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Le 104 (or CentQuatre) will also edit and publish its own books all related to the exhibitions and events taking place in the CentQuatre. First book to be published (and designed by Experimental JetSet) is Viande Froide, Reportages by Olivia Rosenthal who takes a look at the past of the CentQuatre's site: the Funeral Home of Paris.
infos/ 104
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A new Contemporary Art Centre is opening in Paris. Le 104 will show the work of artists in residence and many other activities. Opening on October 11, 2008. Be sure to take a close look at Anri Sala's films; viewing will be operated by a meteorological device (graphic design of Anri's exhibition by talented graphic designer Quentin Walesch).
infos/ 104
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'Images Narratives - Narrative images' at the Centre Régional de la Photographie Nord-Pas-de-Calais.
Great work by Paola Selarno! And you can see some Ed Ruscha there as well.
infos/ CRDP
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Manifesta 7 in Bolzano (Italy). Go see the work of Valérie Mréjen and Claire Fontaine amongst others.
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Claire Fontaine pursues an ongoing interrogation of the political impotence and the crisis of singularity that affects contemporary art today. ‘Siamo con voi nella notte’ ( ‘We are with you in the night’) is a mural inscription scrawled on a wall in an Italian town in the 1970s. In this ambiguous sentence, “the night” represents the prison but also the uncertain zone of obscurity proper to every clandestine resistance. The night is the space of non-distinction where those marks that divide the singularities fade.
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Artist and writer Valérie Mréjen is working on an extensive documentary about the Valvert Psychiatric Hospital in Marseilles. During a visit in March 2008, she shot a short video that is presented at Manifesta 7.
infos/ M7
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RCA Architecture alumni Finn Williams and David Knight are having a show at the Closet Gallery. Run see it!
infos/ AF
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Jérôme Rigaud launched a new website called TLK TLK, for the Londoners and the not-so Londoners.
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tlktlk is in and around London - sometimes a bit further. tlktlk acts mainly as a calendar to gather friends to nice events. It helps you turn off your computer and meet real people. Try it and love it.
infos/ TLKTLK
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Excellent article back at the DO by good friend Randy Nakamura. Read carefully, this article has been raising havoc from The Wired to Technorati and The Boston Globe. Seems a few steampunkers can't take good criticism or maybe the war has started between good design versus old fashioned revisited design. Between 'function' and 'style'. Between Eames and Morris. Um. Afterall it all ended in wallpapers...
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Two very interesting exhibitions in Paris if you pass by. A revisitation of late modernism, a look at the novö mouvement, young punks, utopia and autocriticism in architecture.
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Des jeunes gens modernes
Galerie du jour - Agnes B.
3.04 — 17.05 2008
Mouvement moderne: premieres autocritques
Cite de l'Architecture
Palais de Chaillot
20.03 — 11.05 2008
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Slavoj Žižek is the unmissing philosopher! For the French readers below is an article from Philosophie Magazine®. Hated or loved, the though of SZ at least has the 'virtue' to not let anyone status quo!
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« IL EST PERMIS DE NE PAS JOUIR » (SZ)
Qu'il prenne la défense du sujet cartésien, des systèmes métaphysiques ou des grands projets idéologiques, Slavoj Žižek se veut à l'opposé du scepticisme et de l'obscurantisme qui caractérisent l'époque « postmoderne ». Ce globe-trotter se signale aussi par son style : s'il excelle à formuler des critiques radicales et des questions percutantes, sa pensée est toujours en mouvement et comme insaisissable.
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some good fanzines/publications sites. for your eyes only. this list was brought to you by Salon Light III / Point Ephemere - Paris.
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kitsuné ❤ sexymachinery ❤ absurd ❤ alice travel ❤ al maslakh ❤ altitudes ❤ bas ❤ pascal battus ❤ bronbrom ❤ bazar ❤ checkpoint ❤ circuit ❤ clara ❤ cneai ❤ collectif mix ❤ a constructed world ❤ dasein ❤ ldrr ❤ dis voir ❤ documentation celine duval ❤ F7 ❤ famous ❤ fucking good art ❤ hard hat ❤ heros limite ❤ hors d'oeuvre ❤ hyx ❤ ikko ❤ john magazine ❤ komplot ❤ kungfu ❤ labelle 69 ❤ lendroit ❤ meeuw muzak ❤ monsieur therese ❤ norm ❤ nuke ❤ onestar press ❤ optical sound ❤ oui dire ❤ particules ❤ point d'ironie ❤ purple ❤ re:voir ❤ semiose ❤ soda ❤ staal plaat ❤ trouble ❤ useless ❤ vibro ❤ gagarin ❤ matt magazine ❤ starship ❤ buy pilcher ❤ caja negra ❤ ephemera ediciones ❤ nieves ❤ uovo ❤ bookmakers ❤ playforward ❤ metronome ❤ la compagnie ❤ checkpoint ❤ zedele ❤ yvette et paulette ❤ tiramizu ❤ avant poste ❤ editions pegg ❤ le mot et le reste ❤ centre du livre d'art ❤ incertain sens ❤ orbe ❤ rouge gorge
infos/ PE
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Pierre Huyghe, Pierre Huyghe, we ❤ thee!
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updates at Limited Language! Go read! And comment!
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Tom McCarthy
'Report from the Hawk-Eye Camera...'
Tom is a writer and artist whos writing includes the cult novel ‘Remainder’, currently being adapted for cinema by Film Four/Cowboy Films.
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Esther Leslie
'Ben Wilson paints little acrylic paintings on discarded chewing gum that has been stamped into the pavement....'
Esther is Professor of Political Aesthetics, Birkbeck University of London
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Adam Kossoff
'Exposing The Line In Film...'
Adam is an academic and video artist
infos/ LL
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FUSION NOW!
MORE LIGHT, MORE POWER, MORE PEOPLE
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Sam Basu / Laura Oldfield Ford / JJ Charlesworth / Alasdair Duncan / Freee / Liam Gillick / Roger Hiorns / John Latham / Andrew Rucklidge / John Russell / Mark Titchner / WITH (withyou.co.uk)
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Writing by JJ Charlesworth / Prof. Mike Dunne / James Heartfield / Joe Kaplinsky & James Woudhuysen
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Energy is now a key issue of political debate. At a time when we are told that our excessive use of fossil fuels threatens the environment itself, environmentalism advocates that the only solution is restraint and reduction. FUSION NOW! asks what art and society might be like if we thought positively about a world based on more energy, not less.
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Bringing together artists, social and scientific commentators, FUSION NOW! takes as its starting point the rapidly developing science of nuclear fusion. As a potentially revolutionary source of energy that, if successful, will herald an unprecedented advance in society’s access to energy, nuclear fusion can provide energy that is abundant, potentially unlimited and clean. A big solution to a pressing problem, nuclear fusion is however strangely absent from public discussion. In response, FUSION NOW! presents the work of artists who explore the widest meaning of energy in art and politics, from radically divergent standpoints.
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The exhibition will be accompanied by a publication, with writing by Prof. Mike Dunne, the head of the new EU-funded laser fusion project HiPER, technology writers Joe Kaplinsky & James Woudhuysen, and the political writer James Heartfield, with an introduction by JJ Charlesworth.
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FUSION NOW! is curated by JJ Charlesworth in association with The Manifesto Club, a humanist campaigning network launched in May 2006
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Private View 20.11.2007, 18.30 – 20.30
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infos/ ManifestoClub - Rokeby Gallery
![herb_lubalin].jpg](http://www.refgrafika.com/blogo/herb_lubalin%5D.jpg)
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A good show at the ICA. The Symposium is convened by John Russell & Alun Rowlands, Department of Fine Art, University of Reading.
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Art &
8 speakers negotiate diverse positions mapping the radical terrain of the ampersand.
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17 November 2007
2pm – 7pm
ICA, The Mall, London SW1Y 5AH.
Tickets: £12 – Special price £8 - quote ‘READING’ to the Box Office.
020 7930 3647
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Art & politics & fiction & sex & death & aesthetics & reading & psychobiography & dialectics & philosophy & horror & fucking & mummy & daddy & running & jumping & sleeping & reading & horse riding & fishing & music & intensity & jouissance &...
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JOHN CUSSANS
Multi-media artist & writer, whose research explores para-psychological scenarios & multi-authoring processes. Eggheads in the Wallpaper: Writing, Psychobiography and the Problem of Historical Form takes its cue from a convergence of associational themes running between Cat's Cradle (Kurt Vonnegut, Jr) and The Yellow Wallpaper (Charlotte Perkins Gilman). It will address the textual inter-dependence of historical & subjective awareness, the relationship between science & art & their implications for inter-disciplinary art forms.
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PETER OSBORNE
Professor of Modern European Philosophy at Middlesex University, & an editor of Radical Philosophy. Art & Non-Art: Dialectics of Non-Identity. Ampersand & distinction; typesetting as the home of pop conceptualism in reverse.
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MARIA FUSCO IS PATRICIA MacCORMACK
Maria Fusco is a Belfast-born writer. She is Director of Art Writing at Goldsmiths College, and the editor of The Happy Hypocrite, a new journal for and about experimental writing. Patricia MacCormack is Senior Lecturer, Department of English, Communication, Film and Media at Anglia Ruskin University. She has published on Continental Philosophy & the ethics of aesthetics. Talk: The ecosophy of art - a monstrous hybrid event. Art itself is an '&' traversal. Deleuze and Guattari and Serres claim art is produced through a mapping of chaos which is an ethical production (cf Spinoza) - an ecosophic territory. For D&G philosophy describes the creation of concepts which are the result of problems, that is, the incommensurability of two ideas. Concepts and philosophy always require an '&', not an 'or' and the '&' is not causal or chronocentric but immanent, neither element precedes or follows.
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FELIX ENSSLIN
is a curator and writer based in Berlin. He recently organised the 'Between Two Deaths' Exhibition At ZKM, Karlsruhe and is a regular contributor to Dictionary of War. He will talk on ‘And.Encore.Repetition.Jouissance and Art today’ with reference to the ‘Between Two Deaths' exhibition.
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FABIENNE AUDEOUD
Artist and musician
If not the sound track to images and the marker of social identities what is music doing in art?
If the audience has become the form in music: How do you perform it in art?
If the audience -as size- buys itself: How is this gesture/exchange happening?
She will address questions around music in art and work live on the composition of a third version of "the hit".
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JJ CHARLESWORTH
is a critic and Reviews Editor, ArtReview. Nothing is Never Autonomous. If dialectics isn't a play of opposites, but a way into the multiple realities that make up a thing or a phenomenon, how might art be understood as a meeting place for many possible contradictions, instead of just a few? What if autonomous art was art both at its least and most free? - (JJC)
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NICHOLAS CHARE
is Leverhulme Research Fellow at the Department of History of Art and Architecture, University of Reading. The focus of his research is on the acoustic dimensions of Francis Bacon’s art practice. He is a former editor of the international journal of critical theory, parallax. His work has appeared in a number of journals including Angelaki, Cultural Critique, parallax and West Coast Line. His paper Show and Tell: Francis Bacon’s Paint Incarnate will closely analyse Francis Bacon’s technique through the prism of Julia Kristeva’s writings on art and literature. The paper demonstrates that Bacon’s conscious and unconscious employment of chance in his artistic practice, particularly in his treatment of colour, causes his work to privilege what Kristeva calls the semiotic, the drive-invested dimension of language. The paper attends to the semiotic as a kind of disruptive noise. It will argue that the irruption of this noise within Bacon’s works causes them to unfold across a space somewhere between the acoustic and the visual fields. The paper considers how the artist’s interest in synaesthesia plays out in his paintings which frequently fashion connections between the senses.
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PAUL BUCK
Description of Talk & : The condition of betweenness at play is spread wide to be licked between: (sidewards. Paul Buck is a writer & )a state that he’s never been anything but)
click!
infos/ &
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We really ❤ the work of Reynald Drouhin. And yes we are obsessed with Courbet's 'Origin of the World'. Don't ask why...
infos/ RD
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Creator Conrad Ventur and Art Director Andrien Pelletier will be in Paris to (re)present Useless at the Salon Light. Get some copies while you can.
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Salon light # 4
50 independent publishers
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Saturday 3 November,
11am-11 pm
Sunday 4 November,
11 am- 6 pm
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at Le Point Ephémère,
200 Quai de Valmy
Paris 10 eme
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Metro:
Jaurès (lignes 5, 2 et 7 bis)
Louis Blanc (ligne 7)
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bus : 26 /46 / 48
infos/ USELESS
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Michel Wlassikoff will give some important History of Graphic Design courses. Thanks to Etienne for the tip! Infos below in French.
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Michel Wlassikoff, historien du graphisme, auteur d’Histoire du graphisme en France, une coédition Carré – Les Arts Décoratifs publiée en 2005, décrit et définit les différents aspects de la pratique du graphisme : art de l’affiche, création typographique, graphisme éditorial, de presse, d’information, multimédia, habillage télévisuel. Les évolutions graphiques et typographiques sont examinées en lien avec les grands courants esthétiques français et internationaux, avec les arts plastiques, la photographie, le design ou encore l’urbanisme. L’apport des créateurs et des mouvements graphiques étrangers est précisément indiqué.
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Programme:
24/10
• Prédominance de la langue et de la typographie française du XVIe au XIXe siècle.
De l’Art nouveau aux avant-gardes (1895-1925)
21/11
• Des Arts décoratifs à l’Union des artistes modernes.
La fondation du graphisme moderne (1925-1940)
12/12
• De l’Occupation à l’Alliance graphique internationale.
L’apport suisse et le début des images de marques (1940-1965)
13/02
• De la conception d’un nouvel environnement
à l’entrée en scène du numérique (1965-1985)
19/03
• Extension du domaine du graphisme
21/05
• La contestation des signes
« l’héritage de Mai 68 »
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Tarifs : 5€/2€ la séance
Les mercredis d’octobre 2007 à mai 2008
18h30 à 20h30
Salle de conférences des Arts Décoratifs
111 rue de Rivoli, 75001 Paris
infos/ AD
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Some really good infos grabbed on the site of Etienne Mineur. For the French-speaking, there will be a very interesting series of conferences at the IMEC looking at the relationship between, authors, editors, artists, graphic designers. Guests include Frederic Teschner, Catherine de Smet, Etienne Mineur, Roxanne Jubert, Chipp Kidd and many others big guns. Hope the IMEC site provides the conclusions of those conferences for the ones who will miss it...
infos/ IMEC
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"Anna Sanders Films is a production company that was created in 1998 by Charles de Meaux, Philippe Parreno, Pierre Huyghe and the Association for Diffusion of Contemporary Art (X.Douroux, F.Gautherot). Dominique Gonzalez Foerster recently joined them. Anna Sanders proposes a production tool for projects that are shaping new landscapes or rather « moments in landscapes »."
infos/ AS
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Yael Burnstein is currently finishing her MA at the Royal College of Art in London. We ❤ her work very much! Something undefinable on the edge of surrealism and überrealism.
Soon an interview of her in the COMMIS D'ARTISTES section
infos/ ...in a few days!
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The Refgrafika team wishes you a ••••••••••••••>
••••HAPPY 07!••••
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The Most Beautiful Swiss Books can also be found at the Design Museum.
◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊
05 December – 28 January 2007
The Most Beautiful Swiss Books 2005 presents the 32 titles short-listed for the Swiss Federal Office of Culture’s annual award in 2005.
The display in the café focuses on the competition and the work of Swiss-born designer, Laurent Benner, who, for the last three years, has been commissioned to design the catalogue to celebrate the winning titles. Working closely with Jon Hares, the pair has designed a publication which skilfully uses the printers and papers found in the winning books, enabling the reader to experience Swiss book design at first hand, giving a genuine insight into the breadth and quality of the designers, printers, bookbinders, photographers, illustrators and paper suppliers currently working across Switzerland today.
(This exhibition was made possible through the generous support of the Swiss Federal Office of Culture).
◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊
infos/ TMBSB 2005 (thanks to Renaud Huberlant for the pics)
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We ❤ Grand Popo Football Club, Hot Chip, Felix da Housecat, Kings of Convenience, Jagga Jazzist amongst others...
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"Though shrouded in mystery, this much is known about the Valenzetti Equation: it is a mathematical formulation designed to predict nothing less than the exact number of years left before the extinction of the human race [...]".
infos/ Valenzetti is not Fibonacci
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We ❤ not the over complexity of TV show Lost
Why the numbers? Spoiler below in French to make it even harder to decypher ;-)
le mystère a été résolu. C'est Alvar Hanso lui-même qui l'explique dans une vidéo de la DHARMA Initiative. Les nombres "4 8 15 16 23 42" représentent l'équation de Valenzetti, une formule mathématique censée établir le temps restant avant l'extinction de l'humanité ! Une étude commandée par les Nations Unies en 1962 avait abouti à cette équation, basée sur des hiéroglyphes égyptiens, chacun étant représenté par l'un des nombres.
La DHARMA Initiative, mise en place par la Fondation Hanso, avait pour mission de prévenir l'inévitable. Lorsque le projet s'est révélé être un échec, le Dr Thomas Mittelwerk, président de la fondation, a mis en place une autre solution radicale pour sauver l'humanité : éliminer un tiers de la population mondiale ! Pour y parvenir, il a testé dans deux villages l'inoculation d'un virus qui n'est mortel que pour 30% des personnes infectées. (Source Allo Ciné)
infos/ HansoExposed
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Lighter and for French only (sorry). Chaos de Famille, vous fera adorer le votre.
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Littell is the favorite for the Goncourt (French 'equivalent' of the British Booker Prize). It's a massive book which tells the story of a German. The main character is a Schutzstaffel (S.S), cold-hearted, mathematician in search of the most efficient way of killing masses, evil spirit, you name it. You may be disturbed by this impossibly calm accumulation of horrors. But it is the other reality of what Hitler called the Final Solution and one should be able to face it.
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what would the world be without Bourriaud?
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a good companion to the book below/
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must read 'imo'/
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Speaking of Truffaut, here are a few must have or must see movies from the French Nouvelle Vague...if anyone has an idea of where i can put my hands on the Histoire(s) du Cinema dvd, please add a comment. Thanks.
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A most clever, talented and passionate musician. G.Ligeti was a follower of Bartok; he met with Boulez, Kagel and Berio while working at the Westdeuscher Rundfunk's studio. His most famous work is the o.s.t of Kubrick's 2001, a space odyssey but you should also check Melodien (1971) and Nonsense Madrigals (1988-93): the summum of polyrhytmie!
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What was, What is and What for...Read, Compare and Critic the pre, post and future history of Graphic Design.
infos/ theinfamousnetbookstore
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Peerspex's way of color-organizing their CDs collection made me think of this interesting article back at DOBs
infos/ DOBs/Rob Giampietro
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After Serge, after Jane we give you Charlotte. Listen to 5.55 (pronounce fa'fa'fa NY style), the fresh solo album by Gainsbourg's daughter. Collabs with Air and Jarvis Cocker. Sublime and so tendance!
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Ludwig Karl Hilberseimer (1885-1967) was a German architect and urban planner best known for his ties to the Bauhaus and to Mies van der Rohe. Hilberseimer fled Germany in 1938 for Chicago to work for Mies, and became director of Chicago's city planning office.
Adrian Forty is Professor at The Bartlett, University College London, on the 17th February 2006 he lectured at the RCA (The City Without Qualities) and argued for the existence of an architecture without 'markers'."Landmark architecture has been talked about a lot recently - and has been reacted against too. But what would a city without 'landmarks' be like? One strand of late nineteenth and early twentieth century thinking about cities - explored in this talk - argued that what made a city habitable for a modern person was precisely its lack of distinctive features. Does this 'city without qualities' have a future?". Perhaps the city as a grid...(merci Archizoom)
Top to Bottom/
Hilberseimer, The Vertical City (1924)
Hilberseimer, The Vertical City, perspective view E-W (1924)
Le Corbusier, Plan Voisin, city planning, Paris (1925-27)
Le Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret, La Cité-Refuge, Paris (1930)
Archizoom, No Stop City, (1968)
Julien Penven, Jean-Claude Le Bail, Front de Seine, Hotel Nikko, Paris (1976)
read/
Modernism and the Postmodernist Subject, The Architecture of Hannes Meyer and Ludwig Hilberseimer (K. Michael Hays, MIT press, 1992)
Towards a New Architecture (Le Corbusier)
look/
-Cité� de Refuge, 12 rue Cantagruel 75013 Paris
-Le Front de Seine, 75015 Paris
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Feartown, Ideal Cities of Uncertain Futures....
The empty piazza and linear perspectives of Mussolini's 1938-42 project: E.U.R. or Esposizione Universale di Roma (Universal Exhibition Rome). A series of cold and perfectly ideal blocks of buildings which were certainly inspired by de Chirico's paintings of claustrophobic/surrealistic architectures.
One of the most iconic building of E.U.R. was the Colosseo Quadrato or Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana (Palace of the Italian Civilisation), build by fascist architect Marcello Piacentini, the 216 arks facade was supposed to remind Romans of the perfection of their past and future and praise the fascist ideal of the Duce. A rational approach to idealism.
Ideal cities always puzzle me. I feel like looking at kids playing with lego bricks. The human is totally absent as if no one really cared in the end about who was going to inhabit those spaces. You can find an echo of this in two fantastic French movies: Playtime by Jacques Tati (the modern version of the futurist city) and Paul Grimault's Le Roi et l'Oiseau (the surrealist intemporal and poetic version of trapping cities). And if you read French do get your hands on Les Cités Obscures, a series of comic books by Francois Schuitten and Benoit Peeters, super inspired by Fritz Lang's Metropolis and Ridley Scott's Blade Runner.
Don't you just love it when designers make you realize that almost everything is a reference to something?
In the same vein altough more weirdly linked is the Babylonian and utopic vision of a future where cities would mix influences and pose for an universal vision of the megapolis. The need to compete with the general subconscious of perfect cities as a way to re-embrace the classical past and its grandiloquent architecturhomage to Gods. Perfect cities, Ideal Futuropolis would flirt with Retro-Futurism and Goggie architecture while the Nagasaki and Hiroshima chocs would make way to a darker vision of the city of tomorrow. Vladimir Tatlin and his Monument to the Third International, later Albert Speer and his vision of a perfect Nazi Berlin, Ozamu Tetzuka and his retro futurist version of Metropolis and finally Richard Buckminster Fuller's post futuristic geodesic ensemble, all of those are ricochets bouncing on the surface of our dream of the perfetta città.
Perfection and Perversion of tomorrow...
"For the first time in history it is now possible to take care of everybody at a higher standard of living than any have ever known. Only ten years ago the 'more with less' technology reached the point where this could be done. All humanity now has the option of becoming enduringly successful."
—Buckminster Fuller, 1980.
infos/
Mario Chiattone (1891-1957)
Antonio Sant'Elia (1888-1916)
Le Roi et l'Oiseau (1979)
Tetzuka's Metropolis (1949)
Rintaro's Metropolis (2002)
Lang's Metropolis (1928)
Playtime (1967)
Montparnasse Station (1914)
Les Cités Obscures (1992)
R. Buckminster Fuller (1895-1983)
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Harmony Korine, a beautiful loser...
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Conrad and Adrien are the happy founders of USELESS! Issue 3 is out now!
Best Wishes and great successes!
"USELESS is a tabloid-sized magazine on newsprint. Based in New York with an office in London, we feature interviews with artists, actors, designers and people we believe are working on interesting projects from Manhattan to Paris and internationally. We are an art magazine with a fashion/film/music twist."
infos/ Useless Magazine
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For the ones out there who feel the world can be summed up to an equation, especially love the Gradus Suavitis article...
infos/ ----->
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the article 'Critics don't R.I.P.' by Catherine Guiral is now published on Limited Language.
©image/ still from Agnes Varda's "les glaneurs et la glaneuse"
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Beauty and the Book is not just the title of a catalogue designed by Julia Born. It was a great exhibition at the Israel Museum. Amongst the pieces exhibited was the work of artist matej Kren. A sculptural house of books. Splendid.
Infos/ Beauty and the Book. Thanks to Patricia for the link+pics.
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Richard Vijgen is a researcher at the JvE Akademie and part of the Tomorrow Book Project with Sarah Infanger and Harrisson Vijgen. They will complete their research in 2006. Richard is currently working on a project called: RealTimeBookDesign 1.0
Check it out, it's the potential somehow future of graphic design...
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She is internshipping at the New Museum in NY and sending me postcards from the Big Apple! Merci Coline!
NM-NY
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a must-see 1982 video on ubu! Thanks to *work* for the links!
go to/ Sonne Statt Reagan
Le Livre que j'aurai voulu offrir à Stéphane
Suite à une récente discussion sur GH avec Stéphane (un des chroniqueurs) à propos du livre 'Design for Help' (1), je lui avais promis de conclure la polémique en parlant d'un livre très particulier que j'aurais voulu lui offrir.
Ce n'est pas vraiment un livre. Plutot une brochure. Editée et imprimée dans les années 60, cette revue en noir et blanc a été spécialement concue pour le 14ème Type Director's Club Show de 1968.
J'en avais entendu parler comme d'un mythe par Lorraine Wild, qui avait d'ailleurs écrit un article très intéressant là-dessus en Juillet 2005 dans DesignObserver (2). J'avoue avoir eu beaucoup de mal à en trouver une copie. Ce petit imprimé est rarissisme, et c'est aussi l'adjectif qui décrit le mieux le concept général de la revue.
Le titre de cet annuel qui regroupe tous les travaux typo-graphiques des pointures de l'époque est: 'Business as Usual'. Le sous-titre est 'Fourteenth Annual Type Directors Show — Typography Wherever It Exists'. A la page 3, on peut lire le texte suivant:
“Think of your work and think of what’s going on around you. The theme of the 14th Annual Type Directors show is 'Typography Wherever It Exists.' It’s still the theme. We’ve just expanded the theme. Added a larger context. Look at the winners for their excellence in type direction. That’s how they were judged. If the news photos seem to overshadow the show’s winners, think of how it is in real life.”
Je vous offre une rapide traduction:
Pensez à votre travail et regardez ce qui vous entoure. Le thème de ce 14ème Annuel du Type Directors Club est 'La Typographie Partout où elle Existe'. Ca reste le thème. Nous l'avons cependant étendu. Elargit le contexte. Choisit les gagnants pour leur excellence en typographie. C'est ainsi qu'ils ont été jugés. Si les photos des journaux vous donnent l'impression de faire de l'ombre aux lauréats, pensez à ce qui se passe dans la vraie vie."
La lecture de l'article de LW sur DO vous donnera de plus amples details mais j'aimerai juste vous résumer le contexte de l'époque: nous sommes en 1968. Avec la guerre au Vietnam, la Contre-Révolution Culturelle, les droits bafoués des minorités, les USA sont secoués de l'intérieur et de l'extérieur. Le monde, des pavés de Paris aux faibles tremblements des satellites de l'Est , est lui en pleine mutation.
Et voila un groupe de jurés du Type Director's Club de New York qui se pose la question de l'utilité de donner des prix, de célébrer le typo-graphisme. Ils pourraient fermer les yeux, se boucher les oreilles, ne rien dire. C'est vrai après tout, que peuvent faire une bande de typographes devant le tsunami social et politique du monde? (pardon pour le private joke en rapport direct avec l'article de Stéphane à GH).
On pourra dire tout ce que l'on veut, les traiter d'opportunistes ou de naifs mais la mise en page, le concept meme de cet Annuel-Ovni est un exemple d'une certaine idée 'idéale' du role du graphisme et du graphiste (3).
Le titre meme de l'Annuel, 'Business as Usual', vous percute comme une claque d'humour noir. Comme le souligne LW, "il faut une sacrée dose de bravado et une touche de cynisme" pour ne pas faire de cette brochure un simple objet de lamentations. Oui le monde allait mal à l'époque mais la vie continuait et le graphiste faisait son travail. Avec ce petit détail en plus. Il n'ignorait pas le monde autour de lui.
Avec sa mise en page simple et efficace, les images des travaux des lauréats à gauche et une photographie plein page à droite (et inversement), l'Annuel fait plus que simplement répertorier les moments sombres et les meilleurs travaux typographiques de l'année en cours.
Il y a un jeu subtil qui s'opère entre le lecteur et les images. Que lire d'abord? Forcément ce qui se voit en grand. Mais aussi ces perfections typographiques qui par leur valeur meme d'excellence soutiennent le rapport de taille. On va et on vient. On est obligé de réaliser que tout ca fait partie d'un meme tout. Que regarder une belle affiche c'est ne pas non plus oublier de voir ce qui se passe à coté.
La limite de tout ca? Peut-etre qu'avec la distance, voir ces images rythmées ainsi dans un catalogue de travaux typographiques leur retire de leur vraie puissance. 'Une protestation silencieuse' seulement dirigée vers un groupe bien ciblé (les lecteurs de ce genre d'Annuel) reste une goutte d'eau qui ne fera pas déborder la mer des sarcasmes.
Quand bien meme. Le TDC cuvée 1968 a ce mérite de ne pas vouloir tirer la couverture mais bien au contraire de se mettre au service de. Ici le who's who du gratin des graphistes-typographes ne fait pas de show-off et sait s'effacer devant ce qui malheureusement continue de faire l'actualité.
Aucune volonté de changer le monde, juste témoigner avec leurs outils d'ouvriers de l'image et du texte. Sans etre maladroits non plus. Il n'y a rien de pire que de rater sa cible par excès ou manque. Ici les vertus typographiques et de composition arrivent à transcender le message. Les cadrages concentrés sur l'essentiel ne font pas non plus oublier ce qui se passe hors-champ. C'est cette ironie cynique, permanente à travers les 48 pages, oui regardez nos travaux mais ne soyez pas dupes, qui donne tout son coté rare à cet Annuel.
Le principe peut paraitre démodé maintenant que Toscani, Benetton et le sensationalisme sont passés par là. Faut-il pour autant choquer les gens pour les sensibiliser? Ou faut-il faire de belles images qui ne servent pas à grand-chose?
Le travail des designers du Type Director's Club 1968 nous prouve en tout cas que si on met les deux ensemble de facon intelligente et simple on obtient un effet dévastateur et efficace. Je regarde les pages de cet Annuel et je me dis, 1968 aux Etats-Unis c'était ca. Un graphisme engagé, une société en chaos.
Qui a dit que les graphistes ne devaient pas etre des observateurs et des interprètes?
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(1) 'Design For Help' est un livre-catalogue d'images de graphistes produit en un temps record pour rassembler des fonds pour les victimes du Tsunami de 2005.
Stephane a recemment ecrit un article sur GH qui a souleve une petite polemique a propos de l'efficacite ou non du livre Design for Help.
(2) Lorraine Wild, A design Annual Captures 1968, Design Observer 7 Juillet 2005.
(3) l'idée sera reprise dans les 70s par Sheila de Breteville alors directrice du Dpt Graphic Design a la CalArts lorsqu'elle a fait le catalogue-prospectus de l'école. Je n'ai malheureusement pas de copie de celui-ci mais Ian Lynam devrait m'envoyer des images sous peu. Patience.
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Beautiful Evidence (Hardcover)
by Edward R. Tufte
List Price: $52.00
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Alissa Walker, a design Observer contributor is teaching two interesting classes in Los Angeles this summer. If you're in town...
Design Writing for Designers
Breaking Into Design Journalism
infos/ here
Alissa Walker is a regular contributor to STEP Inside Design, HOW, and Dynamic Graphics, and also writes for I.D., Wired, Metropolis, ReadyMade, DesignObserver.com, and the Los Angeles Times. She is a production assistant on the KCRW show, "DnA: Design and Architecture," hosted by Frances Anderton, editor of the mediabistro.com design blog UnBeige, and recently contributed to a book for the School of Visual Arts in NY. Last year, Alissa was named the first storyteller for AIGA, the professional association for design, where she heads up a comprehensive design writing initiative, including organizing the first design writing award, to be given this fall. She holds a journalism degree from the University of Colorado, completed the writing program at the Portfolio Center, in Atlanta, and is a design conference
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© Aam Solleveld graphite pencil on paper 72 x 102 cm 2003
Aam Solleveld
Motive Gallery — Amsterdam
17 June - 08 July 2006
infos/ Motive Gallery
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Agnes Varda
L'Ile et Elle
Fondation Cartier
21 June - 01 October 2006
infos/ Fondation Cartier
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© S. Tykka / © Allora-Calzadilla
Salla Tykka
Jennifer Allora & Guillermo Calzadilla
Palais de Tokyo
09 June - 27 August 2006
infos/ P2T
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© Bill Viola
LOVE/DEATH: The Tristan Project
Haunch of Venison
21 June - 02 September 2006
infos/ HoV
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Bjorn and Dieter Roth / Martin Kippenberger
25 May - 27 August 2006
Hauser & Wirth — London
infos/ H&W
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My friend Luke and his alter-ego Curtis work respectively as designer and editor of this brand new magazine called The Colonial. Part based in NY and LA, The Colonial is a cultural mag whose aim is to re-explore territories of music, design and art and push forward the old frontiers.
It is a must read. Subscriptions here!
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