Claudia Comte 40 × 40 cm

This book is a sort of exhibition space in which things get pieced together one by one on its blank pages, whose confined space gives rise to a playful reduction of the artworks. The pictures narrate an idea, as in a cartoon, except that the graphic works here – which have inspired some of Claudia Comte’s paintings, prints and murals – return from their three-dimensional existence to fit into the two-dimensional medium of the book. In the rigorous play of visual combinations and permutations, the planes, lines and squares occupy a metrical space – an absurdity that turns the book into a kind of two-dimensional sculpture.

This artist’s book is mathematically structured like a Cartesian coordinate system. The horizontal x-axis (abscissa) divides each page into two planes, while the fold down the middle of the book forms the vertical (ordinate) y-axis. This partitioning of the large-format (40 × 40 cm) book produces four smaller squares on each spread.

The Cartesian coordinate system becomes a playful space in which Comte explores the possibilities of her sculptures and patterns as well as geometric operations such as translation, rotation, reflection and glide reflection. The resulting shapes change position, evolving into unique sculptures while remaining part of a larger pattern. They playfully evolve and revolve around the point of origin where the two axes meet, though always retaining their isometry. So the book can be read from all four sides: from the top and from the bottom, from the left and from the right.

Stéphan Landry
Tout va bien

Edition Patrick Frey & Musée Jenisch Vevey

Advertising slogans, punning neon signs, chocolate brand and movie studio logos – Stéphan Landry’s variegated world of fiction and commerce is a Hollywood idyll in which, as the slogan goes, “Tout va bien”. On sheets of A3 paper during and after his training in Geneva, on squared loose-leaf during his wanderjahre, then softened recycled paper due to dire straits, Landry created a veritable Warholian alphabet executed in techniques ranging from gouache, ink, glaze, synthetic varnish to Tipp-Ex.

The happiness industry may pitch the bright side of life as loudly as it likes: Landry bares its underlying mechanisms by means of exaggeration, turning his pop art into an intimate portrait of the artist and his everyday environs. Landry’s signature mischievousness is all over his iconic works, and he invests them with a sensuality that is less sumptuous than explicit. And yet there they are, anonymous and isolated from the world, silhouettes frail as those by Markus Raetz.

Softcover
304 Pages
18 × 25.5 cm
ISBN: 978-3-906803-44-9
English, French

Theater Chur Saison 17/18

Programm Layout.
With Elektrosmog, Zürich

Der Wert der Oberfläche
Philip Ursprung
Essays zu Architektur, Kunst und Ökonomie

Concept and layout with Marco Walser, Elektrosmog

Sind Politik und Wirtschaft Motoren für künstlerische und architektonische Veränderungen? Das Forschungsprojekt «Der Wert der Oberfläche» an der ETH Zürich unter der Leitung von Philip Ursprung folgte dieser Fragestellung. Der Begriff «Wert» wird hier ebenso sehr in ökonomischen Zusammenhängen wie als eine Idee der Qualität in Kunst und Architektur gesehen. Wo sind Vergleichbarkeiten etwa zwischen dem frühen Industriekapitalismus, dem Crystal Palace in London, Herman Melvilles Roman Moby Dick und der leibhaftigen Erscheinung eines weissen Wals zu beobachten? Oder inwieweit prägten die Folgen der Bologna-Reform die Struktur der Hochschule für Architektur in Nantes von Lacaton & Vassal?
Aus dezidiert subjektiver Sicht zeigt Philip Ursprung in seinen 14 im Rahmen des Projekts entstandenen Essays Verbindungen zwischen Ökonomie, Architektur und Kunst auf. Seine unkonventionellen gedanklichen Pfade regen zur kritischen Reflexion an. Sie führen in teils neue, teils unerwartete, überraschende Denkräume, die es ermöglichen, Phänomene in bisher so nicht gesehenen, einander wechselseitig bedingenden Erscheinungsformen zu betrachten. Das Buch plädiert für eine spekulative Geschichtsschreibung und fordert dazu auf, manche theoretische Prämisse zu revidieren.

Presence
A Conversation at Cabaret Voltaire, Zurich

Edited by Jürg Berthold, Kristina Hinrichsen, Philip Ursprung, Mechtild Widrich

With contributions by Elisabeth Bronfen, Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht, Michael Hampe, Mark Jarzombek, Amelia Jones, Tom Levin, Dieter Mersch, Rebecca Schneider, Peter Zumthor

Recently, the idea of “presence” has returned to the arts, humanities, and social sciences. In February 2013, in Zurich’s historical Cabaret Voltaire, which was central to the Dada movement almost a hundred years ago, an experimental international symposium took place that put presence under the microscope.

Presence: A Conversation at Cabaret Voltaire, Zurich is not a traditional post-conference publication but is conceived as a theatrical discussion of ideas between different speakers, both on and offstage. In contrast to transcribed conversations, monologues are interspersed throughout the book, acting like small, performative interruptions. The lively juxtaposition of both individual speech and colloquy is enhanced by theatrical conventions: characters enter and exit; stage directions mirror those found in the cabaret.

In collaboration with Elektrosmog.

www.sternberg-press.com

Visual communication for the music festival Bad Bonn Kilbi in Düdingen Switzerland.

With Katharina Reidy.
Ongoing.

Bad Bonn Song Book, 2016

Seeing as notes are generally the best way of putting music on paper, this publication, celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Bad Bonn music venue in Fribourg, takes the form of a song book. Then again, since hardly any of the bands that play there actually notate their music, it’s an unusual song book that’s likely to appeal to laymen as well.

For two and a half years, artists performing at the Bad Bonn were asked to put their songs on paper. The results proved as diverse as their musical styles and personalities, including everything from sheet music and lyrics with guitar tabs to photos and drawings, it’s all there. The contributions show a side of the musicians’ creativity that doesn’t show on stage or on their recordings.

Café Bad Bonn in Düdingen, a small town in the Fribourg canton of Switzerland, was once a health resort and spa, but for nearly 25 years now it’s been a magnet for mobile music lovers by the lake Schiffenensee. Where Bonnstrasse comes to an end in the middle of nowhere stands a building. Behind its modest, almost staid, exterior is a venue with a surprisingly diverse lineup of artists you might see billed in London, Berlin or Paris. Whether metal, anti-folk, country, electronica, indie or hip hop, there’s room here for every niche and fringe in the popular music scene.

Some 2500 bands have played this little stage since 1991, including big names like My Bloody Valentine, Bonnie Prince Billy, The Prodigy, Queens of the
Stone Age, Ministry, Cat Power, The Young Gods and plenty of other international and local bands. Its club concerts aside, the highlight of the year is Bad Bonn’s annual Kilbi Festival. Acclaimed “Switzerland’s best festival” by renowned music critics and cultural journalists, the event has become a permanent fixture of the nation’s performing arts program.

In collaboration with Katharina Reidy
Edition Patrick Frey N° 198
Editor: Patrick Boschung, Daniel Fontana, Stefanie Mauron, Adeline Mollard, Katharina Reidy
With texts by: Conrad Lambert, Chan Marshall, Benedikt Sartorius, Christophe Schenk
Softcover, 528 pages, 264 color images
21 × 29.7 cm
ISBN: 978-3-905929-98-0
Language: German, English, French

www.editionpatrickfrey.ch

Fennesz

Poster for the concert of Fennesz, Morb and Pendler at Bad Bonn, Düdingen.

Bad Bonn Kilbi 2009

Visual communication for the music festival Bad Bonn Kilbi in Düdingen Switzerland.

In collaboration with Philippe Egger and Katharina Reidy

Bohren & der Club of Gore

Poster for Palace St.-Gallen.

MYKITA Campaign 2015

Art direction, editing and layout for the 2015 MYKITA Campaign.
Photography: Mark Borthwick

Bad Bonn Kilbi im Fall

Festival identity for the music festival Kilbi as guest at Palace St. Gallen.

www.kilbi-im-fall.ch

GATE 113 / 114

Booklets and book for the Neue Schule für Fotografie, Berlin. Compiling the work of 14 students. The book is available as 14 separated booklet or as a full bounded book with 14 chapters. A color system is assigned to each student.

www.neue-schule-fotografie.berlin

Bad Bonn Kilbi an der Grenze

Identity for the music festival Kilbi an der Grenze, guest in Palace St.Gallen.

In collaboration with Katharina Reidy.

Vues / Blick 2008 – 2013
Michel Bonvin

Exhibition catalogue for photographer Michel Bonvin compiling his work from the period 2008 to 2013.

www.michelbonvin.ch

Bad Bonn Kilbi 2008

Communication for the music festival Bad Bonn Kilbi in Düdingen, Switzerland.

In collaboration with Philippe Egger and Katharina Reidy