Warsaw Art Book Fair
The New York art book fair had its tenth edition this year. A similar event in Tokyo was attended by 10 000 people. The fair in London hosted over 90 publishers. Finally, Warsaw can proudly have its own - the first edition of the Warsaw Art Book Fair will take place between November 27th and 29th at the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw.
The Warsaw Art Book Fair is organized by the Bookoff art book store and the Print Control annual Polish print design magazine. The Fair will feature limited edition art books and photobooks, as well as publications containing knowledge from various fields of visual culture - art, photography, design, architecture or fashion. It will showcase publications from Polish art galleries, independent publishers collaborating with artists and the most important, award-winning publications from Europe and the USA. The event will also feature a representation of the independent publishing scenes from our neighbors - the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Lithuania or Ukraine - as well as a unique collection of Japanese photobooks.
The Warsaw Art Book Fair will also host a series of meetings with artists and publishers, workshops and the 2015 Photographic Publication of the Year exhibition, which will be first shown in Warsaw. Guests will include art book world representatives Paweł Szypulski and Magdalena Buczek. Photographers from the Sputnik Photos collective will present their latest project, and the MAGENTA MAG team will lead a discussion on the place of photobooks in the art world. The Fair will also feature premieres of art publications, including a book from Oskar Dawicki - the artist will talk about it together with Łukasz Gorczyca. The Fair's special guest will be Andrew Hansen, creative director for British publisher Prestel.
The Warsaw Art Book Fair is an open event with free admission. It is intended for both specialists working in publishing and anyone who loves books that combine worthwhile content with refined, unique form. It will also feature activities for kids - the Spotlight Kids Academy and the Warsaw Printing Museum prepared workshops focused on popularizing reading and graphic design especially for the Fair. The Fair is hosted by the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, which will share its auditorium in the “Emilia” pavilion, well-liked by the residents of Warsaw, for the purposes of the event
A list of publishers participating in the Warsaw Art Book Fair as well as a constantly updated program of events can be found at: www.artbookfair.pl.
Saturday, November 28
12:00 p.m. - Between a cookbook and an art book
Panel discussion on culinary books which, due to their form, are looking more and more like art books. How to put taste on paper and what roles do graphic design and choice of paper play in the creation of a cookbook? How does the cookbook aesthetic change over the years?
Led by: Monika Brzywczy.
Guests: Małgorzata Minta, Krzysztof Kozanowski.
1:30 p.m. - Bolesław Chromry
Meeting with Bolesław Chromry, author of the graphic story “Renata”.
“’Renata’ is an urban fairytale filled with a parade of mutated caricatures either experiencing life or being tried by it. It shows the melancholy of unfulfillment. If we break the code of the graphic puzzles we can discover a wider context. The pleasure of reading ‘Renata’ lies in the details. They are like ropes that lead us to a different, parallel reality” - Sławomir Shuty
Led by: Paulina Januszewska.
3:00 p.m. - Magenta Mag
Michał Grochowiak and Dawid Misiorny.
The artist/editor. The artbook/magazine. A new anatomy - a few words on the current tendencies.
4:00 p.m. - Wrzesnia Collection
Meeting with curator Karol Szymkowiak and book designer Tomasz Wojciechowski.
The "Wrzesnia Collection” project resulted in an artistic photographic archive of the town of Wrzesnia, published each year in the form of a book by a different photographer. So far the photographers included Bogdan Konopka, Andrzej Jerzy Lech, Mariusz Forecki, Nicolas Grospierre, Zbigniew Tomaszczuk and Katarzyna Majak.
5:30 p.m. - Sputnik Photos
Meeting with Sputnik Photos photographers Rafał Milach and Jan Brykczyński, as well as Anna Nałęcka and Paweł Szypulski who collaborate with the collective. The photographers will talk about the Lost Territories project, which is a summary of Sputnik Photos’ activity the former Soviet Republics: Central-East Asia, the Baltic States, the Caucasus and Central Asia. The participants will receive a special magazine about the project.
6:30 p.m. - How to Make a Book with… Prestel
Meeting with Andrew Hansen, managing director of Prestel Publishing. Prestel is one of the world's most important art, architecture, photography and design publishers. Established in 1924, it currently boasts over 500 books in its catalog. Andrew Hansen will talk about his work for Prestel Publishing. For the last 15 years he has been deciding on the publisher’s catalog and managing the brand's development in over 50 countries in Europe, Asia and the Americas.
Sunday, November 29
12:00 p.m. - An independent magazine boom
Panel discussion with guests invited by Contemporary Lynx magazine who will talk about a comeback of print magazines. What makes the internet generation go back to “old fashioned” print media? Is it just a temporary fad or are they nostalgic for the aesthetic of print magazines with exclusive content? How should the balance between print and online content look?
1:00 p.m. - Patryk Karbowski
Meeting with Patryk Karbowski, author of the book “Halfway”.
In “Halfway” Patryk Karbowski shows the monuments of the aspirations of local governments: modernized city squares, shots from outdoor events, a water park. All of it subsidized by the European Union, whose money changes what cities look like, and therefore how their citizens act. Karbowski's bittersweet irony captures the moment of transformation, a peculiar mixture of the past and the modern, the nostalgic and the hopeful.
Led by: Krzysztof Pijarski.
2:00 p.m. - Maciej Jeziorek
Meeting with Maciej Jeziorek, author of the book “317 Days to Mars”.
It took about three hundred days for an Indian spacecraft to reach Mars's orbit. Maciej Jeziorek's book is based on the feeling of alienation Europeans experience on the streets of Indian cities, which can be compared to the experience of traveling to another planet. At the same time the book invites its readers to a game of fighting their stereotypes of the Orient and discovering a new face of modern India.
Led by: Joanna Kinowska.
3:30 p.m. - Books and trauma
Meeting with Paweł Szypulski, author of the book “Greetings from Auschwitz”.
The modern iconography of war, conflict and acts of terror is dominated by amateur images captured with cell phones and television news stories transmitted live from the scene of tragic incidents. The audience, more than ever before, can feel like they are almost directly participating in such events. So what role in this situation can be played by books, a medium that is fundamentally “slow”, that requires time and distance? What can artistic publications add to our perception and understanding of traumatic events?
4:30 p.m. - Oskar Dawicki
Meeting with Oskar Dawicki and presentation of the book “I’M SORRY”, the first album publication of his works. Besides photographic records of the artist's works and performances, the book includes stills from the set of “The Performer”. Everything is presented in an impressive album format with numerous full-page and two-page photos and detailed descriptions that take the reader behind the scenes of Dawicki's art.
Led by: Łukasz Gorczyca.
5:30 p.m. - Magda Buczek
Meeting with Magda Buczek, author of the books “JUSTINA&CO.UK” and “Random Selection”, and Emilia Obrzut, a graphic designer who works with the artist.
Magda Buczek will talk about “JUSTINA&CO.UK” in the context of her long term project “JUSTINA”, in which she builds a story around her cousin's colorful personality. The art book “JUSTINA&CO.UK” received a Selfpublishing award in the 2014 Photographic Publication of the Year contest. “Random Selection” will be shown at Bunkier Sztuki in Cracow, during the XII Baltic Triennial’s “A Million Lines” - this time in the form of a performance, curated, as in the case of “JUSTINA”, by Aneta Rostkowska.
Over 50 publishers from Poland, Europe and US will take part in Warsaw Art Book Fair.
40 000 Malarzy (PL)
Abrams & Chronicle Books (US)
APART (SK)
Aperture Foundation (US)
BIS Publishers (NL)
BWA Tarnów (PL)
BWA Wrocław (PL)
Centrala (PL)
Centrum Sztuki Współczesnej
Zamek Ujazdowski (PL)
Damiani (IT)
Fontarte Editions (PL)
FRAME Publishers (NL)
Fundacja Archeologia Fotografii (PL)
Fundacja ARTon (PL)
Fundacja Bęc Zmiana (PL)
Fundacja Galerii Foksal (PL)
Fundacja Kultura Miejsca (PL)
Fundacja Sztuk wizualnych (PL)
Galeria Miejska Arsenał (PL)
Galeria Stereo (PL)
Gestalten (DE)
Getty Publications (US)
Gingko Press (DE)
Karakter (PL)
Kaunas Gallery (LT)
Korporacja Ha!art (PL)
Lapas (LT)
Lars Müller Publishers (CH)
Laurence King Publishing (UK)
Lubok Verlag (DE)
MACK (UK)
MOCAK Muzeum Sztuki Współczesnej w Krakowie (PL)
Motto Berlin (DE)
Muzeum Książki Artystycznej (PL)
Muzeum Sztuki Nowoczesnej w Warszawie (PL)
Muzeum Sztuki w Łodzi (PL)
Verlag Niggli (CH)
Open Art Projects (PL)
Page Five (CZ)
Phaidon (UK)
Prestel Publishing (UK)
Princeton Architectural Press (US)
Print Control (PL)
Promo Press (ES)
Galeria Raster (PL)
Reaktion Books (UK)
Rizzoli New York (US)
Rodovid (UA)
SelfMadeHero (UK)
Sputnik Photos (PL)
Galeria Starter (PL)
Steidl (DE)
Super Salon (PL)
TASCHEN (DE)
teNeues (DE)
Tenov (ES)
Thames & Hudson (UK)
Wytwórnia (PL)
V&A Publishing (UK)
Yale University Press (US)
Zachęta Narodowa Galeria Sztuki (PL)