Photocopy tales: Publications and visual essays

The bulk of contemporary content production, in its quantitative rush and value production, tends to stand on the principle that information must be understandable and verifiable in itself, that it must be already pregnant with its own explanation, in order to be consumed and used in the production of other content. Graphic media, editorial processes and means of production are conceived as second order tools which privilege and facilitate content of informative nature. This narrows the narrative potential as well as the scope of graphic media and editorial processes.

This theoretical and practical module aims to approach the editorial and graphic production processes as generators of signification and meaning, while placing an emphasis on visual narratives. It addresses three lines of work: development of experimental visual narratives, editorial processes and means of production and circulation of publications. To narrow down the vast universe of the work lines proposed by the module, the workshop focuses on the possibilities of image production and reproduction offered by photocopying. As an cheap and easy manipulation medium, photocopying allows the development of exercises proposed throughout the module, while avoiding the digital, chemical and mechanical image production methods.

The module is designed for visual professionals interested in further exploring visual narrative practices and editorial processes.

SCHEDULE

October 19th
morning
Guided tour to Cittadellarte, including the Pistoletto, Arte Povera collections and temporary exhibitions (curated by Luca Furlan).
afternoon
Exercise 1 “Self presentation”, part 1:
Using only photocopies, participants have 60 min to build a presentation of themselves through means of a visual narrative (min. 15 pages).
The result will be discussed in a round table.
After the discussion, each participant will edit the exercise of another participant.
Reading: Andre Malraux, “The museum without walls”, in The voices of silence, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1978.

October 20th
morning
Discussion of the text by André Malraux, The museum without walls. Screening: Marker, Chris, La jetée (1962).
afternoon
Introduction to concepts for an editorial project.
“Self presentation”, part 2:
Participants have the possibility to complement and edit the first version of their own exercise. The second version will then be disscused with the group.
Reading: Aby Warburg, Mnemosyne, Madrid: Akal, 2010.

October 21rst
a day with Manuel Ángel Macia
morning
Exercise 2 “Chapter 2·3/4”:
Using only photocopies, each participant should elaborate a narrative related to art history.
afternoon
Binding workshop.
Discussion of Exercise 2 “Chapter 2·3/4”
Reading: Walter Benjamin, The storyteller, in Walter Benjamin: Selected Writings, Volume 3: 1935-1938, Harvard University press, 2004.

October 22nd
morning and afternoon
Introduction to print production processes
Exercise 3 “Book”:
Using only photocopies, participants should produce a visual narrative book

October 23rd
morning and afternoon
Introduction to distribution channels for publications.
Final discussion and presentation of the final version of “Book”, “Chapter 2·3/4” and “self presentation” exercises.
evening
Regueton Party

REFERENCES
The mentor will prepare a reader for participants with key texts, some of which will be discussed during the week.

Andre Malraux, The museum without walls (translation of Le Musée Imaginaire, 1947), in The voices of silence, Princeton University Press, 1978.

Vilém Flusser, Writings (Andreas Strohl, Editor), Minneapolis: University of Minneaplos Press, 2002.

Keith A. Smith,The book as a physical object, in A Book of the Book, New York: Granarybooks, 2000.

Aby Warburg, Mnemosyne, Madrid: Akal, 2010.

Walter Benjamin, The storyteller, in Walter Benjamin: Selected Writings, Volume 3: 1935-1938, Harvard University Press, 2004.

Videos

Marker, Chris, La Jetée (1962), https://vimeo.com/42460300

BIOGRAPHY AND STATEMENT

Santiago Reyes Villaveces (Colombia, 1986), visual artist, lives and works in Bogotà, Colombia. His work respond to an inquiry, obsession, fascination, and pleasure for the structures, assemblages and dynamics that evidence the state of transitivity and precariousness that appeal to a state of temporal indetermination. The works – installations, sculptures, drawings and photographs – are characterized by notions of scale, volume, weight, gravity, surface, pressure, contention, resistance, verticality, horizontality, limit and depth, creating an intimate relation with the space, architecture, the spectator’s body and the temporality of the exhibition and the pieces. The works transform, determine, modify, and interfere in the physical space in which they operate as well as the social, political, economic and historical space they inhabit and its possible modes of production, exhibition and circulation.
http://subsumption.org/

Education
2009 Bachelor of Fine Arts, with emphasis in Visual Arts, art theory and history Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia
2007-2008 Academic exchange program;Universidad de São Paulo, Escuela de Comunicações e Arte. São Paulo, Brasil.

Teaching
2013-2015 Lecturer professor: Infographics, Writings and Mediations and “Transmedia workshop”, Universidad Javeriana, Department of Communications Bogotá, Colombia.
2013-2011 Lecturer professor: Graphics 3 - Visual narratives, Universidad Jorge Tadeo Lozano, Art Department, Bogotá, Colombia.
2010-2013 Lecturer professor: Visual Culture and “Portafolio Workshop”, La Salle College, Bogotá, Colombia.
2009 Lecturer professor: Contemporary Art, Modern Art, Taller 5, Bogotá, Colombia.

GUEST
Manuel Ángel Macia is an artist. He works and lives in London, where he is a currently finishing a practice based PhD (Goldsmiths). His project charts the capitalisation of language as it intersects mechanisms of knowledge production. He recently collaborated with Rampa (Madrid) and LaAgencia (Bogotá). As of late, his interests have inclined towards aesthetics/politics from the vantage perspective(s) of subsumed perceptual warfare.

download the full documentation about the module and the mentor in PDF format