From 13 to 16 October we joined Printed Matter’s NY Art Book Fair. It was inspiring to meet with so many artist publishers again, and attend the talks and presentations. A big thank you to Printed Matter’s staff for making it happen.
We will soon announce a date to share our experiences and to celebrate our picks (two suitcases full of books) with you in Rotterdam. Expect presentations by fair exhibitors about their new publications, which will be added to PrintRoom’s growing archive The Living Collection.
Comments Off on 13 to 16 October – Printed Matter’s NY Art Book Fair
Wednesday, 21 September 2022 PrintRoom, Schietbaanstraat 17, Rotterdam 18.00–20.30
In this gathering, Publisher-in-Residence Czar Kristoff (PHL) will talk about traces of past memories found in the Netherlands. From parks, to biking, to images, to feelings, to flavour, to gestures, (re)collected.
Expect warm Ginataang Bilo-bilo, film screenings, banderitas-making from scrap paper, and fake sunsets. You’re kindly invited!
More information: Czar Kristoff (Camarines Sur, Capricorn Earth Snake) is an artist, educator, designer and publisher, interested in (re)construction of space and memory, through concepts of nesting and temporary architecture, for (pedagogical) occupation, using cottage industry publishing—blueprints, xerox, and other low-fidelity printing methods—as his current media of interest. He is a Foam Talent 2022 and part of To Be Determined Trojan Horse Cell (together with Alfred Marasigan, Clara Balaguer and Isola Tong), a collective that will orbit the threshold of three institutions engaged with practices of archiving: PrintRoom, Het Nieuwe Instituut, and Page Not Found.
We would like to thank Het Nieuwe Instituut for making this residency possible.
On Tuesday 26 September, To Be Determined Trojan Horse Cell will present their collective work at HNI.
Comments Off on 21 September – Touch By Touch with Czar Kristoff
Sunday 4 September 2022 PrintRoom, Schietbaanstraat 17, Rotterdam 14.00-16.00
We will start the afternoon with a Book Lunch with invited publishers. All guests will bring books to the table to feed the conversation. Participants will be Bebe Books from Ghent (Publisher-in-Residence in November), Ruohong Wu and Jose Quintanar / Ruja Press, Pernilla Ellens / Blitz Books, Clara Balaguer, Hannah Dawn Henderson, among others.
At 14:00 you are invited for drinks and a Show And Tell by Czar Kristoff.
More information:
Czar Kristoff is an artist, educator, designer and publisher, interested in (re)construction of space and memory, using cottage industry publishing—blueprints, xerox, and other low-fidelity printing methods—as his current media of interest. He is a Foam Talent 2022 and part of To Be Determined Trojan Horse Cell (together with Alfred Marasigan, Clara Balaguer and Isola Tong), a collective that will orbit the threshold of three institutions engaged with practices of archiving: PrintRoom, Het Nieuwe Instituut, and Page Not Found.
We would like to thank Het Nieuwe Instituut for making this residency possible.
Comments Off on 4 September – Publisher-in-Residence Czar Kristoff
Spira Mirabilis And Other Spiral Patterns is a new book about an ingenious spiral pattern found in natural environments and beings, such as snales and shells. Spira mirabilis has inspired artists and architects because of its enigmatic shape. The Riso printed publication combines colourful graphics, mathematical drawings, text, and more. The publication was produced during a short work period at our Riso workshop space last June. Published by PrintRoom.
The launch takes place during the finissage of Maura Biava’s exhibition Nature * Patterns at Gallery Caroline O’Breen, which also holds work by Emily Joyce.
Comments Off on 27 August – Book Launch: Spira Mirabilis And Other Spiral Patterns
at the clubhouse of Streven naar Verbetering Roel Langerakweg 33, 3041 JK Rotterdam
A playful Art Book Fest with over 25 international and local artist publishers, who present their new work and that of others at the site of the community gardens in Rotterdam-West.
Join us for book tables, talks, music and workshops!
With: Alauda Publications, Amy Suo Wu, Anahi Saravia Herrera, antoine lefebvre editions, backbonebooks, Chantal Garduño, Fucking Good Art, Futura Resistenza, Gloria Glitzer, Happy Potato Press, Jesse Presse, Johan Kleinjan, Knust / Extrapool, MonoRhetorik, No Libros, O Book Publisher, Onomatopee, OOMK, Other Forms, Pantofle Books, PrintRoom, Ruja Press, Sarmad Magazine, Sergej Vutuc, Temporary Services, Terry Bleu, Teuntje Fleur, The Eriskay Connection, The Nose, Valiz and more!
+ Workshop paper-making by Marieke de Hoop + Lecture by Esther Krop + Music by Futura Resistenza and Cengiz Mengüç + Zine making with receipt printers by Florian Cramer + Soup for Ukraine by Yuliya Gwilym / Yufrukt
Logo by José Quintanar (Ruja Press).
The Books Are Bridges Art Book Fest is organized within the scope of the 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.
From 15 to 17 July 2022, participants of the summit will reflect on collective practices and future models of gathering around publishing and zine making. How do we grow our roots, nourish the community, and host a wider public?
The summit also includes a walk by artist Isolde Venrooy, a conversation on publishing and waste with Temporary Services, ARTZINES exchange with Antoine Lefebvre, editorial and printing sessions at our riso workshop space with various publishers, a lunch talk by Alan Smart, and conversations with, amongst others, Bia Bittencourt, Erica Overmeer, Chantal Garduño, Paul John (remotely), and Ann-Kristin Stølan (remotely).
—
Developed by PrintRoom (Karin de Jong and team) in collaboration with Eleanor Vonne Brown. The title Books Are Bridges is inspired by the publishing practice of Claudia de la Torre. Logo by José Quintanar (Ruja Press). Poster design by Dongyoung Lee.
Comments Off on 17 July – Books Are Bridges Art Book Fest
Posted onJune 20, 2022byprintroomeditor|Comments Off on 2 July 2022 – BooXtravaganza! Launch of new publications by Juliette Gilson and Cengiz Mengüc & Clara Balaguer
17.00-20.00 17.30 Artist talks There will be drinks and food. Please join us!
PrintRoom, Schietbaanstraat 17, Rotterdam
The Third Landscape by Juliette Gilson
The Third Landscape is the tangible result of Juliette Gilson’s experiment-driven research project that took place from May 2021 to April 2022. The project emerged from an interest in the port-city of Rotterdam – its landscape and built environment, its roads and omnipresent traffic, trucks, containers, gas stations, parking lots and warehouses. Through urban investigations of transitional spaces, between port and city, transformations of an ever-changing part of society are recorded. Walking and writing are used as a cognitive method that informs and triggers new processes of thinking, researching, making and communicating. Walking means being immersed, drenched in the present condition amongst surrounding elements, through which temporal realities and new narratives are being revealed.
The publication includes contributions by Bart de Baets, René Boer, marjolijn kok and Nino Maissouradze.
Vernacular Design Horoscope Reading by Cengiz Mengüç and Clara Balaguer
FREE BONUS! Homework Streetfolder
Your Company Name presents a one-afternoon-only event… Half a year after the sidewalk take-away walk-by release of… 2022 Calendar of Leaked Research*…
Clara Balaguer and Cengiz Mengüç will discuss their research home/streetwork in a month-to-month format, speculating modest destinies for design psychonauts interested in diskarte, ch0ss3l r3cl4me, radical inkjet, phoenix design, default fonts, PDF RIP deals, and more. There may also be YouTube DJ sessions, but we are not sure yet.
*2022 CoLR contains residue from an ongoing investigation into vernacular design culture as it manifests on the streets of Rotterdam and as it links to other design cultures in the elsewhere. The corporate giveaway template (calendar) is considered a valid research surface. Throughout 2021, Mengüç and Balaguer—under the temporary handle Your Company Name—have used casual of field work methodologies to amass qualitative data: long walks documented by smartphone, Whatsapp image dumps, take-away-fueled conversations logged on Etherpad, and chilling IRL and on Zoom.
Comments Off on 2 July 2022 – BooXtravaganza! Launch of new publications by Juliette Gilson and Cengiz Mengüc & Clara Balaguer
Saturday 18 June 2022, start 19.00 19.00-20.00 – Artist talks 20.30 – Making miso from bread, with Erika Hirose 21.30 – Workshop textile repair, with Bronwen Jones Ongoing – Miso tasting, garment repair, DIY notebook making with leftover printing material from our riso workshop space
During Museumnacht010, PrintRoom presents two new publications: Making Miso by Erika Hirose and Clothing Correspondence by Bronwen Jones.
Making Miso is a diary about traveling, memory, loss, and making miso for a living. As with the flavors of miso, emotions become milder with time. Published by Twofold Press, in partnership with PrintRoom.
Workshop: Make your own miso with The Bread Miso Making Kit developed by Erika Hirose! You only need to bring 100 grams of leftover bread — like plain white rolls, brown bread, sourdough, or bagels.
Clothing Correspondence reveals the many layers of stories that are soaked up by textile. Through her work, Bronwen Jones explores the relationship between bodies and garments — the stories held in their creases and the traces they leave in one another.
Workshop: Bring your damaged garments to be repaired, in exchange for an intimate conversation around care, labor and repair!
Friday 22 April, 19-21hrs Artist talk about backbonebooks by Claudia de la Torre and presentation of the results of the workshops. You’re invited!
Claudia de la Torre is PrintRoom’s new Publisher in Residence. In 2011 she founded Berlin-based backbonebooks. By publishing her own as well as work by other artists, she examines what a book can be – as collaborative process and in relation to other objects, spaces and concepts. Claudia will dig into our archive and create new work based on our collection.
20-21-22 April Publishing workshops with Claudia de la Torre. Expect to be making bookmarks too! Spots are available, upon application. Please send us an email when you are interested.
Ruja Press will present their new publication This Was A Project But We Have Forgotten What It Was (2022), published by PrintRoom, in which Ruohong Wu and José Quintanar of Ruja Press share their experiences with artist publishing. A book as an alternative catalog, an artist book on artist books and on drawing as a process. This weekend their exhibition 10 Years of Ruja Press is still on view at PrintRoom too! The collection will become part of PrintRoom’s growing archive of artist publishing.
In addition, Marc Nagtzaam will present his new publication Farben (2021) alongside previous work, followed by a conversation with the audience and Ruja Press about artist publishing, drawing, allies and friendship. You’re invited! We serve snacks and drinks.
Farben is an artist book which is the result of an experiment to introduce color in an oeuvre that consists for the most part of variations in black and white. The book is a compilation of various types of drawings; geometric compositions, borrowed from existing book covers, posters, and paintings, numerous line drawings based on erased ‘to-do-lists’, and ‘sketches of drawings’ by Marc Nagtzaam. As with its predecessor Zeichnungen he combined his material by printing it in different layers on a Riso duplicator at the Jan van Eyck Academie in Maastricht. The result is a careful composition of drawings that became a new work in itself. Printed in a limited edition of 200 copies, numbered and signed. Published by Roma Publications.
Ten years of making books as a public space by Ruja Press
PrintRoom presents 10 years of Ruja Press’ work, playfully researching and exposing their publishing practice and family with an exhibition, a public event and a book launch.
Ruohong Wu and José Quintanar, researchers, artists, architects and publishers at Ruja Press: “We perceive publishing as our artistic practice. We make books from a social and political conviction. But, above all, we make books to have fun”. Since 2013, the two artists have opted for publishing as a way to create social spaces and a poetic tool of communication. As they say: “We draw for our friends, and printing a drawing is the cheapest way to share a drawing with many others.” It’s how they started, in London – with a simple approach to make a community.
During Art Central Rotterdam XL – Gallery Weekend, PrintRoom welcomes Ruja and friends for the opening of the exhibition and a public event. The exhibition, with over 40 artist books by Ruja, explores the idea of “making books as a format for artistic practice” and aims to connect and expand the audience from a single space to other interventions in the public space. After the exhibition, PrintRoom and Ruja launch a publication about 10 years Ruja Press – which features, among others, the project Today is a Very Very Very Very Gummy Place (2021).
A ball has been shot by a man. A man carrying a flag. A flag that has been previously shot by another person. Another person of whom we only know the gesture of his leg at the moment of shooting. The drawing ends with an “etc”. There are two annotations, “This was a Project but” at the top of the drawing, “We have forgotten what it was”, at the bottom.
“This is a drawing made by Robert Filliou and George Brecht. We found ten years ago inside of their book “Games at the Cedilla, or the cedilla takes off” published by Something Else Press in 1967. This image has haunted us for all that time. The drawing seems to be the beginning of a game. The elements of the drawing are indicating the instructions for playing. It´s is like a word game, where each element conditions the next and so on. At the same time, the information received establishes that the game has a fun character. Don’t think too much, the more absurd the better, continue playing and have fun. The “etc” indicates that we could continue playing:
“A ball is shot by a man who is carrying a flag. A flag that has been shot by a woman. A woman who has an elephant hat. An elephant hat that has been shot by a man. A man who is wearing a very very very long wig. A very very very long wig that has been shot by a woman. A woman who has a huge fancy umbrella. A huge fancy umbrella that has been shot by a man. Etc…”
If we had to describe what is a book for us, we could not explain it better than this drawing. This is why now we had to redraw that drawing. It’s for a book about RUJA PRESS, 10 years making books. It will be published by PrintRoom and will be called, why not, “This is a project but we have forgotten what it was”.
