Roma Publications 1998 - 2008
An editorial project by
Roger Willems & Mark Manders
29 July - 29 August
Roma Publications is an independent editorial project founded in 1998 by Dutch graphic designer Roger Willems and artist Mark Manders. Based in Amsterdam, Roma Publications has been expanding in an informal and dynamic way as a platform for the production of autonomous publications, in close collaboration with a growing number of artists, designers, curators & writers.
With Roma Publications, Manders and Willems have defined their own territory, one which fuses art, design and curatorship. Each of the 112 publications to date has its own rule of appearance with meticulous consideration give to content, typography, layout, and production.
This exhibition focuses on the convergence of art and design and will assemble over 100 objects including artist books, newspapers, catalogues, posters, prints, postcards and audio/visual projections.
Curated by Warren Taylor and Matt Hinkley
Accompanying free public events:
Forum: Books Make Friends
Autonomous publishing and
collaborations in art & print
Tuesday 29 July at 4 pm
This forum brings together artists and graphic designers working across a range of publication formats. From artist-run periodicals to innovative design magazines, the participants in Books Make Friends will be discussing their own first-hand experiences working with independent publications. With: Yanni Florence, Pataphysics; Jaki Middleton, managing editor, runway; Marcus Piper, art director, Pol Oxygen; Mickie Quick, Big Fag Press. Chaired by Warren Taylor, founder and director of The Narrows and co-curator, Roma Publications 1998-2008.
Film Screening: Helvetica
A documentary by Gary Hustwit
Friday 29 August at 6pm
RSVP to the public events here
Supported by The Narrows, Melbourne, the UTS Visual Communication course in the School of Design, the Creativity and Cognition Studios, Sydney and Roma Publications. This exhibition was first shown at The Narrows, Melbourne in November 2007.
Parallel exhibition of the 2008 Biennale of Sydney
Sydney Design 08
8 August - 24 August 2008
Roma Publications Images (from top):
1. Roma Publications 104 Cast (Part 4). Sequence of newspaper images collected by Raymond Taudin Chabot as source material for his 'men-in-suit' slow motion video works. Ed. Roger Willems, 2007
2. Roma Publications 100 Parallel Encyclopedia, Ed. Batia Suter, 2007
3-4. Roma Publications 1998-2007, exhibition installation shots, The Narrows, Melbourne 2007.
5. Roma Publication 101 Post-production. Batia Suter Test Sheet for Parallel Encyclopedia 2007. From a growing series of A1 posters, curated by Roger Willems, 2007-08
Images courtesy Roma Publicatons
and The Narrows, Melbourne
The Game of Places
9 September - 10 October 2008
Kinam Kim
Soonkwan Kwon
Eunjong Lee
Hosang Park
Eunkyung Shin
Roland Barthes commented that the true understanding of a city is achieved not by scrutinizing maps, but by experiencing and feeling the place. A city is not merely an architectural space. Rather, it exists as a text to be read.
The Game of Places presents the work of five Korean photographers each investigating their relationship with their urban surrounds.
Several of the works in the exhibition portray Seoul, a densely populated metropolis of over 10 million residents, as almost devoid of people. These sparsely populated cityscapes act to highlight the almost universal urban spaces we inhabit and what they reveal about ourselves.
Through the magnificent, still, crystalline vistas in Isolated from the Territory, Soonkwan Kwon evokes a sense of wonder at the capabilities of human enterprise and, at the same time, a critique of urban utopia.
Hosang Park in A square - the scenery of a small park, presents tender, disquieting bird's-eye views of empty local parks which recall childhood board-games, exploring the "local" as a means to unpack the so-called "global".
Eunjong Lee's studio images, Kinam Kim's documentation of (the almost universal) Ikea store in The affordable solution for better living and Eunkyung Shin's A photo studio share the tracing of human aspiration. The depiction of real and simulated interiors in The Game of Places - be it in artist studios, photographer's backdrops or retail stores - reveals the underlying internal landscape of our hopes and paradoxically our fears.
Curated by Eunjong Lee
The city will always attract artists as the ever
renewing space never ceases to contain our past, present and future. This exhibition is an attempt to represent the games that we play against multiple places in the city by featuring the works of five photographers. The result of the game would be the creation of new meanings of, and perspectives on, the city. Eunjong Lee, June 2008
The Game of Places Images (from top):
1. Kinam Kim 11227, 2008, digital c-print,
2. Hosang Park, Howon Dong, 2004
3. Soonkwan Kwon, Isolated from the Territory - A woman with a red clutch who is watching a man who is taking a photograph on top of round manhole, 2005 digital lambda print,
4. Eunkyung Shin, photo studio-chair iii, 2007 digital c-print
5. Eunjong Lee, A studio 18B, 2006, c-print
