Silberkuppe

Under One Umbrella

Dominic Eichler and Michael Ziegler

Discover one of Berlin’s most exciting new, independent spaces for contemporary art: Silberkuppe, founded in 2008 by Dominic Eichler and Michel Ziegler. From a 300-square-foot space in a former concierge’s office, Silberkuppe has initiated around 20 projects including exhibitions, presentations, film screenings, concerts and performances, which together have involved more than 50 artists, architects, actors, dancers, designers, musicians and writers. This exhibition catalog, a “photographic report” on Silberkuppe’s main projects, derives from “Under One Umbrella” in Bergen Kunsthall, the culmination of a series of institutional group exhibitions in which Silberkuppe extended their practice out from their own micro-space. Featured are essays along with works from over 40 artists including Isa Genzken, Dirk Bell and Kaucyila Brooke.

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FRANCISCA SILVA

25 Memoranden

Brooklyn-based artist Francisca Silva’s (b. 1984) first artist’s book, 25 Memoranden, presents a shrill, diverse and beguiling conglomerate of poetry, sculpture, painting, drawing, textiles and tattoos in a small but powerful package. Born to Chilean political refugees in 1984 in Switzerland, Silva studied fine arts in Zürich, moved to Berlin in 2012 and then returned to Switzerland in 2015 before moving to Brooklyn. An ever-evolving work of art herself—Silva is covered in tattoos, most of which she draws and inks in herself. She calls herself “Macho,” which is also the name of her one-woman publishing house. Silva considers the word combinations in her book not as sayings or slogans, but as poetry in the form of 25 “memoranda” or notes on love. Weaving her way in English, German and Spanish through the stormy seas of an ambivalent soul, Silva charts her course through courting, conquest and consummation.

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SILVIA BÄCHLI & ERIC HATTAN

Snow Until May

Iceland’s winter of 2008 was the most severe in 50 years, with “snow until May.” This uniquely beautiful publication combines two separate yet complementary projects made during that frigid spring by two artists: Swiss painter Silvia Bachli (whose minimalist drawings were shown in the Swiss pavilion of the 53rd Venice Biennale), and French videographer Eric Hattan (who collected footage for his video and sound installation All the While). This 70-page, unbound, full-color folio – presented with a stunning poster in an icy-looking vellum bag – includes panoramic snow-and-ice landscape photographs that the artists made together. These winter landscapes and abstract impressions distill the essence of “the deafening silence,” barren yet beautiful. With photos of the house the artists shared in Iceland, and installation photos.

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Skarbek

Antje Majewski and Ingo Niermann

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SKETCHES OF UNIVERSAL HISTORY COMPILED FROM SEVERAL AUTHORS

Sarah Pierce

Sketches of Universal History was born out of a period of collaboration between the artist and curator and writer Rike Frank and each section of the book proposes alternative routes through ten years of projects, including facsimiles of conversations, letters, and source material. Presented as a monograph, the book draws on Pierce’s own biography, her history and ‘progress’ as well as the historical and counter-cultural references that frame her work. Material is collected from ongoing and expansive projects that use archives, performance, talks and interviews, installations, sound and video elements. The book contains newly commissioned essays by Melissa Gronlund and Tom Holert.

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SKULPTURENGARTEN (SCULPTURAL GARDEN)

Villa Schöningen

The garden of Villa Schöningen in Potsdam experienced three hot wars (1870–71, 1914–18, and 1939–45) and one long, cold one (1945–1989), until the fall of the Berlin Wall and eastern European communism. Now restored by two wealthy patrons, it serves as a magical world combining horror and beauty, near the highly symbolic Glienicker Bridge where the East and West exchanged captured spies. This lush volume documents the remarkable collection of contemporary sculpture that now inhabits the garden, making myriad statements about history and the present day. Fantastic photography brings the reader into both the flora and the artwork in this phoenix-like location, and playful texts set the scene. Includes capsule bios of artists represented in the garden, including Jonathan Meese, Chris Ofili, Tal R, Thomas Schütte.

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SLAVS AND TATARS

Kidnapping Mountains

Slavs and Tatars is a multi-artists’ collective which is fascinated by the area east of the former Berlin Wall and west of the Great Wall of China. Through their often-playful art they delve into the riches of this cultural crossroads, the romantic sphere of influence between Slavs, Caucasians, and Central Asians. Here they plunge into the fables and myths of the mountainous Caucasus region: the first part addresses the complexity of languages and identities on the fault line of Eurasia, and the second part, slyly titled Steppe by Steppe, explores the region’s seemingly reactionary approaches to romance. Whether they’re looking at art, fashion, lifestyle or science, Slavs & Tatars bring a new point of view to the table.

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SLAVS AND TATARS

Friendship of Nations: Polish Shi’ite Showbiz

Mara Goldwyn (Ed.)

First published in 2013 and expanding on the artist collaborative Slavs and Tatars’ investigation into the disparate events that bookend the 20th and 21st century—the collapse of Communism in Poland and the Islamic Revolution in Iran—Friendship of Nations: Polish Shi’ite Showbiz traces unlikely points of convergence in Iran and Poland’s economic, social, political, religious and cultural histories. Drawing on multidisciplinary practices encompassing archival research, recordings from 1979 through the 1980s, installations, lectures, performances and print media, interlaced with a good amount of humor, the softcover publication includes essays, interviews, and archival presentations on subjects ranging from 17th-century Sarmatism to the contemporary Green Movement that arose after the 2009 Iranian presidential election. Friendship of Nations has also been exhibited at venues as diverse as MoMA, NY, and Polish Tatar villages on the Byeolrussian border. Since 2006 Slavs and Tatars have used the improbable pairing of humor and geography to shed light on the complex sociopolitics of the Eurasian region.

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SLEEPWALKERS

Michael Dempsey & Logan Sisely (Eds.)

Six contemporary artists joined by leading curators and cultural critics research and question the role of museums, curating and collecting in Sleepwalkers, an exhibition catalog from the Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane. Employing the space of the public gallery as a field for reflection and debate, the artists— Clodagh Emoe, Sean Lynch, Gavin Murphy, Linda Quinlan, Jim Ricks and Lee Welch—used the galleries as a place for research over a two-year period (2012–14), each developing a solo installation and a section of the catalog investigating its changing role. Sections devoted to the artists’ works are interspersed with essays by English philosopher Simon Critchley and Belgian political theorist Chantal Mouffe among others, who add to this lively contemporary debate their own questions regarding the role and definition of galleries, museums and collecting in the 21st century.

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MARLEEN SLEEUWITS

On the Soft Edge of Space

Dutch contemporary artist Marleen Sleeuwits, known for her photography, objects and installations, challenges the imagination in her new artist book, On the Soft Edge of Space. In her visual experiment, the artist presents a four-tiered representation of space: her own photographs of “in-between” spaces are placed in a scale model, which she then photographs and arranges in the space of a book. The elegantly designed hardcover publication, covering seven years of work and with 200 full-bleed images, creates a maze-like, immersive experience for the viewer. The bare walls of the model offer no context so the viewer feels projected into a timeless vacuum. As we leaf through these rooms, we wonder: when will these spaces come to life and who will lead the way—the room or the user? Like the Light and Space artists of Southern California, Sleeuwits touches upon questions of how spatial qualities alter the viewer’s perception viscerally. Essay by Basje Boer, Edo Dijksterhuis and Freek Lomme.

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