Printing Plant: Friday - Talks, Workshops and the Official Opening
22 November 2019

Amsterdam Art Weekend Open Gallery Night: Official Opening Printing Plant 17:00 - 20:00

Printing Plant 2019 is also accompanied by an exciting public programme. This year’s programme includes a varied line-up of talks, lectures and workshops, thematically divided into two general categories: Politics of Publishing and (Dis)appearance. The first theme touches on the symbolic importance of publishing, as a practice and as an industry, due to its role in the legitimization of cultural creation, standardization of discourse and as a platform for self-expression. The second relates to the concepts of creation and erasure in an increasingly globalized, industrialized and digitized world. We look forward to opening up the world of art-book publishing to the general public whilst affording industry professionals the opportunity to encounter fresh perspectives.

*Please note there are limited places available for each event. To make a reservation please email us at info@looiersgracht60.org. Tickets are 4,50€ each and are available on our website and at the door prior to the event.

On Friday November 22 you can join us for talks, readings and the official opening party:

Staging the Artist’s Book
Rijksakademie x 'Printing Plant'
A presentation and panel discussion 12:00 – 13:30, auditorium (theme 1)
The practices surrounding the production, distribution and readership of books raise a number of discursive questions within the context of exhibition spaces and bookstores, which reveal the manifold potentialities of the medium as an art object. This panel addresses curatorial practice in relation to artists’ books from a variety of different creative perspectives. Riet Wijnen, an Amsterdam-based artist interested in abstraction, perception, language and structures, Freek Lomme, the founding director of the public gallery and publishing house Onomatopee Projects, and Valérie Cudel the director of Captures Éditions, will speak about their work individually before engaging in a discussion moderated by Radna Rumping, an independent curator, writer and radio host.

RSVP here.

Workshop: Little Steidl presents ‘Waste Not Want Not’
12.00-14:00, room for books (theme 2)
A practitioners’ workshop devoted to the creative use of the waste materials form the printing and book production process. Designers, printers and bookmakers working with high quality materials and fine paper often face a dilemma: the abundant off-cuts and make-ready left behind during the production process are too precious to throw away. 'Printing Plant' is pleased to provide a platform on which participants can brainstorm creative ways of using this beautiful waste. The exercise will explore the themes of (dis) appearance and the re-use of materials in the creative process.

While publishing Lawrence Weiner's acclaimed artist book ‘SOMETHING TO PUT SOMETHING ON’, 14,000 sheets of cylinder mould-made Zerkall paper were left over in the form of make-ready, deckle edges, and off-cuts. Nina Holland, the co-founder and principal bookmaker at Little Steidl, makes use of these waste materials in her own creative process––and to date, only 3 sheets have been thrown away. However, there are still thousands of off-cuts waiting for a good idea, and these will be provided as raw materials for discussion and experimentation to participants. Seven individuals have been invited to participate in the workshop from different professional and creative backgrounds, from design to publishing to textiles.

Participants: Kateryna Snizhko (artist), Maaike Gottschal (ceci and textielfrabrique), design duo Lenneke Langenhuijsen and Brecht Duijf (Buro Belén), Karen Spurgin (textile designer), artist duo Chloe Lewis and Andrew Taggart (Museum of Longing and Failure) and Nina Holland (Little Steidl).

Tickets available here.

New Concepts for Guerilla Archiving: How to Survive Your Collection and How to Make Your Collection Survive or Fall Apart ‘
Panel discussion
14:00 – 15:00, auditorium (theme 1)
The panel will discuss the sustainability and accessibility of private collections of artist publications belonging to experimental, 'guerilla' archivists and collectors. The speakers will brainstorm efficient ways to network collections and make them less vulnerable and reflect on to what extent can new technologies influence this process? What do we do if the funding dries up, the rent gets too expensive or when the collector can't manage the collection any longer? The speakers will first introduce themselves and discuss the way they engage with their own collections. Based in Rotterdam, PrintRoom is a project space dedicated to the production, promotion and dissemination of artists' publishing. This panel is the first in a series of events organised by PrintRoom in order to begin to understand how to respond to questions arising from its own growing archive.

Speakers: Karin de Jong (Founder PrintRoom) Jan Steinbach (Founder Edcat), Franziska Brandt and Moritz Grünke (Founders of The Riso Herbarium), GJ de Rook (art critic, curator) Andreas Bülhoff (Library of Artistic Print on Demand), Ami Clarke (Banner Repeater), Silvio Lorusso (founder of the Post Digital Publishing Archive).

Tickets available here.

Occasional Papers presents ‘Bernd Lohaus: IM SEIN BEI’
A book launch and panel discussion
15:30 – 16:30, auditorium

To mark the launch of the richly illustrated monograph Bernd Lohaus: IM SEIN BEI, Anny De Decker, Stella Lohaus and Thomas Desmet will take part in a panel discussion on the life and work of the artist Bernd Lohaus (1940–2010). Moderated by Antony Hudek, the panel will consider the legacies of Lohaus’ prolific and radical oeuvre. Across a wide variety of mediums – sculpture, installation, painting, and writing –Lohaus distilled materials to their unadorned essence, while infusing them with poetry through the stark selection of words and colours. The discussion will highlight the ways in which Lohaus’ practice continues to resonate today.

Anny De Decker (1937) is the wife of Bernd Lohaus, she has worked as a professor and independent publisher. Stella Lohaus (1968), Lohaus’ daughter, is the director of LLS Paleis, an independent art space in Antwerp. Thomas Desmet (1981) is an editor and designer of art books who collaborated with Bernd Lohaus. Antony Hudek, is director of KASK Curatorial Studies and the co-founding director of Occasional Papers.

Tickets available here.

Workshop: ‘Space as Medium, Poetic Thinking as a Tool’
16:00 – 17:00 , room for books (theme 2)
Artist and researcher, Eriko J. Takeno has developed this workshop s a way to share with others her own introspective exploration of poetry as a therapy for anxiety. In the workshop, participants are invited to develop a mindful approach to their own perceptions of the physical environment, and to communicate their experiences with the rest of the group. The workshop unfolds as a triple process of observation, visualization and discussion.

Working in collaboration with psychologists, Eriko J Takeno has developed a method of somatic thinking through poetry, which, by activating a mutual connection between the internal and external spaces of one’s own body, allows the practitioner to deconstruct traumatic narratives of anxiety. Instead of making them disappear, the idea is to shape them into new narratives.

Special thanks to Yoko Arai, Clinical Psychologist(JP) and Lutza Ireland, Psychologist (AU)

Tickets available here.