With the confidence of those who feel treated as a consolidated benchmark in the photobook and contemporary publishing sector, ArtsLibris International Fair of Artist Publications, directs its gaze to the foundations that sustain a society: its people concentrated in moments and spaces in those that produce the small events that move the story.
Thus, once again in the Espai Fossat of the Mercat de Sant Antoni, the city of Barcelona and the main social demands that have been produced and are being carried out will be the protagonists in the books that will be displayed in the hundreds of exhibitors that make up the Fair, or in the different scheduled activities and debates, as well as in the talks at the LÃbrica international seminar, a project of the EINA Foundation to promote reflection on hybrid formats.
Between June 9 and 11, modest self-publishing proposals – increasingly frequent in contemporary artistic practice – coexist with careful commitments from prestigious publishers, such as Dalpine, RM, the French gallery Écho 119 or Enciclopèdia Art; in the same way that innovative initiatives that the Bartlebooth publishing and research platform exemplify will be present.
Regarding the possibility of being able to listen to photographers, artists, editors and curators, the debates will be led by professionals and creators of the prestige of Joan Fontcuberta, who will present his book HeghDI’ vem ghaH, tu’lu’ Dinosaur , a piece on dinosaurs written in Klingon; Lúa Ribeira, the youngest Spanish photographer from the Magnum agency; Carmen Calvo or Pilar Aymerich.
According to RocÃo Santa Cruz, gallery owner and founding editor of ArtsLibris, in this edition it is also detected among the books that will present a prominent interest in architecture. In an edition that Santa Cruz describes as “very local”, the claim of the value of the buildings as points of human activity has already been made since the choice of the Mercat de Sant Antoni as the venue. It is about, in the words of the gallery owner, “bringing contemporary art to the market”, trying to make the artist’s book ignite “curiosity and madness” that, for the artist Oriol Vilanova, stimulate the collector.
Vilanova is the author of the AL Series book for this edition, the publication that appears on the occasion of the Fair and is entitled Mercats, merchants, mercaderies. The Catalan artist residing in Brussels has brought to the pages of his book a small part of his postcards from markets around the world, made up of nearly 1,500 units. Vilanova has made “an ode to the market, to a know-how that is their own and original”, because “we all have our own market”.
For his part, the artist Pierre Leguillon, in addition to having been in charge of designing the cotton gloves and the cloth bag for this edition, will carry out a performative action in the Sant Antoni metro on Sunday 11. Live interventions and readings They will be abundant during the fair, and you can also visit various exhibitions. ArtsLibris wants to continue connecting artists, publishers and institutions through the various prizes that are awarded: the ArtsLibris/Banc Sabadell and the Eloi Gimeno Prize, in collaboration with the Foto Colectania Foundation and the Association of Friends of Eloi Gimeno, is now joining the ArtsByblio, convened by Edicions E2 in collaboration with the Escola d’Art i Disseny Llotja to support students who decide to tackle the artist’s book, a channel of expression in which more and more are learning to look and find treasures.
ArtsLibris Espai Fossat del Mercat de Sant Antoni. Barcelona www. artslibris.cat. From June 9 to 11
