Mutant Perspectives

Lectures on independent publishing and creation at Libros Mutantes, the Madrid Art Book Fair

Programme for Friday 21 April - This first session will present complementary perspectives on different professions in the design and publishing world.

• 6 pm - Groupe CCC
  
 Groupe CCC is a French graphic design and research studio founded by Valentin Bigel and Alice Gavin. Their working process and results reflect a constant questioning of graphic design and its tools and the quest for new alternatives. In its self-managed and curatorial projects at the local and international level, Groupe CCC focuses primarily on art and the culture industry.
• 7 pm - Javier Mariscal
  
 Javier Mariscal is a creator of images whose work spans a wide range of media and disciplines. Some of his most important projects include the visual rebranding of the Swedish socialist party; Cobi, the mascot of the Barcelona Olympics; the feature film Chico & Rita, co-directed with Fernando Trueba; and the design of the Gran Hotel Domine Bilbao. He has participated in the Kassel documenta and won numerous awards, and his creations have been exhibited at prestigious institutions like the Centre Pompidou and the Design Museum in London, which hosted a retrospective of his career and the output of his studio, Estudio Mariscal, founded in 1989.
• 8 pm - ASAB - All Sources Are Broken
  
 All Sources Are Broken is an internet-based project developed by the Berlin studio Labor Neunzehn. The founders of this artistic experiment, which also pursues a collaborative re-archival practice, will present a performance and audiovisuals. The goal of ASAB is to create a collective publication by using an open-access web content management system to investigate hyper-textuality and transmedia narrative in post-digital books. In this way, it expands the possibilities of books while tracking hyperlink obsolescence.

Programme for Saturday 22 April - Three talks by international experts on independent publishing and contemporary creation. Mutant Perspectives goes global in a big way with an overview of today's most innovative design and writing projects.

• 5:30 pm - Valiz, with Astrid Vorstermans (Netherlands)
  Valiz is a project established to respond to and embrace developments in contemporary art, photography, architecture and design in a broad-based, imaginative way. Its efforts materialise primarily in the form of carefully crafted books with critical, thought-provoking content often linked to other disciplines. In addition to publishing books, Valiz also conducts research, organises exhibitions and lectures, and pursues other projects. Its founder, Astrid Vorstermans, is an art historian with extensive experience in the publishing industry. Under the Valiz umbrella she works with a broad network of professionals, from art critics, publishers and graphic designers to museums and other cultural institutions.
• 7 pm - Heavyweight (Czech Republic)
  
Heavyweight is a type foundry run by two graphic artists, Jan Horčík and Filip Matějíček. Filip Matějíček's contemporary style is characterised by the combination of monochromatic palettes with bold designs and experimental type creations, most notably the Novo font. His partner Horčík acknowledges the influence of graffiti on his work, clearly visible in his Joe182 font and the more recent Oasis. The two designers met at university, where they began working together and laying the conceptual foundations of their joint project launched in 2013.
 With the collaboration of Centro Checo Madrid.
• 6 pm and 8 pm - Kenneth Goldsmith (USA)
  
Kenneth Goldsmith is the founder of UbuWeb, the internet's largest archive of avant-garde artistic material, and the MoMA's first poet laureate. Influenced by his training as a visual artist and aware of the need to rethink language management in the digital age, Goldsmith controversially breaks conventional writing moulds by championing plagiarism as a creative strategy and encouraging his students to waste time on the internet and investigate new literary possibilities. He has published a number of essays and poetry anthologies, including Uncreative Writing, Fidget, Wasting Time on the Internet, Theory, Soliloquy and The Day.
Kenneth Goldsmith will give a master class at 6 pm in the auditorium and a lecture/performance at 8 pm in the courtyard.


With the collaboration of: IED Madrid