PrintRoom

Flyer by Dongyoung Lee

10 Years of Rab-Rab Press 

8 November 2024, 19.00 – 21.00 at PrintRoom

~Presentation of Rab-Rab Press books, talk by Sezgin Boynik 

~Zaum-inspired musical performance by Elvin Brandhi

Join us for the 10th anniversary of Rab-Rab Press! PrintRoom will host an event celebrating Zaum, or trans-rational poetry, with a talk by publisher Sezgin Boynink followed by a performance by sound artist Elvin Brandhi. Graphic designer Bardhi Haliti will join the conversation.

For the occasion we will reprint Rab-Rab Press’s first publication Still Stealing Steel: Historical-Materialist Study of Zaum, originally published in 41 copies in Tbilisi in 2014. The publication will also include newly commissioned Zaum-inspired poems by Elvin Brandhi. 

The evening will be dedicated to Ilya Zdanevich – Iliazd, who was born in 1894 in Tbilisi, and died in 1975 in Paris. He was a poet, designer, typographer, theoretician, and publisher who, through Zaum, created a new language of internationalism. Zaum (in Russian, trans-rational, or beyondsense) is seen as the most extreme manifestation of abstraction in Futurist poetry; Zdanevich defined it as the “pearl disease” in language, with the potential to destroy not only social and national barriers, but also the ones dividing humans and animals.

Rab-Rab Press’ bie bao series is dedicated to the life and work of Zdanevich-Iliazd. Beyond ‘revolution’ and ‘Zaum’, the cosmos of Iliazd also incorporated Byzantine aesthetics, theories on language sickness, modern typography, mediaeval astronomy, and visual poetry. Graphic design by Bardhi Haliti.

Rab-Rab Press books at PrintRoom: bie bao series (left) and Still Stealing Steel: Historical-Materialist Study of Zaum

More information:

Rab-Rab Press is an independent publishing platform based in Helsinki. It publishes Rab-Rab: journal of political and formal inquiries in art and books combining experimental art and leftist politics with scholarly rigour and punk attitude. Initiated in 2014, Rab-Rab Press is run by Sezgin Boynik.

Sezgin Boynik is a writer, editor and publisher based in Helsinki. He founded Rab-Rab Press, an independent publishing platform in Helsinki that combines experimental art and leftist politics with scholarly rigour and a punk attitude. He also co-founded Pykë-Presje in Prizren, Kosovo, an independent space using archives to oppose the nation-state narratives. Boynik is also involved in the editorial work of OEI, a Stockholm based magazine dedicated to expanded poetry.

Elvin Brandhi is an improvising lyricist and beat producer instigating projects of improvised socio-aesthetic overflow expanding haphazardly with circus intent. Her practice involves performing wherever and whenever possible, composing audio-sonic essays, videos, sample-based beats and theatrical public hacking. 

Bardhi Haliti is a Kosovar graphic designer and researcher living in Amsterdam. In 2011, Haliti co-founded REDO, the annual international graphic design event in Prishtina, and since 2013 he serves as its program director.

From 19:00 – 21:00 at PrintRoom
Schietbaanstraat 17, Rotterdam

FLAMETTI, or the dandyism of the poor — a novel by Hugo Ball, translated and read by Catherine Schelbert

Presentation of the epic audio book adventure with audio fragments, a talk and a live musical intermezzo by FGA and Nina Hitz. 

 We’ll serve drinks & bites! 

Catherine Schelbert’s reading of Hugo Ball’s Flametti, or the dandyism of the poor is published as FGA#44, to celebrate Fucking Good Art’s 20th anniversary, and consists of an audiobook/radio play, a read-along paperback, and 10-inch vinyl record.  

This new FGA is a 6h 40min audiobook / radio play adaptation of the English translation of Hugo Ball’s 1916 novel Flametti, or the dandyism of the poor, with music in the spirit of Dada by Robert Hamelijnck, Nina Hitz, Nienke Terpsma, and also starring Vilbjørg Broch, Lucas Simonis, Klaas Hekman & Wu Wei, and Christien Coetzee (in order of appearance). 

Flametti, or the dandyism of the poor is a dark satirical comedy about an impoverished vaudeville company and the rise and fall of its director Max Flametti, a figure of tragic proportions entangled in his inescapable self. It is also the story of the allure of the “Fuchsweide, the concert and entertainment quarter of the off-beat, fun-loving crowd,” which is in danger of being “cleansed” by the police. This deceptively straightforward, everyman tale eloquently renders the complex, conflicted, non-professionalized, messy, forgotten humus of a vibrant urban scene that prevailed in Zurich over a hundred years ago.

Hugo Ball wrote this provocative, largely overlooked, semi-autobiographical novel in 1916, the same year he, Emmy Hennings, Tristan Tzara, and others founded Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich. Their artist-run nightclub existed for less than a year and gave birth to Dada as a form of artistic protest against the brutality of the First World War raging in Europe. They spread their ideas in absurd, grotesque performances, sound poetry, and manifestos. It is from this cultural and political context that the novel Flametti emerged.

Co-published by edition fink, Zurich and FGA.

Fucking Good Art is both an artist collective (Rob Hamelijnck & Nienke Terpsma) and a recurrent publication on contemporary art, which manifests physically as well as on the internet.  

FGA / Nienke Terpsma (left), BAB Art Book Fest, photo Willem Mes

Boek Klup #6: Battlefield and Fabulous Borders,

a close look at gardens  

For the last of these summer days, PrintRoom will present works by artist publishers who celebrate plants, gardens, and gardeners. It may help you to plan your next year’s green paradise.

Gabriella Hirst and Jasper Otto Eisenecker will present the publication “Battlefield” followed by a hands-on introduction to the Battlefield garden.

Guus Kaandorp, Floor Kortman and Lou-Lou van Staaveren will present Pleasant Place, Issue 5: Mien Ruys with a short talk by contributor Nicole Martens.
We’ll create our own garden design on PrintRoom’s pavement – using chalk and with Mien Ruys’ design templates in mind.

We’ll serve afternoon tea and snacks, possibly in the garden!

Battlefield is an artist book produced by artist Gabriella Hirst and designer Jasper Otto Eisenecker. It is the printed accompaniment to Gabriella’s Battlefield garden artwork- a garden of plants whose officially registered cultivar names reference theatres of war, armed conflict and the military, which she has been growing since 2014.

The publication tells the stories behind every plant in the Battlefield living garden archive, including excerpts from email correspondence with plant societies, gardening blogs, horticultural archives, plant care tips, personal anecdotes and speculations alongside compiled ephemera and research material gathered from the last decade of the garden. It features essays by curator and researcher Anja Lückenkemper and Gabriella Hirst, and a poster-dust jacket of the planting guide of Battlefield as installed at the Kunsthalle Osnabrück in 2022-23.

Pleasant Place is a growing collection of publications about the art of gardening. Pleasant Place informs and inspires by offering both practical and in-depth information as well as unexpected approaches to everyday garden tasks and garden design. Through collaborations with experts and artists Pleasant Place caters both to those who grow gardens as well as those who imagine gardens.

Pleasant Place #5 is dedicated to garden legend Mien Ruys, one of the most influential garden designers of the 20th century. This issue includes a number of outstanding contributions, among which: an introduction to Mien’s life, designs and awesomeness by garden designer and author Julia Crawford (‘Mien Ruys: Designing the Dutch garden’); a conversation with Pien van der Stadt, who worked alongside Mien Ruys for twenty years (‘A garden like mine made her completely nervous’); a guide on ‘How to create a fabulous border with Mien’s favourite plants’; a personal account by designer Bonne Reijn, who spent his earliest years with his great aunt Mie (‘Dear Mien’); ‘Kleine stadstuintjes’, the interpretation of a small urban garden’s canvas by five artists (Farida Sedoc, Sigrid Calon, Frédérique Albert-Bordenave, Nicole Martens and Vera van de Seyp); and many more!

PrintRoom joins Index Art Book Fair in Venice!
An Art Book Fair of Art Book Fairs, organised by the Index Art Book Fair team at the new art space Ca’Buccari.

With:

IABF [Mexico City, MX] @indexartbookfair
African Art Book Fair [Dakar, SN] @africanartbookfair
An Independent Book Fair [Tirana, ALI] @28nope@bulevard_art_media_institute
Arts of the Working Class [Berlin, DE] @arts_of_the_working_class
Bergen Art Book Fair [Bergen, NO] @bergenartbookfair
Books are Bridges [Rotterdam, NL] @printroom_rtm
Border_less [Istanbul, TR] @border_less_
Cairo Art Book Fair [Cairo, EG] @cairoartbookfair
Fair Enough [Tallín. EE] @fairenough_bookfair
I Never Read [Basel, CH] @ineverreadartbookfairbasel
Libros Mutantes [Madrid, ES] @librosmutantes
Miss Read [Berlin, DE] @missreadberlin
OAZA Collectiv [Zagreb, HR] @oaza_kolektiv
Taipei Art Book Fair [Taipei, TW] @taipeiartbookfair
Yogyakarta Art Book Fair [Yogyakarta, ID] @ykartbookfair

Calle Buccari 3, S.Elena, Venice, Italy
Thu—Sunday, 12-15.09.24, 12-8pm. Opening Thursday, 4pm. Entrance Free 

Index Art Book Fair members joined our first Books Are Bridges Summit in 2022 in Rotterdam which focussed on Art Book Fairs and how we can strengthen the community of artist publishing. We are very excited to continue the conversation with Art Book Fair organisers from all over the world. We’ll bring back a good selection of books from the fair to Rotterdam!

Poster by José Quintanar

Free Entry

The Books Are Bridges Art Book Fest

Sunday 14 July, 12.00 – 17.00 

At the clubhouse of Volkstuinvereniging Streven naar Verbetering (SNV)
Roel Langerakweg 33, 3041 JK Rotterdam

→ Enter through the community garden gate and stay left until you reach the clubhouse

Join our Fabulous Art Book Fest with +30 international and local artist publishers*, who present their latest publications at the Clubhouse of SNV community gardens in Rotterdam-West. 

The Art Book Fest is the place for those who love artists’ publications – from books to zines, from toolkits to experimental projects. In addition to tables with the latest releases, there will be book presentations, workshops, food and music. Everyone is welcome!

Books are Bridges Program:

12.00 – 17.00 Art Book Fest – Publishers present their work in and around the club house of SNV  

Bookpresentations:

• 13.00 -16.00 Ongoing audio book presentation: Flametti, or the dandyism of the poor, a novel by Hugo Ball, translated and read by Catherine Schelbert by FGA / edition fink 
  
• 13.30 -14.30 Book presentations we are all extremophiles by David Habets &
• NETbook Touched by Mushrooms by Eline Vis and PrintRoom
  
• 15.00 Book presentations Chinees-Indisch Restaurant Stickeralbum by Benjamin Li and Scanned Football Photos by Maurice van Es 

Worskhops:

• 13.00 – 13.10 Midnight Wellness Retreat workout with Kexin Hao
  
• 13.00 – 14.00 and 15.00 – 16.00 Printing the Garden (all ages) with Ewoud van Rijn & Fraser Muggeridge
  
• 13.00 – 13.10 Midnight Wellness Retreat workout with Kexin Hao
  
• 14.00 – 15.00 Making a landscape (all ages) with José Quintanar

All afternoon: 

• Music by Bergur Anderson &  Linus Bonduelle 
• Food by Eathouse 

BAB Art Book Fest 2023 –

top left: book tables (during the storm), right: book presentation and tea tasting || bottom left: breakfast by Artists in Solidarity (raising money for victims of the earth quake in Turkey), right: presentation and demonstration NETbook Walton Flax Exchange, with gardeners and publishers.

12,13,14 July: The Books Are Bridges Summit

The Books Are Bridges Art Book Fest is organised within the scope of the third Books Are Bridges Summit – a small-scale gathering for artist publishers with space for connection, exchange of ideas and DIY workshops, spread across locations in Rotterdam: from the gardens to the docks. 

For this edition, we invited colleague spaces for artist books and social spaces for artist publishing, next to a number of artist publishers. We bring together multiple generations of publishing spaces – from initiatives that have started in the 80s to younger spaces, amongst which are einBuch.haus (Berlin, DE), Northing Space (Bergen, NO), Lendroit (Rennes, FR), Handshake® Books (Valencia, ES), Common Imprint (Berlin, DE), Limestone Books (Maastricht, NL), Colorama (Berlin, DE) and Boekie Woekie (Amsterdam, NL).

Coming to Rotterdam from various countries in Europe by train, they all bring their unique experiences and methods of making the work of artist publishers public. During the first two days of the Summit, we’ll present, listen, have conversations on how we organise, connect, support each other and how we are in turn supported. We look at ways to involve a wider audience in our publishing projects and discuss methods to create new connections, also outside of our field.

Next to discussing these questions, presentations, shared meals and exercises, we will do a bike tour, guided by artist publisher José Quintanar. The conversations of this gathering will be made public in the publication Summit Up #3 later this year. 

*With:

einBuch.haus (Berlin, DE), Northing Space (Bergen, NO), Knust Press (Nijmegen, NL), Lendroit (Rennes, FR), Colorama (Berlin, DE), Gloria Glitzer (Berlin, DE), MonoRhetorik (Den Haag, NL), Not Just a Collective (Arnhem, NL), Common Imprint (Berlin, DE), Limestone Books (Maastricht, NL), Rahel Zoller (London, UK), Teuntje Fleur (Rotterdam, NL), Hum Drum Press (Rotterdam, NL / Berlin, DE), Handshake® Books (Valencia, ES), Boekie Woekie (Amsterdam, NL), Bur-Rose (Den Haag, NL), This was a project… (Amsterdam, NL), Pleasant Place (Amsterdam, NL), PrintRoom (Rotterdam, NL), Prickly Paper (Guangzhou, CN/ Berlijn, DE), 51 Personae (Shanghai, CN), Benjamin Li (Rotterdam, NL), Maurice van Es (Rotterdam, NL), David Habets (Den Haag, NL), Fucking Good Art (Rotterdam, NL), Eleanor Vonne Brown / The Nose (Walton on the Naze, UK), Fraser Muggeridge / London, UK), Jap Sam Books (Prinsenbeek, NL), Futura Resistenza (BE), Short Pieces that Move (Rotterdam, NL), Amy Suo Wu (Rotterdam, NL), Jesse Presse with Valiz and Onomatopee, nkg publications, Errant Journal (Amsterdam, NL), The Eriskay Connection (Breda, NL), Warehouse (Amsterdam, NL), Pages (NL), a.o.

Zaterdag 6 juli, 13.00-17.00 uur

Rijnhoutplein

Samen met de buren rond het Rijnhoutplein vieren we de zomer!
Met een muzikale performance van stadsdichter Elfie Tromp, workshops, marktkramen met goodies uit de buurt, een foto booth en meer..

We staan op het plein met een selectie van onze publicaties en je kunt zelf een boekje maken met boekbind expert Gersande Schellinx.

Together with the neighbors around Rijnhoutplein, we are celebrating summer!

We will join the festival with a selection of our publications and we’ve invited bookbinding expert Gersande Schellinx to give a workshop.

With presentations by fair exhibitors Gloria Glitzer and Werkplaats Typografie 

19.00-21.00

PrintRoom was delighted to visit Printed Matter’s NY Art Book Fair this April, followed by our participation in Offprint London in May. At both fairs we had wonderful exchanges with other artist-publishers, saw performances and lectures and found many new gems to bring back to Rotterdam.

We’re eager to share this year’s treasures from New York as well as our haul from London during an evening featuring presentations by two exhibitors from New York: Moritz Grünke from Gloria Glitzer (DE) and participants of Werkplaats Typografie (Arnhem, NL).

Join the conversation between Mortitz Grünke from Gloria Glitzer and Karin de Jong on the book: The Future of Art Book Festivals — Formerly Known as Fairs, a short critical text by Moritz on his experiences as visitor, participant but also former long-time organizer of Europe’s biggest art book fair. The text was first published in Summit Up #1 (2023) by PrintRoom, Publishing-Household, ARTZINES & Gloria Glitzer. The text was developed over several years beginning with the talk “From Miss Read to an Utopian Art Book Festival” at the Unfold – Shanghai Art Book Fair in 2019, but also informed by the intense discussions at the books are Bridges Summit at PrintRoom Rotterdam in 2022.

Werkplaats Typografie will present its contribution to Printed Matter’s NY Art Book Fair 2024: The Ellipsis Foundation for targeted publishing. 

Ellipsis is a research institution that uses a psychometric assessment process known as “targeting” to gather data on print consumers. While we cannot reveal the extent to which Ellipsis capitalizes on this data, we are permitted to say that sacrificing one’s personal information to Ellipsis is a fair exchange. This is because in return for participating in a targeting session, participants receive a personalized reader, the exploration of which greatly enhances one’s sense of self.

The Ellipsis Foundation for targeted publishing is a project by Maxim Preaux, Mika Kastner Johnson, Nick Sheeran and Victoria Lum.

NY Art Book Fair, books by: backbonebooks, Further Reading, Martha’s Quarterly, Institute For Studies On Latin American Art, Soberscove Press, homie house press, New Documents, nos:books, Wendy’s Subway, Bilna’es, GenderFail, Half Letter Press, Breakdown Break Down Press, Gato Negro Ediciones, Interference Archive, Justseeds, Gold Rain, Calipso Press, Chang Yuchen, Inventory Press, reliable copy, Alder & Frankia, Unity Press, Dreamer FTY, abC (art books in China), Pegacorn Press, Common Notions, Passenger Pigeon Press, Gabriella Hirst, te editions, Ugly Duckling Presse, Uranus Comics, Allied Productions, Inc. / Le Petit Versaille, Bananafish Books, Heather Benjamin, Printed Matter, Inc., Queer Ecology Hanky Project, Roma Publications, Kodoji Press, Stefan Marx & Liberty Adrien, Edition Taube a.o.

Offprint London, books by: Book Works, The London Centre for Book Arts, Mark Pawson / Disinfotainment, Xexoxial Editions, Bricks from the Kiln, Conveyor Editions, Conveyor Editions, The Laundry arts, Woman Cave Collective, Rehab Eldalil, Mophradat, Archive Books, Hato Press, Active Distribution, Worms Magazine, Esmat – Publishing List, Macaco Press, a.o .

About the guests:

Gloria Glitzer 

Gloria Glitzer is the avatar of the artists Franziska Brandt and Moritz Grünke.
Founded in 2007, Gloria Glitzer develops, creates, and publishes artzines and artists’ books.
Gloria Glitzer also runs We make it a Risography and Graphics studio and the Herbarium Riso, a public archive dedicated to stencil printed matters.

From 2015 to 2022 Moritz Grünke organized, together with a team, the Miss Read Festival at HKW, Berlin.

Werkplaats Typografie

Werkplaats Typografie is a two-year experimental Master’s programme in graphic design. It functions as a research environment wherein participants define the content, aims and conditions of their international independent design practice, and develop their artistic, visual, discursive and practical qualities. Being part of a questioning community, they learn how to interact with their ambitions and skills, positioning themselves in the field while pushing its limits.

PrintRoom table at Offprint London (Tate Modern)

Offprint London returns to Tate Modern’s for its eighth edition!

From Friday 17th to Sunday 19th May 2024, the book fair will host independent experimental and socially engaged publishers in the fields of arts, architecture, design, humanities, and visual culture.

Book presentation: Sunday 19.05.24 from 15.40 -16.10

McAulay Studio, Tate Modern

Printing Plates, Books for Bread
Stories and visuals of heritage and resistance through baking and sharing of bread by Rose Nordin, in conversation with Karin de Jong (PrintRoom)

Initially for PrintRoom’s Leesmap, Rose conceptualised, gathered and designed the publication Printing Plates: Books for Bread, a zine about baking bread in times of siege. Today we present the special edition, bound in bread bags, of which the proceeds go to Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP).

15:00 -17.30 PM: 

Boek Klup #5

We are thrilled to invite you to the launch of Mbuchi: Turtle Words. On Forbidden Mother Tongues, a book by Eva Posas and to introduce you to our new Publisher in Residence Loraine Furter!! 

Mbuchi: Turtle Words. On Forbidden Mother Tongues, delves into Eva’s long-term research on language, mother tongues and decolonial transmission practices through different generations and geographies. 

The book explores in seven chapters the human as a turtle, the turtle as a human and the environment that intertwines Binnizá cosmologies with poetry, dreams, lullabies, migration policies, children books, family wounds, language resistance and its modes of becoming in this epistolary narrative.

Eva invited artist Valentina Jager to join this adventure with translation as an artistic practice and artist Alan Sierra, accompanies with his illustrations as a lyrical interpretation of the reading. 

Design by Dongyoung Lee, printed and published by PrintRoom

Join us for a festive reading of Mbuchi: Turtle Words. On Forbidden Mother Tongues and conversation in the warmth of chocolate oaxaqueño

Let us introduce to you: Loraine Furter!  who dreams of a publishing project as a liant (“binding agent” in cooking and chemistry) across difference — books that speak to divergent sensibilities, that can bring together the very old and the very young, that make you want to learn minored languages, alliances between typographers and illiterates, … a laboratory to imagine a publishing shelter for projects that are hard to find in regular bookshelves and that can circulate in surprising ways ♥

At PrintRoom, Loraine hopes to engage in conversations with neighbouring local projects and their communities, share experiences and desires, dive into PrintRoom’s publications archive and organise book-making and binding workshops.If you recognize yourself (or a friend) in this desire for a type of book that is hard to find in regular bookshelves, please get in touch with us.

More information
Eva Posas is a curator, writer, and editor living between Mexico and the Netherlands. Her work addresses the politics of language, (forgotten) identities, and intergenerational memory as a form of aesthetic reflection at the crossroads of her Binnizá heritage.

Loraine Furter is a Brussels-based graphic designer and researcher interested in storytelling and empowerment through different forms of publishing.In the next months, Loraine will frequently be at PrintRoom for research, workshops, presentations and to meet people. Please get in touch if you’d like to meet her or join parts of the programme.