London Art Book Fair 2009 Events

The London Art Book Fair Opening
Friday 25 September, 5pm–late
The Fair opens its doors to the public for this special late night event with performances, DJs, signings and awards.

Birgit Skiöld Memorial Trust Awards
Friday 25 September
The Birgit Skiöld Memorial Trust and an invited selection panel including Stephen Bury, The British Library, Elizabeth James, Documentation Manager, The National Art Library at the Victoria and Albert Museum, Gill Saunders, Senior Curator of Prints, V&A, and Trust representatives Marc Balakjian and Victoria Bartlett will award purchase prizes for artists’ books up to the value of £500 during the opening on Friday 25 September. These will be donated by the Trust to The National Art Library at the V&A.

ResonanceFM
Broadcasting from The London Art Book Fair across the weekend, Resonance104.4fm produce Encyclopodia, a series of radio programmes and podcasts. Edited by Ed Baxter, William English and Richard Thomas, Encyclopodia is an audio miscellany which draws together the diverse strands represented at the Fair - ranging from artists’ manifestoes to critical commentary, cryptic fragments to full blown theses, literary monologues to bookworld babble and beyond.

Music: Arthur Brick
Friday 25 September, 7pm
Café/Bar (Free)
Artist John Strutton performs a special semi-acoustic set with his band Arthur Brick in the Gallery’s café/bar. At DOMOBAAL’s stand throughout the opening Strutton will create watercolours on a moving record player alongside a selection of pamphlets, badges, beermats, and CDs released by Arthur Brick, each with uniquely hand painted covers and presented in a customised guitar case.

Music: Zola Drones
Friday 25 September, 8pm
Café/Bar (Free)
Late night music with DJ Zola Drones.

Children’s Workshop
Saturday 26 September, 11am-12.30pm
Creative Studio (Free, drop-in)
Book-inspired workshop for children and families.

Performance: Alana Jelinek
Saturday 26 September, 11.30am-12.15pm
Study Studio (Free)
Conceived as a fictional transnational corporation, BLACCXN is the focus of Ohm’s Law, a novel by artist Alana Jelinek, part of a larger work involving live art, internet-based projects and physical interventions. For the book fair Jelinek presents a performance as a BLACCXN PR guru. Followed by a signing in the main foyer. In association with: Terra Incognita.

Panel Discussion: Michael Clark
Saturday 26 September, 12-1pm
Zilkha Auditorium (Free)
Violette Editions presents a panel discussion on the work of eminent contemporary dancer and choreographer Michael Clark, chaired by Arabella Stanger, dance scholar and principal researcher for the independent publisher’s monograph on Clark’s work and artist collaborations. Participants include Judith Mackrell, dance writer, The Guardian, and Richard Glasstone, choreographer and Clark’s former teacher at The Royal Ballet School.

Talk: Polly Borland
Saturday 26 September, 12.30-1.15pm
Study Studio (Free)
Bunny documents Polly Borland’s photographic encounters with a real-life giant woman called Gwen, clamped in her ballet tights with a naively drawn rabbit’s face. Exploring femininity and deconstructing the idea of the Playboy bunny girl, Borland draws on the intimacy and trust in the relationship between photographer and subject to look closer at narratives of childhood. Followed by a book signing in the main foyer. In association with: Other Criteria.

Signing: Ian McKeever
Saturday 26 September, 12.45–1.15pm
Main Foyer (Free)
Artist and Royal Academician Ian McKeever signs copies of a new publication presenting an in-depth overview on the painter’s work: Ian McKeever: Paintings, published by Lund Humphries.

Talk: Briony Fer
Saturday 26 September, 1.30–2.30pm
Zilkha Auditorium (Free)
Coinciding with the exhibition Eva Hesse: Studiowork at The Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, Briony Fer, Co-Curator and Professor of History of Art, University College London discusses her major new book on Hesse’s work, exploring the significance of the German-born American artist’s so-called ‘test-pieces’. Followed by a book signing in the main foyer. In association with: The Fruitmarket Gallery and Yale University Press.

Talk: Sally O’Reilly
Saturday 26 September, 1.30-2.15pm
Study Studio (Free)
This year celebrating their 60th anniversary, Thames and Hudson present a talk with writer and critic Sally O’Reilly on The Body in Contemporary Art. Followed by a book signing in the main foyer.

Bookbinding Workshop: Longstitch Binding
Saturday 26 September, 2-3.30pm
Creative Studio (Free, booking essential)
Applying historically accurate techniques with a contemporary approach, bookbinder Michael Burke leads this practical workshop using handmade materials. Suitable for all levels of ability. In association with: The Society of Bookbinders.

Talk: Tim Brennan
Saturday 26 September, 2.30-3.15pm
Study Studio (Free)
Artist Tim Brennan gives a performative talk on his latest book English Anxieties, which takes the Mass Observation Archive as its subject. In association with: Photoworks. Followed by a book signing in the main foyer.

Talk: Situation with Claire Doherty
Saturday 26 September, 3-4.15pm
Zilkha Auditorium (Free, booking essential)
Site-specificity, place, field-work and the public are concerns that have informed and motivated situation-based practice since the 1960s. Claire Doherty, Senior Research Fellow and Director of the Situations programme at the University of the West of England, and Editor of the latest Documents of Contemporary Art anthology discusses the evolving critical discourse around situation and contemporary art. Followed by a book signing in the main foyer.

Signing: Lothar Götz
Saturday 26 September, 3.45-4.15pm
Main Foyer (Free)
Artist Lothar Götz signs copies of SITE 9/1 and SITE 3, a journal for contemporary art, architecture, cinema and philosophy to which Götz has contributed a number of pages.

Saturday 26 September, 4.30-5.45pm
Zilkha Auditorium (Free, booking essential)
What sustains the relationship between the artist and the book, and how are modes of engagement with the book object changing? Chaired by Maria Fusco, Writer in Residence, this panel discusses the physical and conceptual economies that surround and affect art publishing. Speakers include Arnaud Desjardin, artist, book dealer and publisher; Craig Garrett, Commissioning Editor, Phaidon; Kit Hammonds, curator, writer and Co-Founder, Publish and be Damned, and Clair O’Leary, Book Buyer, Tate.

Children’s Workshop
Sunday 27 September, 11am-12.30pm
Creative Studio (Free, drop-in)
Book inspired workshop for children and families.

In Conversation: Juliette Brown and Dai Vaughan
Sunday 27 September, 11.30am-12.15pm
Study Studio (Free)
Artist Dai Vaughan discusses new publication The Treason of the Sparrows with Juliette Brown, writer and co-Founder, Terra Incognita. Followed by a signing in the main foyer.

Talk: Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin
Sunday 27 September, 12.30-1.15pm
Study Studio (Free)
Exploring the connections between photography, imperialism and the colonial tendency to acquire, map and collect, photographers Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin discuss Fig., a publication featuring over 80 still lives, portraits and landscapes. In association with: Photoworks. Followed by a book signing in the main foyer.

Talk: Utopias with Richard Noble
Sunday 27 September, 1–2.15pm
Zilkha Auditorium (Free, booking essential)
The utopian project in contemporary art offers both an alternative future and the prospect of inevitable failure. To coincide with the launch of the latest Documents of Contemporary Art anthology, Richard Noble, editor and Fine Art Lecturer, Goldsmiths, University of London discusses the political context of utopian currents in art practice. Followed by a book signing in the main foyer.

Bookbinding Workshop: The Blizzard Book
Sunday 27 September, 2-3.30pm
Creative Studio (Free, booking essential)
Learn how to make The Blizzard Book, a unique book structure created using simple paper folding techniques and featuring multiple pockets - invented by American book artist Hedi Kyle. This practical workshop is led by bookbinder Dominic Riley. Suitable for all levels of ability. In association with: The Society of Bookbinders.

Signing: Peter Blake
Sunday 27 September, 2-3pm
Main Foyer (Free)
The ‘founding father of British Pop Art’, Sir Peter Blake signs copies of his new book Venice Fantasies, which brings together a sequence of quirky and inventive collages developed from tourist postcards of Venice from the early 1900s, entertainingly updated by Blake with absurd and surreal elements. In association with: Enitharmon Editions.

Writers in Conversation: Adrian Rifkin and Elisabeth Lebovici
Sunday 27 September, 2.30–4pm
Zilkha Auditorium (£7/£5 concs., booking essential)
Adrian Rifkin, Professor of Art Writing, Goldsmiths, invites Paris based critic, curator and author Elisabeth Lebovici to discuss modes of writing and publishing on the fringes of invention and discovery in Anglophone literature, and to consider what is permitted in theory and sexual and political commentary. In association with: Goldsmiths, University of London.

Talk and Signing: Robin Maddock, Iain Sinclair and Hannah Watson
Sunday 27 September, 2.30-3.15pm
Study Studio (Free)
Photographer Robin Maddock and Managing Editor of Trolley Books Hannah Watson introduce their new publication, Our Kids Are Going to Hell, a photographic document of Maddock’s three-year journey accompanying police on the streets of east London. Followed by a signing in the main foyer with writer and Hackney resident Iain Sinclair, author of the introduction to the book. In association with: Trolley Books.

Film Screening
Sunday 27 September, 4.30–6pm
Zilkha Auditorium (Free, booking essential)
Presented as a running sequence of short films, the programme features work by seminal book artist Ed Ruscha alongside short films employing word-play, texts and poetry. Curated by William English, filmmaker and broadcaster.