PrintROOM

Bureau continues to show dynamic, exciting and experimental work by emerging international artists, and is proud to present PrintROOM, a project by Karin de Jong, alongside an exhibition of work by Tony Garifalakis, Jeroen Jongeleen and Modern: Markus Rummens & Jorn de Vries.

The PrintROOM collection is a vast, growing and travelling, international collection of artists’ publications and print projects. Rotterdam based, artist and curator Karin de Jong began the project in 2003; originating out of a need to collect and present artists’ printed matter, and to exchange ideas through this medium. It has since become an ever-expanding resource, with each presentation of PrintROOM occurring at a different location, creating an opportunity for artists that work in this field to submit and donate new material.

The presentation at Bureau has a particular focus on the use of the poster format and how artists appropriate the language of publicity. The folded poster is also a design format that has become a prevalent trend in UK galleries printed publicity in recent years, a trend, which most notably spread from Europe. This exhibition gives the artists the chance to claim back the format for artwork rather than advertising and to explore the different ways we communicate through printed matter, whether text or visuals based.

Garifalakis, Jongeleen and ‘Modern’, whose work features in the concurrent exhibition and are all exhibiting for the first time in the UK, regularly utilise and appropriate the poster format - ideas behind design and layout, and the communication techniques of posters and printed publicity - within their work.

The third strand to the presentation of PrintROOM at Bureau utilises both organisation’s networks, and is formed by submissions from a recent international open invitation to artists to submit new posters and publications (including artist’s books, magazines, fanzines, or newspapers.) Following the exhibition these publications will then become part of the PrintROOM collection and Bureau’s Artists’ Books & Publications Archive.

Bureau has also commissioned a new Parazine publication to be created especially to coincide with the exhibition. Focusing on the different aspects of collecting, producing and contextualizing artists’ printed matter, it will be designed and hand-printed (by silkscreen) by Modern: Markus Rummens & Jorn de Vries. Called Parazine due to the nature of its distribution, via insertion into other art related publications; the new edition will be circulated in bookshops and galleries, in Manchester and Salford, throughout the course of the exhibition.

MORE ON PrintROOM: PrintROOM is a growing and travelling collection of artists’ publications, initiated in 2003 at ROOM, an artist-run space in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Each presentation of PrintROOM takes place at a different location and creates an opportunity for artists that work in this field to submit and donate new material. On each of these occasions a small publication is produced that focuses on the different aspects of collecting, producing and contextualizing artists’ printed matter. It is called Parazine, as it is distributed as an insert in other art related publications (magazines, catalogues) at local bookstores and museum shops. PrintROOM is a project by Karin de Jong, an artist and curator based in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. More information on PrintROOM can be found at: www.roomweb.nl

MORE ON TONY Garifalakis: “Ruin of Empires comprised a large wall covered with photocopied collages on gaudily coloured A3 sheets. Viewed together these ‘death fliers’ heralded apocalypse now: A Calvin Klein model’s face peeled away to reveal a gaping skull, a clock face photographed at the hour of 6.66 was branded ‘time to die’, and a young Lothario French-kissed the rotten teeth of his skull-face girlfriend. The overall effect was part Mexican Day of the Dead, part angst-ridden teenage boys’ bedrooms, [...] and part eerie reminder of our own mortality.” (Quote by Phip Murray about the work of Tony Garifalakis, un.Magazine, Melbourne.) Tony Garifalakis lives and works in Melbourne, Australia.

MORE ON Jeroen Jongeleen: Under the name of Influenza Jeroen Jongeleen carries out a variety of interventions in the public domain, playing with the different sets of codes and rules that surround us (and control us), without always being noticed. Information Blackout is a project in which commercial posters in the streets are directly attacked. The information, mostly outdated, is transformed into a more principal counter-form of drawing, through a simple movement with a black spray can. Jeroen Jongeleen lives and works in Paris and Rotterdam.

MORE ON MODERN: Markus Rummens & Jorn de Vries: User is a poster project by Modern; a collaboration of Markus Rummens and Jorn de Vries, artist and graphic designer. Their collaboration gives both the opportunity to use the strategies of their different practices; the User posters are designed in a direct way that refers to large advertisement campaigns, but are hand-produced rather than being mass-printed. The posters are distributed through User’s growing network; people are invited to ‘use’ the posters i.e. hang them – then take a picture of how the poster was applied and finally sending this image back to User, for them to re-use this image on their website. Markus Rummens & Jorn de Vries live and work in Rotterdam and Den Bosch.

MORE ON BUREAU: Bureau is a new, purpose-built, independent art gallery, which provides a platform for dynamic, exciting and experimental work by emerging and established national and international artists. In addition to exhibitions, Bureau presents live events such as artist’s film & video screenings, experimental music, performance, and talks by artists and arts professionals. Complimentary to the exhibitions and events programme, Bureau supports artists’ creative and professional development with seminars, debates, e-newsletters and resources, which include an Artist’s Film & Video Collection and an Artists’ Books & Publications Collection, both viewable by appointment. The Directors are Sophia Crilly and Mark Kennard, both practicing artists and curators.

Pressetext

PrintROOM - A collection of artists’ publications
project by Karin de Jong

mit Tony Garifalakis, Jeroen Jongeleen, Modern: Markus Rummens & Jorn de Vries