Festival dei Due Mondi, Spoleto
25 June – 12 July, Via degi Eremiti 1

with VIAINDUSTRIAE

Opening 27/06: 15.00 – 18.00
01/07 – 02/07: 17.00 – 20.00
03/07 – 04/07: 11.00 – 13.00
08/07: 17.00 – 20.00
09/07: 17.00 – 00.00
10/07 – 11/07: 11.00 – 13.00

As part of an ongoing collaboration with VIAINDUSTRIAE – a projectspace and publishing group based in Foligno specialising in contemporary approaches to publishing – the Mahler & LeWitt Studios present Quasi-Book, a platform for disseminating and contextualising experimental artists’ publishing practices. Quasi-Book is a hybrid space presenting studio activity, hosting events and exhibitions, and the daily running of a bookshop. As well as presenting current and recent work relating to the Mahler & LeWitt Studios and Viaindustriae programs, the space will be activated by Kolxoz Collective, the awardees of the ‘Quasi-Book: Artist Publisher Open Call‘. Kolxoz Collective is made up of Viktor Vejvoda (Czech Republic), Maxim Polyakov (Moldova) and Anton Polyakov (Transnistria). At the core of their practice is a belief in the radical potentiality of printed matter to create communities and act as a platform for socio-political self-reflection and conversation. As well as self-publishing, they stage events and performances: creating temporary publishing houses and distribution centres, hosting workshops, open studios and social spaces such as coffee bars and clubs. The Quasi-Book space is connected to the former studio of Sol LeWitt. As a prolific bookmaker and a co-founder of the Printed Matter bookstore in New York, LeWitt is closely identified with the book as an art form.

VIAINDUSTRIAE is a non-profit organization and a collective, active since 2005, developing contemporary art projects – publications, residencies, exhibitions and events – which respond to educational needs and conceive cultural projects as a creative, modular and open practice that can be inclusive and socially permeable. It is based in Foligno, Italy, in a former clothing factory. With its practice, it aims at investigating the intermediate territories between art and architecture, off-media publishing. Viaindustriae establishes a relationship with artists who seeks to engage with and enhance co-operation and co-generative instances of artistic production. In 2009 Viaindustriae launched INbook OUTbook IFbook, a biennial research and residency project on the possibilities of display and archive of artist’s books.