Break new ground. Think ahead.
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Exploring artists’ publications: connections between object, theory, history and aesthetic practice
The conference organised by the Research Network on Artists’ Publications focuses on selected objects from the collections of the Bremen Centre for Artists’ Publications at the Weserburg Museum of Modern Art and the Research Centre for Eastern Europe. Drawing on this rich, and in some cases little-known, body of material, the conference brings art-historical research and practical aesthetic reflection into dialogue. What experiences do artists’ publications offer when opened, leafed through and contemplated further? What knowledge do they generate and what actions do they inspire? Since at least the 1960s, artists’ publications have created alternative spaces for art beyond commercial publishing houses and opened up new approaches to it. The conference examines how these approaches are shaped by visible and invisible conditions of production, distribution and reception, and how they are transforming in the context of social and technological changes. The event will take place in a hybrid format. Selected objects will be presented on site.
10:15 a.m. – Welcome: Anne Thurmann-Jajes (Centre for Artists’ Publications; Weserburg Museum of Modern Art, Bremen); Introduction: Anne-Grit Becker (University of Siegen)
10:30 a.m. – Session I: Alternative Spaces of Communication; The Documentation Volumes of the Kollektive Aktionen Group: From Samizdat to the World Wide Web; Sabine Hänsgen (Bochum)
11:00 a.m. – Transgression and Subversion. The Search for a New Language in ‘Schaden’; Constanze Fritzsch (Institute of Art History in Florence – Max Planck Institute)
11:30 a.m. – Break
11:50 a.m. – Session II: Information, Algorithm, Critique; Production, Information, Revision. On the (dys)functions of the artist’s book medium in US conceptual art around 1970, using the example of Sol LeWitt’s “The Location of Eight Points” (1974); Michael Rottmann (Düsseldorf University of Applied Sciences)
12:20 p.m. – All paths, no destination: On the questioning of algorithmic logic in Stanley Brouwn’s artist’s book “100 this-way-brouwn-problems for computer I.B.M. 360 model 95” (1970); Regine Ehleiter (Witten/Herdecke University)
12:50 p.m. – Transparency matters. “The Chocolate Master” (1982) by Hans Haacke; Eleonora Minna (Kolleg Research Group/University of Münster and eCampus University, Novedrate)
1:20 p.m. – Viewing of the publications on display | Lunch break
2:30 p.m. – Session III: Between Institution and Independence. Contemporary Artist Publications; Venice after Representation: Ignasi Aballí’s “Venecia” and the Artist’s Publication as Critical Device; Francesca Valentini (École Supérieure des Arts de l’image LE 75, Brussels)
15:00 p.m. – Artists as Independent Publishers (with preview); Heike Kati Barath and Katrin von Maltzahn (Bremen University of the Arts)
16:00 p.m. – Break
16:20 p.m. – Keynote: From Object to Intervention
Overwritings: Writing and Voice as Rearticulation in the Work of Timm Ulrichs and Pipilotti Rist; Ursula Frohne (Kolleg Research Group/University of Münster)
5:15 p.m. – Closing Remarks: Anne-Grit Becker (University of Siegen)
5:30 p.m. – End
Concept and organisation
Dr Anne-Grit Becker in collaboration with Prof. Ursula Frohne;
Prof. Heike Kati Barath and Prof. Katrin von Maltzahn
Participating institutions
The Artists’ Publications Research Network, in collaboration with the Centre for Artists’ Publications at the Weserburg Museum of Modern Art, the Centre for Eastern European Studies at the University of Bremen, the University of the Arts Bremen, the University of Siegen, and the research group “Access to Cultural Heritage in the Digital Age” (University of Münster)
Important information
Hybrid event: If you would like to attend, please register by 3 June 2026 at anne-grit.becker@uni-siegen.de.
