MANNHEIM.- In the past years, the segment of art and artist’s books created independently of exhibitions has expanded. Numerous smaller labels, publishers, stores, and fairs initiated by artists and art historians have emerged. In “BOX #5: Artists’ Books” (July 27 to Sept. 15, 2019), the Kunsthalle Mannheim features selected art publications that document this development and establish new connections to the collection. On the occasion of the opening of the BOX exhibition, artists and labels will present their publications and offer them for sale in the frame of the “Artist Book Day.”

Schroeter and Berger: Updates
Maximilian Sauerbier and Sebastian Helm update artworks, sketches or plans that could not or only conditionally be realized. As friends of modernism, constructivism and Swiss objectivity, they integrate their stylistic devices and design maxims in their conceptions and updates, which do not merely reference existing ideas, but expand or implement them in an independent way.

Bernhard Cella: Book Table
Since 2012 Bernhard Cella has been heading the Salon für Kunstbuch at the 21er Haus of the Austrian Galerie im Belvedere as well as a project on the theme of “Publications without ISBN” funded by the Austrian research fund FWF. Cella champions art books as an independent medium of contemplation, presenting a selection of publications from the past 15 years.

Miriam Jung: The Aesthetics of Narcissism
Miriam Jung’s photographs reveals indexical as well as illusionary features. When working with a male nude model, for example, both physical and social inscriptions of the two bodies come into play: Jung, as the photographer determining the gaze, and the male, who becomes an object reflecting her gaze. All photos exist as autonomous artworks but are incorporated in an overall context in the publication.

Keep it Real Collective: Another Woman
Keep it Real was founded in 2012 as a research and production platform. The until now exclusively female artist collective based in Berlin thematically deals with empathy, the nature of mothers and various women’s campaigns. On the Artist Book Day, the artist collective sells artist collective T-shirts and sweaters, among others, with the lettering “Another Woman.”

Periodical
Already since 2002, the befriended artists Christian Egger, Christian Kosmas Mayer, Yves Mettler, Magda Tothova, Ruth Weismann, and Alexander Wolff have been producing an independent, international periodical dedicated to contemporary art, theory and society. In conjunction with presentations of their magazine, they have also staged performances on the theme of “periodical” in the past years.