HOW(EVER) Radical Objects

As a propragation of the seminar titled Possibly Radical Object held during the summer of 2021, Eina Idea has co-curated, together with Portikus, a symposium dedicated to the artistic and editorial practices of artists books. HOW(EVER) RADICAL OBJECTS takes place in the framework of HOW(EVER), a festival unfolding during the week of the Frankfurt Buchmesse, from 20-23th October 2022, and explores the mutual overflows of that which is poetic and that which is plastic through the vehicle of the book, as a visual and textual, literary and performative object, social, political, cultural instrument and model of transmission. 

The festival takes its name from the magazine HOW(ever), founded by American poet Kathleen Fraser (1935-2019), a radical platform dedicated to the work of modernist women poets and experimental feminist writing, in between poetics and academia. The exhibition showcases books and zines from over 200 editorial communities, with the intention of examining the poetic and political power of publishing—its ongoing exploration of alternative methods of cultural production and its possibilities as a form of resistance. Over the course of four days, Portikus will become a place of cross-pollination of new editorial discourses for the circulation and exchange of art books.

Artists such as Dora García, Río Paraná, Laía Argüelles Folch, designers such as Ariadna Serrahima from Oficina de Disseny, IF Publications, and L'Automàtica, and publishers such as María Mur Dean from consonni or Carlos Copertone and Patxi Eguiluz from Caniche Editorial will encounter figures such as Susan Gevirtz, Anne König, Stefan Marx, Sandra Doeller, Jone San Martin, Émilie Pitoiset and projects such as Silver Press, Ignota Books, Spector Books, Contemporary and (C&), AFRIKADAA or Three Star Books. 

The symposium takes place in the context of an exhibition design conceptualised by MAIO Architects, materialised with the support of Acción Cultural Española and the collaboration of Terranova, as well as the support of Hessisches Ministerium für Wissenschaft und Kunst, Institut français Deutschland, Institut français Paris, and Städelschule Portikus e.V.

Eina Idea's activities dedicated to artists' books, art books or books made by artists continue to develop in Barcelona during 2023.