Ongoing Becomings 1989-2009
Renée Green
Published by Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts, Lausanne & JRP Ringier, Geneva, 2009, 160 pages (colour & b/w ill.), 23.8 × 28.6 cm, English / French
Price: €40 (Temporarily out of stock)

The first overview of the variety and scope of the research carried out by Renée Green over the past twenty years. Green’s work is located both within the legacy of the most ambitious achievements of Conceptual and post-Minimal art, and within a post-colonial critique of culture. It often takes the form of complex, multi-layered archive-like installations that employ a vast array of sources, and point to a variety of issues, always involving the spectator as active participant through multiple points of access.

Texts by Nora Alter, Diedrich Diedrichsen, Renée Green, Kobena Mercer, Catherine Quéloz, Juliane Rebentisch, Gloria Sutton, Elvan Zabunyan.

#2009 #diedrichdiederichsen #jrpringier #julianerebentisch #reneegreen
Luke Fowler
Published by JRP Ringier, Zurich, Kunsthalle Zürich, Zurich, and Serpentine Gallery, London, 2009, 96 pages (colour & b/w ill.), 20.5 × 25.5 cm, English / German
Price: €25 (Temporarily out of stock)

Edited by Hans Ulrich Obrist, Julia Peyton-Jones, Beatrix Ruf. Texts by Will Bradley, Stuart Comer.

A central figure in Glasgow’s vibrant art scene, Luke Fowler’s cinematic collages break down conventional approaches to biographical and documentary filmmaking. Fowler’s films have often been linked to British Free Cinema, the distinctive aesthetic of which came out of a conscious decision to engage with the reality of contemporary Britain in the 1950s. Avoiding didactic voice-over commentaries and narrative continuity, Fowler similarly uses impressionistic sound and editing. However, Fowler moves beyond simply referencing the work of his predecessors. Intuitively applying the logic, aesthetics, and politics of his subjects onto the film he is making about them, he creates atmospheric, sampled histories that reverberate with the vitality of the people he studies.

#2009 #film #jrpringier #lukefowler
A Brief History of Curating
Hans Ulrich Obrist
Published by JRP Ringier, Zurich, 2009, 246 pages, 15 × 21 cm, English
Price: €15

This publication is dedicated to pioneering curators and presents a unique collection of interviews by Hans Ulrich Obrist: Anne d’Harnoncourt, Werner Hofmann, Jean Leering, Franz Meyer, Seth Siegelaub, Walter Zanini, Johannes Cladders, Lucy Lippard, Walter Hopps, Pontus Hulten, and Harald Szeemann are thus gathered in this volume.

The contributions map the development of the curatorial field, from early independent curating in the 1960s and 1970s and the experimental institutional programs developed in Europe and in the USA at this time, through Documenta and the development of biennales.

With texts by Daniel Birnbaum, Christophe Cherix and Hans Ulrich Obrist.

#2009 #annedharnoncourt #curating #danielbirnbaum #hansulrichobrist #haraldszeemann #johannescladders #jrpringier #lucylippard #pontushulten #sethsiegelaub #walterhopps #walterzanini
The Circle
Bruno Munari
Published by Corraini Edizioni, Milan, 2009, 108 pages (b/w ill.), 16 × 16 cm, English
Price: €14

“God is a circle whose centre is everywhere but whose circumference is nowhere”. Circle means perfection, cyclicity, superiority of the divinity, but also instability and movement. Bruno Munari selects and describes in this little, extraordinary encyclopedia, several uses of this fascinating and mysterious form, unstable and hieratic at the same time.

Bruno Munari (24 October, 1907–30 September, 1998) was an Italian artist, designer, and inventor who contributed fundamentals to many fields of visual arts (painting, sculpture, film, industrial design, graphic design) in modernism, futurism, and concrete art, and in non-visual arts (literature, poetry) with his research on games, didactic method, movement, tactile learning, kinesthetic learning, and creativity.

#2009 #brunomunari #design
Rosalind Nashashibi
Published by Bergen Kunsthall, Bergen & ICA, London, 2009, 96 pages (colour & b/w ill.), 21 × 30 cm, English
Price: €18 (Out of stock)

Rosalind Nashashibi’s solo exhibition in Bergen Kunsthall was the largest presentation in Scandinavia so far of Nashashibi’s work and covered her most important films from recent years, as well as photographic works. Nashashibi’s films are poetic observations of everyday events. The camera dwells on the social interaction that arises in human relations where the actors seem to hesitate between simply ‘being themselves’ and playing various socially defined roles. The artist makes effective use of the cinematic qualities of 16 mm film, and consciously uses the film medium’s quality to create a fundamentally time-based experience. Despite documentary restraint, Nashashibi’s films are not documentary films. They are as much poetic film collages, coloured by a subjective camera eye where the artist’s presence is always palpable.

#2009 #rosalindnashashibi
Venetië 2009
Jef Geys
Published by Jef Geys, Balen, 2009, unpaginated (b/w ill.), 21 × 29.7 cm
Price: €55 (Out of stock)

Publication produced on the occasion of Jef Geys presentation at the 53rd Venice Biennale, 2009, in the form of an overview of media comments compiled by Mélanie Gaillard. The show which was curated by Dirk Snauwaert, featured elements of Geys’ work from the last four decades.

#2009 #dirksnauwaert #jefgeys