body-at-publish

A hands-on workshop performance of the body-at-publish by the duo Curandi Katz at Ar/ge kunst focused on the idea of self-publishing as an intimate gesture. The intention is to activate the objectual element of a book, its function and uses, in the realm of its relationship with the individual and between individuals. Considering its private, possibly affective, predominantly tactile experience in a resistant condition to the idea of a mass reproducibility; Exploring the ways it gets disseminated and shared and how these define its storyline; Reflecting upon the gestures of gratuity and care this idea implies and the organisms it involves in the narrative. The process of publishing is intended as a performative form of exteriorization – transmission – care.
The workshop will be structured around the creation of a self publication using alternative, DIY publishing strategies; Experiencing the steps of appropriation and assemblage using low tech tools, and manually operated jigs. At the disposal of participants will be the selection of books brought by Archive Books on the occasion of the exhibition Constellations of one and many, Curandi Katz’s collection of dissident pamphlets and digital platforms for text-sharing.

A point of departure and historical reference comes from the artists’ on-going research on the late Hungarian-Israeli anarcho-pacifist activist Toma Sik and his multi-faceted use of publishing and knowledge circulation. In Sik’s case they are flyers and surveys that he would hand out during protests in public space in order to reach the other and talk about issues like vegetarianism, nonviolence, human-rights. The activist methodology of reaching the other through the printed word casually handed out, was progressively internalized and transformed by Toma Sik into a personal search for individuals with whom to share intentional living.

With the kind support of:
Provincia Autonoma di Bolzano, Alto Adige, Deutsche Kultur
Città di Bolzano, Ufficio Cultura
Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio, Alto Adige
Mondriaan Stichting, Amsterdam
Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen, Stuttgart