Project Descriptions
Flaka Haliti
Speculating on the Blue
Edited by Nicolaus Schafhausen
Contributions by Markus Miessen, Vanessa Joan Müller
Published in conjunction with Flaka Haliti’s solo presentation conceived for the Kosovo Pavilion at the 56th Venice Biennale, this book continues the artist’s invitation to encounter a visual field in which territorial boundaries are referenced and mediated by the sensory. Through the use of a saturated blue color altered by light and demarcated by architectural forms, the installation at the Venice Biennale reflects on the salient concept of the border.
The United Nations building in Pristina was a point of departure for the exhibition, as Vanessa Joan Müller backgrounds in her essay on the project, as well as relating to concerns of the threshold and the horizon line: “Concatenated concrete pylons form a tall, compact barrier which separates the UN building at the city limits from that very city. The concrete of the barriers was painted on the outside to downplay the appearance of a military safety zone. Different shades of blue.” The conversation between Markus Miessen and Haliti in the book tracks topics from migration to subjectivity, material states in relation to the digital and the status of internationalism.
Haliti’s approach is to recontextualize these politics into a spatial and visual abstraction. The accompanying book follows through on the exhibition’s experience of place and the notion of the horizon as emblems of both possibilities and limitations; bounded by a deep blue, pages have been set as color fields and the typography of the texts shift in scale. Speculating on the Blue offers multiple entry points for imagining present and future relations to histories and institutions.
Hito Steyerl
Too Much World
Edited by Nick Aikens
Texts by Nick Aikens, Karen Archey, Thomas Elsaesser, Pablo Lafuente, Sven Lütticken, David Riff, Hito Steyerl, Ana Teixeira Pinto
Hito Steyerl is rightly considered one of the most exciting artists working today who speculates on the impact of the Internet and digitization on the fabric of our everyday lives. Her films and writings offer an astute, provocative, and often funny analysis of the dizzying speed with which images and data are reconfigured, altered, and dispersed, many times over, accelerating into infinity or crashing into oblivion.
Published to accompany the artist’s survey exhibitions at the Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, and the Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane, Too Much World gathers a series of essays and close readings of Steyerl’s films from the past ten years. Newly commissioned texts by Sven Lütticken, Karen Archey, Ana Teixeira Pinto, and Nick Aikens, alongside writings by Thomas Elsaesser, Pablo Lafuente, David Riff, and Steyerl, are spliced with over one hundred pages of color stills. This publication is a charged slideshow of the artist’s extraordinary investigations into the status, circulation, and materiality of images.
Copublished with Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, and Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane
Class Breaks includes transcripts of a conversation between peers in their last year of elementary school in Lasko, Slovenia. This series of conversations were recorded by Zala Ozek, who for several months was filming her peers in school. Parts of the conversation where used as a script for film “Little Girl” by Maja Hodoscek but more that 1/2 were not. The publication includes the so called off material.
Author: Maja Hodoscek in collaboration with Zala Ozek
Published by: Dutch Art Institute and distributed by CasCo – Office for Art, Design and Theory
Rustavi–What the hell brought you here? is a publication by Georgian photographer Anka Gujabidze focusing on the city of Rustavi and its inhabitants. Rustavi is the fourth largest city in Georgia, situated 27 km southeast of the capital, Tbilisi.
Designed in collaboration with Laura Pappa. June 2013.
Initiated in 2012 by Corina Neuenschwander, The Shelves (formerly Proposal for a (Book)shelf) is a project space for participants of the Werkplaats Typografie for presenting work. The Shelves, a small niche, are located inside the meeting room of the school. Similar to many places in WT building, this space is a platform for sharing research and producing work with an emphasis on peer critique.
My contribution for the shelves consisted of 36 records I have acquired since coming to study at the Werkplaats Typografie.This collection of records started in September 2012 during a two week visit in New York City. The rest of the records were purchased during visits to Eindhoven and Amsterdam. The majority of the used records came from the flea markets or the second hand stores in Arnhem.
During the week-long shelves project I encouraged the participants of the Werkplaats Typografie to bring the records from their personal collection.
This eclectic mix of records could be consisted of lo-fi and folk vibes to garage punk and metal music parties.
The shelves became not only a space for listening to music but also provided an opportunity for discussing musical influences in relation to personal interests.
Për Althusserin (For Althusser) is a collection of critical essays on the philosophical concepts of Louis Althusser. The volume is edited by Agon Hamza and includes essays by Étienne Balibar, Rastko Mocnik, Robert Pfaller, Ozren Pupovac, Ekaterina Naumova, Sead Zimeri, Pierre Macherey, Jason Read, Gal Kirn, Hasana Sharp, Panagiotis Sotiris, Dhruv Jain and Gregory Elliott.
Published by Kolektivi Materializmi Dialektik, 2012.
WT Open Day/Open Dag, 2012
A book documenting the indoor walls of the Werkplaats Typografie. Produced on the occasion of WT Open Day, to which the people in the neighborhood were invited inside the school to get familiar with the students, their work and the school building.
Pages: 324 / Size: 18.9 x 24.6 cm
Jewyo Rhii: ‘Walls to Talk to’, 2013, is published to accompany the exhibitions:
Jewyo Rhii: ‘Walls to Talk to’ Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven. Curated by: Nick Aikens and Charles Esche;MMK Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt am Main. Curated by: Peter Gorschlüter; Artsonje Center, Seoul, curated by: Sunjung Kim and Samuso: Space for Contemporary Art.
Editors: Nick Aikens, Charles Esche, Susanne Gaensheimer, Peter Gorschlüter, Sunjung Kim
Authors: Nick Aikens, Charles Esche, Peter Gorschlüter and Jewyo Rhii, Sunjung Kim, Henk Visch
Published by: Koenig Books
Catalogue published on the occasion of the International Photo exhibition “Gjon Mili” edition XII, curated by Christine Frisinghelli under the title “Time, Place and the Camera”. Published by the National Gallery of Kosovo, 2013.
during the 1960s and 1970s, the socialist regime of yugoslavia built a number of monuments around kosovo honoring certain key events of world war II. most of these monuments have been abandoned — dismissed as having no cultural value by most in contemporary kosovo. the kosovo of today is a fiercely pro-american state that also has ambitions of joining the european union, but it is also home to a population that is barred from traveling to most places on earth without a visa. this country’s popular national narrative began in 1999, when the war ended. consequently, the monuments that followed have honored the likes of kosovo liberation army fighters and former american president bill clinton. in every corner of daily life foreign symbolism is ever present: a kosovo flag is seldom found without those of the united states, european union or albania.
this booklet is produced on the occassion of: werkplaats typografie buchmesse / new york art book fair 2012 / moma ps1 / new york
locations of monuments: mitrovica, brezovica, prizren, peja, prishtina, gjilan
pages: 20
design: bardhi haliti
printer: stencilkelder, amsterdam
first edition: 200
september 2012
Brochure for the group show titled “That Which Doesn’t Kill Us Is Often Made Of Foam” at Chert, Berlin with artists: Jonathan Binet, Kasia Fudakowski, Heike Kabisch, Siôn Parkinson, Erik van der Weijde. Published by Chert, 2011
Kultura focuses on arts and culture, and is published weekly in the daily Kosovar newspaper “Zeri”. The displayed covers were designed during 2010.
Originally published in Ljublana in 1990, “Nyja e Kosoves” is a book by Kosovo philosopher and art critic Shkelzen Maliqi. The book features Maliqi’s articles and polemics published in various journals in ex-Yugoslavia. Published by MM, 2010.
Brochure for the project “Kostërrc (CH)” by Petrit Halilaj presented at Art Basel Statements, 2011 with Chert, Berlin. Published by Chert & Bonner Kunstverein, June 2011. Photography Alexis Zavialoff
Booklet, featuring the essay “Why nonviolent resistance in Kosovo failed” by Shkelzen Maliqi. Published by MM, 2011
Book design, featuring Agon Hamza’s analysis on the work of French philosopher Louis Althusser. Published by Kolektivi Materializmi Dialektik, 2011
Catalogue design for the 9th edition of the student film and theatre festival Skena Up in Prishtina, Kosovo. Photography Majlinda Hoxha. 2011