Tierlein
Volker Pfüller

Named as one of the most beautiful German books, 2009, by Stiftung Buchkunst.
Printed as tricolour linocuts.

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Lubok in Mexiko
Various artists

Released at the same named exhibition at Museo National de la Estampa, Mexico City, 2012.
Designed by Andrej Loll.
Four colour offset with black and white linocut-printed pages. I particularly like this juxtaposition.

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Trapped in White Tiger Sanctum
Christoph Ruckhäberle

Text by Helmut A Müller.
Released in association with the same named exhibition, Hospitalhof, Stuttgart, 2010.
Printed from polymer plates.

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Sag einfach Ja oder Nein!
Katja Schwalenberg

Printed as linocuts, 2009.

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Kombi
Franziska Holstein

Released with the same named solo show, Galerie Christian Ehrentraut, Berlin, 2012.
Printed offset. Folded sheets held by an elastic band.

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f/stop – The History of Now

Catalogue for the 5th f/stop Festival for Photography, Leipzig, 2012.
Designed by IG Grafik / Altevers / Detlefson / Fiedler / Koehn, Berlin with texts by Stephanie Siegel, Christin Krause, Thilo Scheffler, a.o.
Four colour offset.

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Lubok is an independent Leipzig publisher of (mainly) artists’ books. Particularly beautiful — in look, feel, even their smell — is their series of original linocut books printed by Thomas Siemon of the print workshop, carpe plumbum.

Henriette Weber at Lubok Verlag’s office in Leipzig.

Lubok 9
Christoph Ruckhäberle (Ed)

Linocuts by painting students at the Academy of Visual Arts, Leipzig, 2010.
Printed from the original linocut plates by Thomas Siemon on a Präsident-cylinder letterpress.

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Taken from the introductory text for the exhibition by Aanant & Zoo:
‘The gallery Aanant & Zoo dedicates the exhibition From the Age of the Poets to the interplay between the wonder of language, truth, the possibility of mis- or not understanding and poetry as a legitimate access to the world.’

Artist listing from Aanant & Zoo:
Johanna Calle, Luis Camnitzer, Hanne Darboven, Michael Dreyer, Friederike Feldmann, Ian Hamilton Finlay, Dora García, Simryn Gill, Peter Greenaway, Channa Horwitz, Bethan Huws, Vlado Martek, Henri Michaux, Edwin Moes, Robert Montgomery, Michael Müller, Aribert von Ostrowski, Kasper Pincis, Falke Pisano, Gerhard Rühm, Mike Ruiz, Max Schaffer, Carl Trahan, Cy Twombly, Geerten Verheus

From the Age of the Poets
Aanant & Zoo, Berlin
07.09.2012 – 20.10.2012

Above and below:
Entry treatment for the exhibition

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Neue Berliner Räume closed the Robert Montgomery exhibition, Echoes of Voices in the High Towers, with a dinner and book launch at Stattbad — a former public pool building in Wedding.

Large format book (50x34cm) on the exhibition by the publisher, Mono Kultur — those people from Berlin who do that very small format magazine of the same name that a surprising number of Australians seem to be familiar with.

Cooking up a risotto in the Schwimmenmeister’s office.

Manuel Wischnewski from Neue Berliner Räume.

Arrived in Berlin on 15 September at the end of  Berlin Art Week and decided to catch Art Berlin Contemporary on its second to last day and was too jet lagged to take much in, but I liked the simplicity of their display and signing system — bootprints and all.

Not so great for display systems and signage was the artist book festival attached to it called Miss Read. Most publishers literally had to be interrogated to find out who they were and what they did —but it was worth it, and the real reason for my visit on the day. More on independent publishers later.

Maria Potrc
Caracas: Growing Houses, 2012

Carl Andre
07515 Karlsplatz, 1992

Sol LeWitt
Modular Cube, 1970

Andrea Pichl
Doubleblind, 2011

Doubleblind

Manfred Pernice
Wall, Wohn-und Wachanlage, 1997-1998

Wall, Wohn-und Wachanlage, 1997-1998

Herman Pitz
Wedding Therese, 1984

Wedding Therese

Dieter Roth and Björn Roth
Gartenskulptur, 1968

Gartenskulptur

Gartenskulptur

Gartenskulptur

Gartenskulptur

Dan Graham
Childrens’ Pavilion (State 2)
(with Jeff Wall), 1991

Thomas Schütte
Architekturen, 1986

Absolon
Cellule No. 2, 1992

Bruce Nauman
Room with My Soul Left Out,
Room That Does Not Care, 1984

Room with My Soul Left Out,
Room That Does Not Care

Room with My Soul Left Out,
Room That Does Not Care

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Taken from the exhibition introduction:
‘Sculptural and photographic works, films and paintings illustrate how differently artists have approached the interface between art and architecture since the 1960s.’

Architektonika
Hamburger Bahnhof Museum, Berlin
until 13 January 2013

Henning Wagenbreth’s theatralisch-illustrativ-musikalische buch-premiere was in a tiny Prenzlauer Berg theatre that could only hold an audience of 50. Henning played mandolin and his partner, Sophia Martineck, played chord harp while 2 actors, Albrecht Hirche and Günther Lindner played the pirate and pharmacist in Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Pirate and the Apothecary: translated and illustrated by Henning. A nice way to launch a book — and a cute little bar downstairs of the same footprint size as the theatre. (My photography isn’t great because my point-and-click level of expertise doesn’t work for low lighting).

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Working on some 3D blocks for a show called Memory Palace at the V&A, London.

Robert Louis Stevenson
Der Pirat und der Apotheker
Illustrated and translated into German by Henning Wagenbreth
Published by Peter Hammer Verlag

I think there are a few people finding it tedious now: me telling them how much I enjoy Leipzig. You can stay in an arts precinct called Plagwitz and the 15 minute bike ride into Zentrum (the city centre) takes you past lakes, along canals and through dense woods — with a good coffee on the bridge at the halfway point.
Maybe the closest place Australia has to this is Adelaide.

Another reason for liking it is that it’s a centre for book design and printing — which is why I need to get back there. Thomas Siemon from Edition Carpe Plumbum with Jo Zarth, a graphic designer / photographer / chinoiserie enthusiast who lives in Leipzig.

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Test firing (hence some cracking) of one of a series of new objects for a table setting by Maria Volokhova.
An interview from last year.

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Another artwork by Robert Montgomery at a former public baths building in Wedding.
Robert Montgomery
Echoes of Voices in the High Towers
presented by Neue Berliner Räume

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