventions of American society. Transcending all moral or aesthetic boundaries, the low budget films reveal social hardship met with sociopolitical indifference. Sometimes shot with stolen camera equipment, the films contain strident analyses of life in the Lower East Side defined by criminality, brutality, drugs, AIDS, sex, and excess.

Even though the movement has remained largely unknown, the Cinema of Transgression has been a significant influence for later generations of artists.

YOU KILLED ME FIRST at KW Institute of Contemporary Art in Berlin is the first exhibition on the Cinema of Transgression.

There will be blood, shame, pain and ecstasy, the likes of which no one has yet imagined.
Nick Zedd

YOU KILLED ME FIRST
The Cinema of Transgression
Opening: February 18, 2012, 5 – 10 pm
Dates: February 19, 2012 – April 9, 2012

KW Institute for Contemporary Art
Auguststrasse 69
10117 Berlin

Program accompanying the exhibition:

Tuesday, February 21, 2012, 7.30 pm: Talk with Nick Zedd

Wednesday, February 22, 2012, 7.30 pm: Talk with Richard Kern

Saturday, March 10, 2012, 7.30 pm: Llik your idols, documentary about the Cinema of Transgression by Angélique Bosio (France 2007, 70 min., OV, Film screening in the presence of the director)

Thursday, March 15, 2012, 7.30 pm: Lydia Lunch reads from her novel Paradoxia, A Predator’s Diary

Tuesday, March 27, 2012, 7.30 pm: Talk with Tessa Hughes-Freeland

JOHN MCWHINNIE, RIP

scg — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 22:05:17 +0000

John McWhinnie, book lover, dealer, and publisher, died earlier this month. McWhinnie, who specialized in counter-culture ephemera and art publications, was a huge presence in the insular, obsessive New York art book scene; in addition to the wonderful shop he ran with Glenn Horowitz, McWhinnie consistently had the most engaging booth at the New York Art Book Fair. The photographer Peter Sutherland has posted an unpublished interview with McWhinnie on his website that makes clear that investment savvy is no replacement for a true, deep, meaningful passion. At the end of the interview is a list of his favorite books, and, predictably, it’s one of the best I’ve ever read.

Photography by Peter Sutherland

The Emigrant

rh — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 09:58:35 +0000

W.G. Sebald, one of the greatest German authors of all time, died 10 years and four days ago. He was 57 years old. Damn.

A SPECIAL ON TIME TRAVEL

uk — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 11:27:18 +0000

Nerdy magazine Wired’s US edition features a special on time travel this month. One article examines Haruki Murakami’s novel 1Q84 which was just released in the English translation. Murakami creates a “bizarro version” of 1984 and Wired compares it to the real 1984 as it happened.

Moreover, there’s an interview with Stephen King about his latest novel 11/22/63 in which he sends his hero, Jake Epping, back in time to prevent JFK’s assassination. A short article about H.G. Wells’ first time machine explains where the idea of time travel and it’s fascination for writers came from.

Illustrations by Sachin Teng (Murakami) Pilgrim (King).

SAVE THE DATE:

tw — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 18:06:54 +0000

MISS READ invited publishers and artists to show their books –
for the first time with the participation and presentation of mono.kultur!

Dates: November 25 to 27, 2011
Opening hours:
Friday, November 25 and Saturday, November 26, 3 – 9 pm
Sunday, November 27, noon – 7 pm
KW Institute for Contemporary Art , Auguststrasse 69, 10117 Berlin
Program and further information can soon be found here.

For the third time MISS READ has invited international publishers and artists to show their books at KW Institute for Contemporary Art in Berlin. As a genre of its own, the artist book reflects contemporary ways of artistic production and publishing to a great extent and also addresses issues of presentation and circulation as well as new strategies of distribution. Presenting a selection of more than 80 of the most active contributors in this field, the festival provides the rare opportunity to encounter and explore the contemporary scene of independent publishing.

The festival will present a series of lectures, performances and talks by artists, publishers, and graphic designers reflecting contemporary ways of artistic publishing. The program is a collaboration of Anke Schleper, Axel John Wieder and Alexis Zavialoff.

With:
A Prior Magazine, Ghent
Afterall, London
AKV Berlin, Berlin
AND Publishing, London
Anita Di Bianco, New York/Berlin
Apparent Extent, Cologne
Archive Books, Berlin
argobooks, Berlin
Art Metropole, Toronto
Automatic Books, Venice
b_books, Berlin
ballabella papers, Berlin
Bartleby & Co., Brussels
Bedford Press, London
Boabooks, Geneva
BOM DIA BOA TARDE BOA NOITE, Berlin
Brinkmann & Bose, Berlin
Broken Dimanche Press, Berlin
Bücherbogen, Berlin
Bücher & Hefte, Berlin
Camera Austria, Graz
Casco – Office for Art, Design and Theory, Utrecht
Dutch Art Institute/MFA ArtEZ, Arnhem
edition fink, Verlag für zeitgenössische Kunst, Zurich
Edition Patrick Frey, Zurich
Edition Taube, Stuttgart
EN/OF, Berlin/Kleve
Errant Bodies, Berlin
Fillip, Vancouver/Berlin
Fritz Balthaus, Berlin
FUKT magazine for Contemporary Drawing, Berlin
GAGARIN, Antwerp
GRAPHIC magazine, Seoul
hard copy (HEAD — Genève & Monospace Press), Amsterdam
information as material, York
Jan van Eyck Academie, Maastricht
Knust/Extrapool, Nijmegen
Kunstverein Publications, Amsterdam
LemonMelon, London
Lubok Verlag, Leipzig
Mathieu Copeland Presents, London
Maximage, Berlin
Merve Verlag, Berlin
Michael Baers, Berlin
Michalis Pichler, Berlin
mono.kultur , Berlin
Morava, Poznań
Mörel, London
Motto Books, Berlin
Mousse Publishing, Milan
Nebula Books, Copenhagen
Occasional Papers, London
OEI magazine, Stockholm
OMMU, Athens
Onomatopee, Eindhoven
Passenger Books, Berlin
Paraguay Press, a division of castillo/corrales, Paris
Piktogram & Bureau of Loose Associations, Warsaw
Pork Salad Press, Copenhagen
Precinct, London
Pro qm, Berlin
Provence, Berlin/Nice
Revolver Publishing, Berlin
Rollo Press, Zurich
Roma Publications, Amsterdam
Sara MacKillop, London
Scriptings/Achim Lengerer, Berlin/Amsterdam
Space Poetry, Copenhagen
Spector Books, Leipzig
Starship, Berlin
Sternberg Press, Berlin
Studienzentrum für Künstlerpublikationen in der Weserburg, Bremen
THE GREEN BOX, Berlin
The Piracy Project, London
The Surplus Library
Ugly Duckling Presse, New York
umool umool, Amsterdam
urban art info, Berlin
Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, Cologne
Verlag Silke Schreiber, Munich
Westphalie, Wien
Wiens Verlag, c/o Wien Lukatsch, Berlin
X Marks the Bökship, London
Zavod P.A.R.A.S.I.T.E., Ljubljana

MISS READ is a cooperation with STADT LAND BUCH and an initiative of KW Institute for Contemporary Art, argobooks and Michalis Pichler. The program is a collaboration of Anke Schleper, Axel John Wieder and Alexis Zavialoff.