The Text as the Basis of Visual Expression
Ilya Kabakov
Published by Oktagon-Verlagsgesellschaft-MbH, Köln, 2000, 404 pages (b/w ill.), 16 × 23 cm, German / English
Price: €12

This comprehensive overview of Ilya Kabakov’s installation work of the 1990s contains over 100 images across more than 400 pages, and includes Kabakov’s own commentary on his works.

Ilya and Emilia Kabakov are American artists of Russian descent who work together on environments that merge elements of everyday life with elements of the conceptual. Although their work is deeply rooted in the social and cultural context of the Soviet Union in which the Kabakovs grew up, it nevertheless has universal significance.

#2000 #ilyakabakov
From Nirvana to Catastrophe
Matsuzawa Yutaka and his ‘Commune in Imaginary Space’
Published by Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo, 2017, 384 pages (colour & b/w ill.), 12 × 18.7 cm, English
Price: €34

Produced on occasion of the exhibition From Nirvana to Catastrophe: Matsuzawa Yutaka and his ‘Commune in Imaginary Space’ at Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo, 3 March–22 April, 2017.

Yutaka Matsuzawa (1922–2006) was considered the father of Japanese conceptual art. In his pursuit of ways to express the invisible invisibly, Matsuzawa developed a unique understanding of conceptual art that both elevated and transcended the typical notions of conceptual art in the western, euro-centric art worlds.

The exhibition focused on the period 1969–1973, the most active years of Matsuzawa’s activities, and reflected on the exhibition Nirvana (1970), which was a pioneering international exhibition on Conceptualism in Japan.

#2017 #japaneseavantgarde #yutakamatsuzawa
Uneven Bodies (Reader)
Edited by Ruth Buchanan, Aileen Burns & Johan Lundh, Hanahiva Rose
Published by Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, Ngāmotu New Plymouth, 2021, 120 pages (single colour ill.), 21 × 29.7 cm, English
Price: €20

Uneven Bodies (Reader) is a comprehensive collection of writing produced as an outcome of a symposium of the same name held in Aotearoa New Zealand in early 2020 that addresses the politics of collections today and the complex terrain of power in which this conversation sits. The collection places specific emphasis on Indigenous positions, linking this into the so-called international paradigm. Topics covered include collecting contemporary both inside and outside the institution, repatriation, deaccession, and Indigenous methodology in collection work. With keynote contributions from Prof Linda Tuhiwai Smith, Gabi Ngcobo, Dr. Clémentine Deliss, and Wanda Nanibush and nine other positions, the readers offers a template for how we can imagine collecting in the future; full of mutated spaces we don’t yet know how to move in, full of powerful languages we still need to learn how to speak, together. Designed by HIT.

#2021 #collections #gabingcobo #hit #ruthbuchanan
Space, Body, Language
Yvonne Rainer
Published by Kunsthaus Bregenz, Bregenz, 2012, 296 pages (colour & b/w ill.), 21 × 26.5 cm, German / English
Price: €55

Produced on the occasion of the exhibition Yvonne Rainer: Space, Body, Language at the Kunsthaus Bregenz, 4 February–9 March, 2012. This many-sided project offered detailed and far-ranging insight into the legendary work of Yvonne Rainer, Presenting photographs and film documentations of stage works, notebooks, dance scores, scripts, and movie and exhibition posters.

With essays by Gabriele Brandstetter, Douglas Crimp, Yilmaz Dziewior, Barbara Engelbach, Carrie Lambert-Beatty, Volker Pantenburg, and Catherine Wood.

#2012 #dance #douglascrimp #yilmazdziewior #yvonnerainer
The Artist as an Instigator of Changes in Social Cognition and Behaviour
Stephen Willats
Published by Occasional Papers, London, 2010, 96 pages (b/w ill.), 13 × 21 cm, English
Price: €24

This is the first re-issue of Stephen Willats’ major text The Artist as an Instigator of Changes in Social Cognition and Behaviour since its original publication in 1973. Willats wrote The Artist as an Instigator while he ran the Centre for Behavioural Art, a cross-disciplinary research and discussion platform he established at Gallery House, London, in 1972–73. Long out of print, and as relevant today as it was in the early 1970s, the essay includes rigorous analyses of social forms of artistic production and descriptions of a number of projects by Willats. Along with the original text, this edition features archival images and a specially written introduction by the artist.

#2010 #occasionalpapers #reprint #stephenwillats
The Auratic Narrative
Jay Chung & Q Takeki Maeda
Published by Kölnischer Kunstverein, Köln & Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, Köln, 2021, 52 pages (colour & b/w ill.), 30 × 26 cm, English
Price: €25

Adapted from writings by artists and critics appearing in magazines, catalogs, and other recent publications, The Auratic Narrative was conceived by Jay Chung and Q Takeki Maeda as a framing device for their exhibition at the Kölnischer Kunstverein in 2019. The text-as-artwork offers a dramatic account of an unnamed artist’s ambivalence toward their professional milieu. Here the narrative is presented in its entirety along with bibliographical notes and an introduction by artist and writer Ariane Müller. Photographic documentation of the exhibition—the first survey of the artists’ collaborative practice—accompanies the work. Taken together, word and image chart a course through the show and the artists’ oeuvre.

#2021 #jaychungandqtakekimaeda #kolnischerkunstverein #verlagderbuchhandlungwaltherkonig