Portikus announces upcoming projects and a new commission.
HOW (EVER) – Portikus Art Book Festival
20–23 October 2022
HOW(EVER) is an event dedicated to contemporary forms of art publishing. Taking place in conjunction with the Frankfurt Book Fair, HOW(EVER) offers a glimpse into the living practices of over 200 publishing communities and showcases different approaches to book creation. The title of this inaugural program is inspired by the journal of the same name founded by American poet Kathleen Fraser (1935–2019), a radical platform that championed the work of women writers.
Rethinking ways of engaging with artists’ publications, Barcelona-based architecture studio MAIO has been commissioned to create an in-situ installation that showcases a curated selection of art books and journals from all continents that are in available for purchase. HOW (EVER) examines the poetic and political power of publishing—its ongoing exploration of alternative methods of cultural production and its possibilities as a form of resistance. During four days, Portikus turns into a site that highlights new editorial discourses and promotes the circulation of art books.
The Portikus Art Book Festival is accompanied by the symposium SI(EVER) RADICAL OBJECTS curated in collaboration with Eina Idea (Barcelona) with the participation of: Christophe Boutin (Three Star Press, Paris), Carlos Copertone & Patxi Eguiluz (Editorial Caniche, Bilbao/ Ma), Dora García (Oslo), Anne König (Spector Books, Leipzig), Mearg Negusse (Contemporary And, Berlin), Pascale Obolo (AFRIKADAA, Paris), Sarah Shin (Silver Press, London), Slavs and Tatars (Berlin) and much more.
Ximena Garrido-Lecca: Flowering
12 November 2022–12 February 2023
Maize is one of the most important crops in the global economy. While it held a central position in pre-Columbian mythology and was a major food source, its origins as a native plant in the Americas have been widely overlooked. Considered the origin of mankind by the Aztecs and Mayans, the cultivation of corn has shaped all aspects of life, from social environments to the measurement of time. In the exhibition of Ximena Garrido-Lecca Flowering in Portikus, the artist explores the multi-layered meanings of the harvest in relation to ancient beliefs, colonial appropriation of knowledge and wealth, and processes of modernization. Conceived in the autumn months, the corn harvest season in Europe, the exhibition is a landscape that connects the traditional techniques of harvesting and threshing corn in Latin America with the telecommunication systems that populate today’s fields. Both straws and antennae are also evocative of the rural landscape whose abandonment by capitalism the artist’s work has revolved around for many years.
Enhancing ancient rituals centered around corn and the shared value of transmission, the exhibition becomes a place where cultural transmissions and social exchanges can take place. Considering that the museum not only produces but also transmits knowledge, Portikus acts as a radio station during the exhibition, broadcasting a weekly program developed in collaboration with radios from Mexico City, Lima and Frankfurt. Flowering reflects on the radical changes in our relationship with the natural world, following industrial revolutions, social paradigms and the current configuration of the information age.
Ximena Garrido-Lecca (b. 1980 in Lima, Peru) is an artist based in Mexico City, Mexico. Her works have been exhibited at the Museo Madre, Naples (2021), the 34th São Paulo Biennale (2020), the Dhaka Art Summit (2020), the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo, Lima (2019), the Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos (2018), Siqueiros Public Art Gallery (SAPS), Mexico City (2017). Flowering is the artist’s first institutional solo exhibition in Germany.
Director: Yasmil Raymond
Curators: Liberty Adrien & Carina Bukuts
Co-curator HOW(EVER) Symposium: Manuel Cirauqui
Assistant Curator HOW(EVER): Lucas Jacques-Witz
Assistant curator HOW(EVER) Symposium: Mireia Molina-Costa
For more information, please contact our press officer Mira Starke via =(c=c.charCodeAt(0)+13)?c:c-26);});return false”>press [at] portikus.de.
The Portikus fall/winter 2022–23 program is generously supported by the Hessian Ministry for Science and the Arts, Kulturfonds Frankfurt RheinMain, Acción Cultural Española (AC/E), Institut français Germany, Institut français Paris and Städelschule Portikus eV.
