Edition #1
written by: Katarina Popovic
Tiraž #1 (Edition #1), 2006
Installation, 1000 books
The Museum of Contemporary Art, Belgrade, April 2006
srpskiProject Edition #1 (Srb.Tiraž #1) is the product of a specific collaboration between an artist and two publishing houses from Belgrade, Lom and Plato. It includes joint efforts in different ways of promoting and distributing newly published books and editions. On this occasion two books are translated and published in Serbian for the first time: Dorota Maslowska, Wojna polsko-ruska pod flagą biało-czerwoną, 2002; (RS edition: Belo-Crveno, LOM, Belgrade, 2006; No. of copies 707) and Victor Pelevin, Диалектика Переходного Периода (из Ниоткуда в Никуда), 2004, (RS edition: Dijalektika prelaznog perioda: iz niotkuda u nikuda, Plato, Belgrade, 2006; No. of copies 1000). The books are selected on the basis of the artists’ personal interests and deep belief in their value. (Both can not be classified as popular literature). They deal with actual topics such as society in transitional time, media era, importance of marketing, communications, contemporary sub-cultures etc. A total number of 1707 copies of these books have been exhibited in the Museum of Contemporary Art Salon in Belgrade from the 7th until the 17th of April 2006. During this period, the MCA Salon was the only place where these two books were available to the audience. The gallery held the exclusivity of being the only selling place and became the only distribution centre from where the books entered regular sales outlets. The prices of the books were kept favourable, only to be more accessible to a reading and fine arts public with less financial means.
Tiraž #1 (Edition #1), 2006
Inastallation, 707 books
The Museum of Contemporary Art, Belgrade, April 2006
The design of the two books is based on the application of pure formal fine art solutions and the reduction of the books’ titles to easy recognizable logos. The aim is the promotion of a book/a writer as a brand. The use of fine art structural elements is based on 100 percent pure CMYK colours, and the design reduced on font as the only visual symbol. Therefore, the design emphasises the nature of a book as the printing of an artistic text.
Exhibiting books in the gallery space is closely connected with the personal belief of the artist that the total number of copies of a book by the volume shouldn’t present just a book pile; it should present an object whose structural elements pose artistical values by themselves, and transmit their characteristics to the whole body of a book installation. Being used as material for sculpturing, books are doubling their value. Even presented as a unique entity, the basic function of each individual element of ‘sculpture’, a book as an interactive tool, is not neglected: it can be read, leafed through, or possessed. Visitors are expected to take part in the changing of the preview form of books installation by books ‘disappearing’ from the gallery space.
At the final exhibition of the entire project, which was held a year later in the same exhibition space, a poster by the author and a number of unsold books presented and documented the edition’s transformation and the level and speed of book sales for public, artistic and critical examination.
Tiraž #1 (Edition #1)
Installation detail
Tiraž #1 (Edition #1)
Installation detail
1.
2.
1. Dorota Maslowska, Wojna polsko-ruska pod flagą biało-czerwoną, 2002; (RS edition: Belo-Crveno, LOM, Belgrade, 2006; No. of copies 707)
2. Victor Pelevin, Диалектика Переходного Периода (из Ниоткуда в Никуда), 2004; (RS edition: Dijalektika prelaznog perioda: iz niotkuda u nikuda, Plato, Belgrade, 2006; No. of copies 1000)
