Wednesday, 26 September

N.N. (Jurgen Persijn), A Prior's graphic designer has been awared the prestigious Plantin-Moretus prize for Best Art Book an initiatvie of the Flemish Publishers Society and the Plantin Society.

The Prize was awarded for his design of the Collectie Vlaamse Gemeenschap aanwinsten publication, with texts by Koen Brams and Dirk Pultau, published by the Flemish Ministery of Culture.

Tuesday, 18 September

13:00-14:00 Lunch Lecture - Conversation with Allan Sekula
Allan Sekula (documenta 12 artist, Los Angeles) in dialogue with Monika Szewczyk (contributing editor of A Prior, Brussels) on Sekula's Shipwreck and Workers--Version 3 for Kassel (2007), his contirubution to A Prior #15 in the context of documenta 12 and the broad trajectory of his critical project since the 1970s.
In cooperation with European Cultural Foundation (ECF)

Language: English
Place: Lunch Lecture podium, Documenta Halle, Kassel

18:00-19:00 Art/Work -- Conversation
Contributing artists to A Prior #15 Allan Sekula and Valérie Mannaerts and A Prior #14 Sven Augustijnen, in conversation with the editor Monika Szewczyk about action, labour and working conditions.
In cooperation with European Cultural Foundation (ECF)

Language: English
Place: Lunch Lecture podium, Documenta Halle, Kassel

Old News

Newsletter June 2007 // A Prior Magazine presents issues #14 and #15

Dear Reader,

The launch of our two latest issues took place on the occasion of the opening of Documenta 12 this month.

For those still travelling, we would like to point out three dates:

July 25th: presentation by Raimundas Malasauskas at the Documenta Halle in Kassel, A Prior Magazine & guests
August 8th: screening of “Wanda” by Barbara Loden, a film discussed in APM#15 by Dirk Lauwaert, at Gloria Kino, Kassel (www.gloriakino.de )
September 15th-19th: lunch lectures and workshops by A Prior Magazine & guests

The editorial board of A Prior is proud to present it’s three new members: Phillip Vanden Bossche (Eindhoven/Oostende), Mai Abu El Dahab (Cairo/Antwerpen), Anders Kreuger (Copenhagen).

The reduced subscription offer of 55 euro for two years subscription to A Prior Magazine is valid until August 15th. A Prior Magazine issues #14 and #15 are among others available at the temporary bookshop PRoQM near the Museum Fridericianum in Kassel. Orders can be made through our website. (www.aprior.org )

That’s all for now --- have a well deserved and joyful summer

The A Prior Team

Press Release June 2007

A Prior Magazine presents:
issue #14_Sven Augustijnen, Deimantas Narkevicius, Joachim Koester;
issue #15_Valérie Mannaerts, Martha Rosler, Allan Sekula.

A Prior Magazine is a contributor to this year’s documenta12 magazines project – an open source collaborative project between over 90 on- and off-line (art)publications. A Prior’s two issues of this year take their cue from the conceptual outlines of the documenta12 project. A Prior also took the occasion to extend its activities, exchange articles and to organise seminars and educational sessions with art academies in Milan (naba), Kassel (kunsthochschule) and Ghent (kask).

Board of editors: Els Roelandt, Andrea Wiarda, Monika Szewczyk, Raimundas Malasauskas, Dieter Roelstraete, Hilde van Gelder, Ann Demeester, Anton Vidokle, Aneta Szylak, Dirk Snauwaert, Barbara Vanderlinden.

[APM#14_modernity]

Chèr Pourquoi Pas? – Sven Augustijnen
Who killed Patrice Lumumba? And who murdered his alleged murderer? What was the role of journalist Pierre Davister? Sven Augustijnen’s investigative and elaborative project on (post)colonial events and media in both Congo—a former Belgian colony—and Belgium, recalls the thin lines between truth and fiction, the manipulation of words and data, power structures and media. Based on magazine and archived articles, real and fictional interviews the project also features an extensive series of covers from the 1960s reviews Pourquoi Pas? and Spécial. Jan Verwoert elaborates on the ‘Practical Surrealism’ Augustijnen’s work.
Re-visiting Solaris – Deimantas Narkevicius
Narkevicius reconsiders Solaris—the enigmatic Tarkovsky film adaptation in 1971/2 of the novel by futurologist Stanislaw Lem. An extensive text by writer Jean-Pierre Rehm and a conversation between Narkevicius and Larissa Harris, discuss Narkevicius’ mastery in addressing the contemporary and (recent) past, in the context of the wrangling of the economic and the socio-cultural condition, specifically in the former Eastern Bloc.
Königsberg / Kaliningrad – Joachim Koester
Koester travelled to the city of Königsberg / Kaliningrad together with curator and writer Anders Kreuger and literary scholar Claudia Sinnig and discovered that Kant’s beloved hometown (and Hannah Arendt’s birthplace) was now covered with shopping malls and other marks of post-communist, capitalist influence. Koester elaborated his project The Kant Walks with new photographs for A PRIOR and produced a new series of photographs: Kaliningrad is Full of Holes. With reflections on Königsberg / Kaliningrad by Dieter Roelstraete, Anders Kreuger and Claudia Sinnig.

/ visions
I Am Alive and You Are Dead...
Curator and writer François Piron elaborates on the inherent tensions and contradictions of modernity starting from Glass Architecture—a manifesto written by the German poet Paul Scheerbart in 1910—and subsequently on the production of errors as an interpretative methodology or, what modernity could have been if....

[APM#15_on Life]

A Monster of LochNess Feeling – Valérie Mannaerts
Belgian artist Valérie Mannaerts presents a four-part series of new photographs: A Monster of Loch Ness Feeling yielding a vision of life in a bare, abstract form, but one that is rarely evident in contemporary theoretical discourse. In a contribution by Monika Szewczyk on Mannaerts work the question of bare life emerges as the object of ‘an experimental knowledge’. Further elaborations on Mannaerts work are contributed by Jeroen Boomgaard and Kersten Geers.
Bringing the War Home – Martha Rosler
Martha Rosler presents a verion of her series of images which powerfully rearticulates the kind of domestic, everyday, regular life in the context of (current) war(s). Accompanied by a conversation around the Martha Rosler Library between Martha Rosler, Dieter Roestraete and Anton Vidokle—shedding a different light on Rosler’s work as well as the critical universe that books construct.
Shipwreck and Workers—Version 3 for Kassel (2007) – Allan Sekula
Allan Sekula offers an in-dept (pre)view of his project for Documenta12, accompanied by an elaborate commentary on this new project, previous series and the broader context of Sekula’s work by Hilde Van Gelder. Asserting labour as a noble poetic and essential part of human life.

/ visions
‘What’s the place of art in all this?’ A conversation with Maria Hlavajova by Andrea Wiarda; Rudi Laermans on COMMONism and other things we may not share...; Dirk Lauwaert discusses Wanda... Barbara Loden’s only feature film; Hito Steyerl elaborates on the uncertain status of documentary footage; Marius Babias reflects on the relations of ‘populism’, ‘public sphere’ and ‘terrorism’ in his text on Zones of Indifference.

[APMextra02] Proposal for Documenta12, 2007, Or How William Blake Saved Documenta.
A time-travelling-speculative-imaginary project, conceived and edited by Raimundas Malasauskas, this booklet consists of 22 proposals by artists and curators for any edition of documenta in the past, present or future, from any moment in the past, present or future—. The booklet is freely and randomly distributed.

 
Upcoming: APM#16_Anouk De Clercq (february 2008)

A Prior Magazine is supported by: The Ministery of the Flemish Community, University College Ghent, department of Visual Arts and Design, The Advertisers; Support for APM#15: KULeuven, Lieven Gevaert Research Centre for Photography and Visual Studies.


APM very first newsletter

[dvd cover, source wikipedia]