21 Programs

ARCO’s forum dedicated to ArtsLibris is a space where professionals can meet and discuss aspects relating to artists’ publications and the place they occupy in the creative process. Our proposal for this forum is to reflect collectively on this particular form of sensitive knowledge that is shown in these publications, which are often overlooked and considered marginal. Yet, it is precisely in this peripheral space that we can best explore how the various modus operandi, experimentations, investigative methodologies, material imagination, derivations, remains and excesses all coalesce to give rise to the artworks. In fact, we could say that it is from this privileged place that we are better able to survey the many artistic gestures that go unnoticed in these works and, from here, open up a new discussion on the creative processes shaping them.

As Vilém Flusser said, the knowledge that enables art rests not so much having new ideas a priori as coming up with new ideas during the production process, which, in turn, give rise to autonomous forms and relationships. So it is a matter of understanding artists’ publications in a broader sense and not only in publishing terms.

At the interface of diverse artistic practices, artists’ publications, with all their formative processes, economies of disposition and ways of organising forms materially, need to be conceived with this broad multiplicity in mind, since certain media such as videos, brochures, plaquettes and posters also constitute ways of presenting works. Artists are increasingly approaching publishing as an artistic practice. How do publications and modes of presentation impact artistic creative processes? What are the main transformations facing artists’ publications today? And what are these main transformations occurring in publishing today?

We therefore propose deliberating on the representational devices and economy of gestures that give an artwork public visibility, whether this be via websites, videos, leaflets, bulletins, posters, manuals, flyers, or newspapers, etc. We also propose paying special attention to the multiplicity of operations informing a visual and sensitive thought.

List of participants Artslibris

Cultural Spaces allow professionals and all those interested in contemporary art to get to know some of the main Spanish institutions and to discover interesting new initiatives every year.

List of participants Cultural spaces

Art criticism and writing specializing in contemporary art is one of the main channels of communication for artists today. In the magazines section, ARCOmadrid offers its visitors the possibility of discovering the main publications related to contemporary art. A space for reading, discovering and connecting with art.

List of participants Magazines