„ Publishing as intervention“ Vortrag Eva Weinmayr am 11.11.2015, 18:00 Auditorium
When I talk about artist publishing I’m not referring to artists making catalogues as a promotional means or designers demonstrating their skills to make beautiful books. I’m also not talking about A BOOK, pretending to be a resolved, finished and authoritative object. I think of publication as something fluid, a tool to test ideas, an agent to unsettle, surprise, communicate and interact.
In my talk I will present artistic strategies using publication as interventionist tool — as a means to explore, reveal and potentially unsettle or change power relations. Or to create new networks and communities, making visible stuff that’s been left out by mainstream media. And what happens, when we perceive our works not as “intellectual property“, which has to be defended, but as a document, that others can use, build upon and further develop. Let’s discuss the concept of authorship and originality. Feminist theory brings a lot to the table here. And what about the politics of dissemination? Books need to circulate in order to have an impact.
Eva Weinmayr is an artist, writer and lecturer based in London and Göteborg with a long-standing engagement with publishing as critical practice and alternative forms of distribution. Her work focuses on border crossings between mainstream and independent media and takes many forms from publications to film, installation, readings and discursive events. She is co-founder of AND Publishing, an experimental publishing platform exploring the creative and social possibilities of print-on-demand technologies and runs since 2011 together with artist Andrea Francke The Piracy Project* .
Her recent publications include: „Downing Street“ (New Documents, Los Angeles), „Poaching, Plagiarising Borrowing…“ (ed. with A. Francke, AND, London) and „(pause) 21 scenes concerning the silence of Art In Ruins“ (Occasional Papers, London). Her work has been exhibited internationally at Zacheta National Art Gallery Warsaw, Contemporary Art Museum St Louis, Whitechapel Gallery London, FormContent, and The Showroom in London.
* The Piracy Project is an international publishing and exhibition project exploring the philosophical, legal and practical implications of book piracy and creative modes of reproduction. Through an international call for contributions and our own research the Piracy Project has gathered a collection of more than one hundred copied, modified and appropriated books from across the world. The collection, which is catalogued online, is the starting point for talks and workgroups around the concept of originality, the notion of authorship and politics of copyright. The next set of events is hosted at The Bluecoat, Liverpool in 2015.
www.evaweinmayr.com
www.andpublishing.org
Further reading:
– The Piracy Project, The Impermanent Book, Rhizome
– Eva Weinmayr, One Publishes to find Comrades, The Visual Event, an education in appearances, edited by Oliver Klimpel, published by Spector Books, Leipzig, 2014
– Irit Rogoff, Infrastructure, podcast on www.formerwest