MARCH LIST

Hannah Hoch

Picture Book

Gustavo Gili 2014

Hannah Höch’s Bilderbuch [Picture Book] from 1945 is now finally available in English and Spanish.

The Picture Book presents the fantastic adventures of Runfast, Dumblet, Snifty and Meyer 1, mythical creatures which seem like a dream in a zoological garden, surrounded by fairy tale flowers and plants. Yet, it is not only a wonderful book for children, but an important cultural and historic document, as it was created by Hannah Höch, the most important female artist of the Modernist period in Germany. It is designed through the Dadaistic principle of photomontage which Höch developed, together with Raoul Hausmann, in the early years of the 20th century.

Gunda Luyken writes in her essay about the book: "To counter the grey postwar years, Höch developed in 19 collages and accompanying texts a magical world populated by fantastic exotic plants and animals. People play no role here, apart from the baby emerging from one of the eggs that Madame Marklet has collected around her. ... Although Höch always spoke of her 'picture book', the texts are an essential part of the work. For each of the collages, the artist thought up brief, delicate rhymes that sketch out miniature stories and are reminiscent of the verses of Joachim Ringelnatz or Christian Morgenstern. She gave her impish creatures the oddest names—Loftylara, Brushflurlet, Unsatisfeedle and Runfast. Although Höch conjured up in images and words a fantastic world, it is one not free of human weaknesses like dissatisfaction or disagreement, as represented, for example, by the couple Longfringes. All the same, the book exudes a cheerfulness and light-heartedness that the philosopher and writer Salomon Friedländer also attributed to the artist herself: 'Basically, you are a fabulous and wonderful girl—and whoever doesn’t get you must be a dull and totally impossible guy. And who does understand you? A child, just like you.'"

Beate Gutschow:S

hatje cantz 2009

Digitally manipulated works that question photography’s status as the representative of reality

At first glance, the large-format black-and-white photographs by Beate Gütschow (*1970 inMainz) are reminiscent of authentic documentations of urban scenes: monumental architecture, decaying buildings, rusty automobile parts. Yet the images are the result of complex digital manipulation: they are montages consisting of numerous photos taken by Gütschow on her various journeys and later assembled to create a single picture. They are often fragments of aging modern architecture—plain, unadorned concrete buildings, now crumbling and in part non-functional.
In this way, the artist thematizes ideas that have survived modernity while she also explores and scrutinizes the medium of photography as a representative of reality. 

Heiner Flassbeck - Costas Lapavitsas 

Against the Troika crisis and Austerity in the Eurozone

Verso instant book 2015

On the 25th January 2015 the Greek people voted in an election of historic importance - not just for Greece but potentially all of Europe. The radical party Syriza was elected and austerity and the neoliberal agenda is being challenged. Suddenly it seems as if there is an alternative. But what?
The Eurozone is in a deep and prolonged crisis. It is now clear that monetary union is a historic failure, beyond repair—and certainly not in the interests of Europe’s working people.
Building on the economic analysis of two of Europe’s leading thinkers, Heiner Flassbeck and Costas Lapavitsas (a candidate standing for election on Syriza’s list), Against the Troika is the first book to propose a strategic left-wing plan for how peripheral countries could exit the euro. With a change in government in Greece, and looming political transformations in countries such as Spain, this major intervention lays out a radical, anti-capitalist programme at a critical juncture for Europe. The final three chapters offer a detailed postmortem of the Greek catastrophe, explain what can be learned from it - and provide a possible alternative.

Against the Troika is a practical blueprint for real change in a continent wracked by crisis and austerity.

Daniela Colafranceschi
Carmen Pinos
Gustavo Gili 2015

Carme Pinós. Arquitecturas no es solo la antología más completa de la obra de Carme Pinós, sino un recorrido de casi dos décadas por los temas y las inquietudes recurrentes que han marcado el trabajo del estudio de esta arquitecta barcelonesa. A través de una cuidada selección de las obras y los proyectos más significativos del estudio, de las aportaciones críticas de Peter Smithson, Daniela Colafranceschi, Rafael Moneo, Pedro Azara, Rafael Argullol, Francis Rambert, Juan José Lahuerta, Josep Quetglas, Magdalena Jaume y de los textos de la propia Carme Pinós, el conjunto del libro dibuja la trayectoria profesional de una de las figuras más interesantes del panorama arquitectónico contemporáneo

Sylvia Lavin

Flash in The Pan

AA books 2014

Flash in the Pan is the newest addition to the Architecture Words series, published by AA Publications. In this collection of meditations on what Baudelaire championed (and Michael Fried chastised) as presentness, Lavin investigates the convergence of notions such as liveness, the provisional and the obsolete in revealing qualities of the contemporary. Three sets of essays explore different forms of architectural time, particularly as they shape the differences between history, theory and criticism as genres of writing.

Juhani Pallasmaa

La Mano che Pensa

Safara' editore

Esistono libri che hanno il potere di risvegliare il desiderio della bellezza e l'ambizione di ricondurre l'uomo al centro del discorso e del fare architettonico. Libri in cui le parole riattivano sensi e percezioni evocando luoghi e pensieri; opere create per pensare e progettare, che ci fanno sperare in un futuro migliore e in un presente creativo e attivo. Oggi, proprio quando abbiamo imparato a espandere sempre di più i confini del virtuale, è nata una nuova attenzione verso il sensibile, originata da un bisogno fisico di essere presenti, di sentirsi incarnati in esso, di essere parte di un flusso di atomi, in un reciproco riconoscimento fra se stessi e il luogo che si abita. Un luogo che è ora chiamato ad accogliere e comprendere, in cui abitante e spazio abitato si vogliono definire vicendevolmente; un luogo che protegge e rende liberi nel medesimo momento. Siamo dinanzi a una nuova estetica. I suoi elementi? Atmosfere sapientemente calibrate, geometrie dell'anima, percezioni sensoriali ben temperate, tutte unite nella tensione di costruire un rapporto più sano e maturo con l'ambiente, nella ricerca di nuove forme di rispetto per i materiali e per il lavoro manuale e artigiano. 

O. NICOLAI & J. WENZEL

LABYRINTH

Rollo Press 2014

“This book on labyrinths is wonderful! It enlarges the traditional catalog of labyrinths so much and so well, being itself labyrinthine,” remarked Jean-Luc Nancy, the French philosopher. Sadie Plant, author of “Zeroes + Ones: Digital Women and the New Technoculture,” has now translated the German version of Labyrinth into English. — Published in collaboration with Spector Books.

 Gerhard Richter

Night Sketches

Neni Publishing London 2011

This artist's book comprises of 84 reproductions of sketches taken from a notebook made between 2004 and 2009. Some sketches feature figurative motifs, human forms and faces, while others appear as purely abstract shapes, configurations and patterns.

Juhani Pallasmaa
L'immagine incarnata
Safarà Editore 2014

“Tutti gli effetti artistici e architettonici sono evocati, mediati ed esperiti attraver­so immagini poeticizzate. Tali immagini costituiscono esperienze incarnate e vissu­te che hanno luogo nella ‘carne del mondo’ e diventano parte di noi nel momento in cui inconsciamente proiettiamo aspetti di noi stessi in un dato spazio, oggetto o evento [...]. La realtà materiale è costituzionalmente fusa con il nostro reame men­tale e immaginativo”. Con il suo saggio, per la prima volta in traduzione italiana, Pallasmaa, architetto e filosofo finlandese di cui Safarà Editore ha già pubblicato La Mano che pensa , ci conduce in un’indagine attraverso il multifor­me universo dell’Architettura, svelando la sua intima connessione con il mon­do delle immagini che sprigionano la potenza visiva della poesia e dei ricordi. Questa lettura è un viaggio fra immagine di distruzione e di bellezza, fra l’immaginario della finestra e della porta e la metafora vissuta.

UTOPIEN VERMEIDEN

Avoiding Utopias

The catalogue documents the Werkleitz Anniversary Festival 2013. For Avoiding Utopias Werkleitz invited 20 curators to reflect together with artists on the significance of utopia in contemporary art and culture production. The results are manifested in works and programmes especially developed for the festival as well as in the essays published in this catalogue. The reflection on utopia is introduced by philosophical texts by Robert Pfaller and Christoph Türcke.

 Irene Guida

Corridoi

Quodlibet studio 2015

La società in cui viviamo viene spesso descritta come società delle reti, basata sul principio della connessione. Ogni rete però è costituita a sua volta da corridoi, dunque rete e corridoio non sono figure in antinomia e anzi, come sottolinea l’autrice, «Il paradosso delle reti è che più esse sono interconnesse, più il tipo di spazio in cui viviamo diventa simile a un corridoio», portando così alle estreme conseguenze uno spunto di Rem Koolhaas di oltre dieci anni fa: «i corridoi non collegano più semplicemente A e B, ma sono divenuti “destinazioni”».
Attraverso le figure, dalla parola al gesto, dalla metafora ecologica all’oggetto corridoio, liberandosi dalla semplice idea della metafora e dell’elemento costruttivo, questo saggio presenta una nuova lettura e interpretazione sia dello spazio sia del territorio. Tale lettura procede spesso a ritroso sulla scia di Michel Foucault, Giorgio Agamben e Bernardo Secchi, attraverso una archeologia che ricostruisce il ruolo della figura lineare del corridoio nel mondo occidentale con puntuali verifiche in ambito filosofico, letterario e artistico oltre che architettonico e urbanistico. E non a caso fin dalle radici culturali più remote dell’Occidente, il corridoio emerge come concetto portatore di senso se è vero che in ebraico è misdaron, parola formata dalla radice s-d-r, la stessa di seder: ordine.

Sophie Berrebi

The Shape Of Evidence: 

Contemporary Art And The Document
Publisher Valiz  2014

This book examines the role of visual documents in contemporary art, looking at artworks which value these not only as sources of information, but also as distinctive visual and critical forms. As such, they offer a way to develop critical reflection around issues of representation, knowledge production, art and its history: the role of the museum and archive, the role of documents and our trust in them, the circulation of such images and the historical genealogies that can be drawn in relation to images. Based on a close reading of a selection of artworks, Sophie Berrebi considers greater issues concerning visual documents through an interdisciplinary approach. First volume in the new series vis-à-vis.

 Sofia Borges, Sven Ehmann, Robert Klanten

WorkScape
New Spaces for New Work
Gestalten  2013

WorkScape reveals how trailblazing companies from around the world are redefining where we work and how we work together. The book showcases office spaces by innovators such as Facebook, Google, YouTube, Monocle, KPMG, Red Bull, and Urban Outfitters that promote new forms of work, creativity, and collaboration.
In addition to presenting architecture and interior design, WorkScape also explores more unconventional parameters that can make going to and being at work more attractive and satisfying. The forward-thinking offers featured here include company-run childcare facilities, bike share programs, communal vegetable gardens, and fully equipped health and wellness facilities.
In WorkScape, office environments from global players are shown alongside compelling examples from smaller enterprises, temporary ventures, and freelance endeavors that all shake off the cubicle culture of the past. The book’s careful pairing of stunning images with in-depth project descriptions and detailed floor plans make it an invaluable reference for anyone looking to redefine their workplaces, impress their partners and clients, and inspire their staff to think outside the box.

Axel Wieder, Florian Zeyfang

Open Form
Space, Interaction, and the Tradition of Oskar Hansen

Stenberg press 2014 

Oskar Hansen’s (1922–2005) theoretical concept of “open form” was developed in the context of international debates around late-modern architecture in the 1950s. Open form assumed that no artistic expression is complete until it has been appropriated by its users or beholders. In the following decades, the concept became a key principle of performance and film art, and led to the development of process-oriented and interdisciplinary artistic techniques. Hansen’s concept revolutionized the traditional means of artistic communication.

This publication examines the impact of Hansen’s ideas within contemporary visual culture and the redefined role of the viewer since the 1960s. The book includes in-depth interviews with some of the most important protagonists of experimental art in Poland, who investigate the historical impact of the open form. Other contributions comment on the theory’s influence on a younger generation of artists. Visual material by Hansen and the artists complete this extensive volume.
Contributions by Anna Molska, Łukasz Ronduda, Felicity Scott, Axel Wieder, Michał Woliński, Florian Zeyfang; interviews with Wiktor Gutt, Grzegorz Kowalski, Paweł Kwiek, Anna Niesterowicz, Artur Żmijewski

The drawings center paper volume n.14

Lebbeus Woods

New York 2013 

http://issuu.com/drawingcenter/docs/drawingpapers114_wood

Acknowledging the parallels between society’s physical and psychological constructions, architect Lebbeus Woods has depicted a career-long narrative of how these constructions transform our being. Working mostly, but not exclusively, with pencil on paper, Woods has created an oeuvre of complex worlds—at times abstract and at times explicit—that present shifts, cycles, repetitions within the built environment. His timeless architecture is not in a particular style or in response to a singular moment in the field; rather, it offers an opportunity to consider how built forms impact the individual and the collective, and reflect contemporary political, social and ideological conditions, and how one person contributes to the development and mutation of the built world. Lebbeus Woods, Architect brings together works from the past forty years by one of the most influential designers working in architecture. Beyond architects, he has been hailed by designers, filmmakers, writers, and artists as a significant voice in recent history, his works resonate across many disciplines for their conceptual depth, imaginative breadth, lasting beauty and ethical potency. The exhibition centers on transformation as a recurring theme, providing a framework for understanding the experimental nature of the work.

Lukas Feireiss
IMAGINE ARCHITECTURE
Artistic Vision of the Urban Real
Gestalten 2015

The new book by Lukas Feireiss for Gestalten examines the transformative and speculative quality of the architectural image. Through equally poetic as well as polemic means, the works featured in Imagine Architecture examine the original responses of artists to the influential strength of architecture in visual culture and explore how built forms are being used and abused in their work. Thereby they ingeniously reflect the disturbing peril as well as the liberating potential of the conscious, artistic engagement with the architectural imaginary.

 Designing Everyday Life

Parks Books 2015

Can design progress from the production of objects and services for everyday life into the production of life itself? This illustrated reader explores what design can be in our contemporary world.