Publishing as an Artistic Toolbox: 1989-2017 (2017)

“What is the role of art publishing today? How have artists adapted modes of publishing as a tool for their practice? How has the notion of artists’ publishing activity changed, given the ever-increasing amount of fairs and an ever-evolving number of book-related collections in contemporary art museums? The multi-part exhibition project Publishing as an Artistic Toolbox: 1989-2017 explores the potentials of publishing – in the form of books, magazines, journals, artistic interventions, websites – as a particular medium and context both to circulate information, knowledge – and to produce art. The exhibition highlights how a recent generation of artists use publishing as a productive tool for their practice.”

Publisher Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna, 2017
[28] pages

Exhibition

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InterCommunication ’91: The Museum Inside the Telephone Network (1991) [Japanese/English]

The exhibition organised by the Project InterCommunication Center (ICC), founded by the Japanese telecom NTT, was a pioneering project investigating the implications of networked communication for the museum institution. The exhibition was only accessible to home users by means of the telephone, fax, and in a limited sense computer networking. It was meant as a model for a new kind of an “invisible” museum. Later it was followed up by another ICC exhibition The Museum Inside the Network (1995). The ICC opened its exhibition space in 1997.

The works and messages from almost 100 artists, writers, and cultural figures were available through five channels. The works in “Voice & sound channel” such as talks and readings on the theme of communication could be listened to by telephone. The “Interactive channel” offered participants to create musical tunes by pushing buttons on a telephone. Works of art, novels, comics and essays could be received at home through “Fax channel”. The “Live channel” offered artists’ live performances and telephone dialogues between invited intellectuals to be heard by telephone. Additionally, computer graphics works could be accessed by modem and downloaded to one’s personal computer screen for viewing.

Contributors include Laurie Anderson, J.G. Ballard, Christian Boltanski, Pierre Boulez, William S. Burroughs, Merce Cunningham, Daniel Buren, John Cage, Jacques Derrida, Allen Ginsberg, Philip Glass, Félix Guattari, Pontus Hultén, Derek Jarman, Jeff Koons, Daniel Libeskind, Jackson Mac Low, Judith Malina, Renzo Piano, Steve Reich, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Akira Sakata, Paul Virilio, Robert Wilson, Tadanori Yokoo, John Zorn, a.o.

Edited by Urban Design Research
Introduction by Akira Asada, Yutaka Hikosaka, and Toshiharu Itou
Publisher NTT, Tokyo, 1991
259 pages

Exhibition
WorldCat

PDF (76 MB)
PDF (hi-res, 235 MB)

A Constellation of Stars: Huang Rui and Ma Desheng: Art Editors, 1978-1983 (2013) [Chinese/English]

A collection of artists’ works from the Chinese underground magazines Today! and Foreign Literature edited by members of the Stars Group, Huang Rui and Ma Desheng, after the Cultural Revolution. The book also contains two timelines; the first outlines key events and developments in China during this period. The second is specific to the Stars Group and Foreign Literature magazine.

Featured artists: AI Weiwei (艾未未), GAN Shaocheng (甘少誠), HUANG Rui (黃銳), Leilei QU (曲磊磊), MA Desheng (馬德升), Shuang LI (李爽), SUN Weimin (孫為民), WANG Huaiqing (王懷慶), YAN Li (嚴力), YUAN Yunsheng (袁運生), ZHONG Acheng (鍾阿城).

星星點點: 黃銳和馬德升的美編活動 1978-1983
Edited by Iona Whittaker and Huang Rui
Publisher Hadrien de Montferrand Gallery, Beijing, 2013
212 pages
via Huang Rui

PDF, PDF (8 MB)