ABOUT SENDING AND RECEIVING LETTERS Since I was very young, until my early thirties, I had serious problems in opening and reading any letters I received. Letters would stay on my table for weeks before I found the courage to open them, and during this time my sense of guilt would grow and grow. Most of the time, when I finally opened the letters, it was too late to answer them and my sense of guilt was worse than ever. I kept every single letter, from the first notes received from my mother, in 1965, up to the time I left ...

This conversation addresses an important aspect of Merve Bedir’s work (along with Jason Hilgefort at Land+Civilization Compositions) regarding the architectural and linguistic dimension of Turkish politics regarding the 2.5 million refugees the country currently “hosts”—the very notions of “host” and “guest” are the first things discussed here. Through the description of several sites of either appropriation or dispossession/detention by and of refugee bodies in Istanbul and in other regions of Turkey, we try to think of the architect’s political role and responsibility, remembering however that we must always doubt of our own actions when they have such drastic consequences. Merve Bedir ...

Monday first of January two thousand seven. Tuesday second of January two thousand seven. Wednesday third of January two thousand seven. Thursday fourth of January two thousand seven. Friday fifth of January two thousand seven. Saturday sixth of January two thousand seven. Sunday seventh of January two thousand seven…

Based on 150 characters contained within a single phrase, Alexander May has transcribed each character onto linoleum engravings to create a set of unique prints for each letter and stretching this text across the bound parameters of a onestar press book. By the artist’s hand, this investigation focuses upon the economy of the printed page—the space and value of content—expanding past the limitations of a single phrase upon the page.

R34D WH47 I7 54Y5 1N 7H3 5T4R5. JU57 R34D WH47 I7 54Y5. C0UN7 7HE 5T4R5. D4NC3 W17H 7H3 5T4R5. 5T4R 7HE 5T4R5. 4ND C0UN71NG. 4ND 5T4RR1NG. FU7UR3 PLU5 P3RF3CT F0R3V3R. 84CK 15 U9. D0WN 15 0V3R. FUCK 7H3 5T4R5. FML. 7H3 3ND.

A tale of a maiden or two + an animal streak is the sister action piece to Lawrence Weiner’s 1996 book, A Tale Of A Maiden Or Two, which features the phrase, “They say there was in the twentieth century a philosophy that believed that each girl was unique & alone in an indifferent & often hostile world.” This version presents what appear to be song titles on a background of close-up pixilated black and white lines next to images of art, advertising and mass media collages.

It is an odd interview alright that Barbara Preisig conducted on Brand-New-Life with Mareike Dittmer in light of the fact that Frieze d/e is being discontinued—odd above all, because Barbara Preisig all too politely failed to ask the co-publisher of Frieze d/e, who was long responsible mainly for selling advertising space, the most obvious question: whether there are, perhaps, also economic reasons for the discontinuation after a five-year, seemingly successful operation.

After a five-year run, the magazine Frieze d/e will be discontinued. As a result of this, the German-speaking world is losing an influential art critical voice. Barbara Preisig talked to Mareike Dittmer, co-publisher of Frieze d/e, about Frieze’s consequential decision to from now on confine itself to English-language reporting.

Afronik N’ko font is a display font supporting only the N’ko alphabet used to write Manding languages of West Africa. Souleymane Kanté created the N’Ko (ߒߞߏ – N’Ko) alphabet in 1949 to suit the sounds of the Mande languages — including Mandika, Dyula, Bambara and related languages.Neither the Latin nor the Arabic characters have enough breadth to encompass the nuances of African speech. Both writing systems lack symbols for some of the phonology, in particular the subtle but distinct tonalities. When transcribed with the foreign scripts, which have no adequate way of marking precise vowel tones, the meanings of words can ...

If you’ve been listening to this podcast these past eight years, you know that we always do our interviews “in house,” as we value the moment of the recorded conversation as well as the encounter with someone’s work and personality. Rules are made to have exceptions however, and today we are happy to introduce you to a conversation between Amélie Tresfels and Michaëla Danjé around the book that Michaëla recently edited,  entitled AfroTrans. This book is the very first one published by Cases Rebelles‘ newly created publishing house. With this new endeavor, the panafrorevolutionary collective co-founded by Michaëla, continues to ...

An essay on the artwork of Ivana Spinelli, published on the occasion of her solo show Contropelo at Gallleriapiù, Bologna (January 23 – March 28, 2020). “Ivana Spinelli suggests a different look into the signs that are deposited in our collective memory as decorative elements lacking of any linguistic value. All of a sudden, those inscriptions manifest themselves as a code composed by discrete elements that can be used to form words and sentences, and take concrete shape as sculptural matter.” – Claudio Musso

Repetition, the fifth episode of the series Ages of Receivership: On Generous Listening, is based on a talk by artist Nour Mobarak. In her talk she shares the composition Father Fugue which is composed of conversations with her father, a polyglot who has a 30-second memory, and improvised a capella songs by Nour Mobarak. The series Ages of Receivership: On Generous Listening emerges from the spring 2022 Master Symposium at the Institute Art Gender Nature, moderated by Chus Martínez and Quinn Latimer, in collaboration with Vuslat Foundation.