Artists’ Publications: Revisions of Multiples and Conceptual Photography around 1970

PhD-student workshop organized by Kathrin Barutzki, University of Cologne, Germany, and the University of Cologne Liaison Office in New York, USA

Recent years have witnessed a growing interest in the aesthetic and conceptual features of multiples. Artist books, printed matter, photographs, maps, photocopies, small objects, magazine articles, posters, banners or intermedial combinations of such elements are characteristic for the expansion of art forms between the 1960s and 1970s. The workshop wants to explore the historical and conceptual significance of such “minor art practices” and highlight the artistic diversity by which the notion of the artwork was reformulated as multiple. Emphasis will be given to blendings of text and image, the intermingling of new and old reproduction technologies and relationships between diverse material and conceptual rhizomatic structures. Central interest applies also to the counter-economies of multiples, achieved by an expanded proliferation and strategic dislocations in different contexts of experience, when for example used as viral infiltration of contemporary visual culture and representational regimes of mass media. Other aspects of concern are forms of collective authorship and performative reception settings as well as questions of display and the role of galleries or other issuers for the production and distribution of artists’ publications and multiples.

The guiding questions of the workshop concern the following aspects:

HISTORY and FUNCTIONS
Are there relations to historical predecessors as for example Marcel Duchamp’s boîte-en-valise, édition MAT or Fluxkit? What was the impetus for experimentation with new artistic forms of photography, writing and publishing conceptual works in art magazines, selling boxes including objects and photographs as multiples? Does the artwork transform to communication tool or does it work as marketing object? In how far can seriality and the concept of affordable artworks for everyone be attributed to the idea of achieving a “democratization of art”?

PRODUCTION and DISTRIBUTION
How do production and distribution converge in artists’ publications and the experiment with new forms of accessibility, possession and ubiquity of artworks? What was the influence and interest of galleries and publishers like Leo Castelli, Arts Magazine, ARTFORUM, Multiples Inc. etc. to support or even foster the development of these production modes and material? How were collaborations among artists conceived of and what were their guiding intentions? Was the emphasis of “minor art practice” in the 1960s and 1970s a way of revealing the relations of power and a tentative strategy of resistance? Did these alternative production and distribution modes have an utopian function and could their signification of dominant representational art forms be understood as political?

PRESENTATION, RECEPTION and DISCOURSES
In which way and what contexts were multiples presented in the 1960s and 1970s and how are they displayed today? What is the conservation policy of such non-static artworks and how do the contexts of artists’ publications and multiples endure over time in the face of a changing art system and contemporary aspects of ubiquitous accessibility via electronic media? And in which way have the 1960s and 1970s experiments with the idea of the changeable and context-defined artwork contributed to the discourses on the work of art as non-static, collaborative and continuously information?

The workshop invites contributions by PhD-candidates whose study interest and PhD projects are associated with this wide topic.

To participate, please send a proposal of no more than 500 words for a 20-minute workshop presentation and a brief CV to Kathrin Barutzki at barutzki.kathrinsmail.uni-koeln.de.

The deadline for submission is January 22nd, 2016. Participants will be notified by the begin of February 2016.

The workshop will be held in English. Participants may receive a certificate of attendance. Cost of travel and accommodation cannot be covered.

Please send inquiries to one of the conveners: Stefanie Grupp-Clasby, Director of the University of Cologne New York Office Corporation, New York City: S.Grupp-Clasbyuni-koeln.de (for questions regarding transport/accommodation) or to Kathrin Barutzki, University of Cologne, Germany: barutzki.kathrinsmail.uni-koeln.de (for questions regarding the workshop).