Whispering Pages & Interrogation Hearts 🔮 26-27.04.2024
Whispering Pages & Interrogation Hearts is a two day program around subversive and empowering publishing stories from the past, present and future, starting on the 26th of April with the opening of the exhibition “Messy Bindings ∿ Messy Reliures” & a talk by publisher and designer Nina Paim at the feminist library RoSa in Brussels and continuing on the 27th of April with a day of gathering, presentations and workshops around subversive and empowering publishing stories from the past, present and future, at the Beursschouwburg.
PROGRAMME 🔮
“Messy Bindings ∿ Messy Reliures”
Friday 26 April 2024 — 16:00
→ RoSa, Zennestraat 40, Brussels
16:00 — Talk by Nina Paim “A Box of Book Memories”
16:00-19:00 — Opening of the “Messy Bindings ∿ Messy Reliures” exhibition + launch publications
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free, on reservation
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We are verrry excited to announce the opening of the exhibition “Messy Bindings ∿ Reliures messy”: a research into the soft, limp, messy bindings of Belgian feminist publications contained in local archives in Brussels. Messy Bindings is an inventory of forms that are relatively accessible production-wise, and that show inventive ways to transform strings and staples into sublime bindings.
At this occasion, we are inviting Nina Paim for a talk about feminist editorial practices and her new Porto-based project Bikini Books!
♡ A Box of Book Memories ♡
From a quirky family emblem to a puzzling book theft, a trove of urban narratives to a library of unwritten stories, from the everyday artistry of editing to the hustle of publishing—these are threads that have woven my journey into the world of books. To publish, in essence, is to make public. But in the world of books, it’s a tapestry of tasks, none of which, on their own, quite capture the essence of publishing. From reader to writer, editor to designer, distributor to bookseller, and beyond—a publisher is a network of connections. In this talk, I’ll share personal stories alongside a broader narrative of women in the book trade. Picking from a box and flipping through a scrapbook of memories, I’ll delve into chance encounters, meaningful collaborations, and the sometimes challenging threads of collective effort.
Nina Paim is a Brazilian designer, curator, editor, and publisher, based in Porto, Portugal. She has co-curated numerous exhibitions, workshops, and events, including Escola Aberta (Rio de Janeiro, 2012), Beyond Change (Basel, 2018), Department of Non-Binaries (Sharjah, 2018), Feminist Findings (Berlin, 2020), and most recently, etceteras: a feminist festival of publishing and design (Porto, 2023). She co-edited "Taking a Line for a Walk" (Spector Books, 2016) and "Design Struggles" (Valiz, 2021). A three-time recipient of the Swiss Design Awards, Nina has imparted her knowledge through international teaching and lectures, while her written works have been published by Occasional Papers (UK/BE), Les presses du réel (FR), esad-idea (PT), aveditionsl (DE), and the Korea Society of Typography (KR). In 2019, she co-founded the feminist platform Futuress.org, which she co-directed until 2023, when she established Bikini Books, an independent feminist publisher for design based in Porto, Portugal.
After Nina’s talk we will launch the brand new English version of the publication Staples & String Ends ~ Messy Bindings, designed by Sarah Saleh, and a reprint of the French version designed by Lara Dautun ♡
Organized by Lissa Choukrane and Loraine Furter.
Saturday 27 April 2024 — 10:00-18:00
a day of gathering, presentations and workshops
→ Beursschouwburg, 20-28 rue Auguste Orts, Brussels
10:00-18:00 (doors) — Presentations and workshops
free, on reservation
♡
Take a deep breath in through your nose, and a deep breath out through your mouth... In a few breaths we will meet in a parallel space-time in which we can share and dream stories of empowerment through publishing, in an expanded understanding of the term, including oral transmission and hybrid~cyborg formats.·՞ ՟ ՚
From (micro-)typography to editorial structures. From gossip to public speech. From ghostwriting to collective pamphlets.
Detailed program:
We will open the doors of the space at 10am °⸛⸰ the “silver space” is on the fifth floor of Beursschouwburg, accessible from inside the building by a legendarily infinite staircase and an on-request elevator. The room usually welcomes DJs and dancing bodies, the corridor leads to toilets on one side and a rooftop terrasse on the other. Inside the room are different kinds of seats, from regular chairs to cushions and carpets, on which early guests can come and sit, sip a cup of tea, read booklets and ephemeras, listen to audio pieces, enjoy visual elements and rest.
At 11°° the event starts, with the organizer Loraine and artist Moustapha Guissé on the mic, introducing the space, the program, the sound devices present in the room, making space for oral and audio transmission, making connections with other forms that will be present in the day.
Then, Loraine and graphic designer Sarah Magnan will then guide everyone in a collective meditation and SF futurology exercise, opening up a a dreamed alternative space-time for publishing practices ⸰⸰⸰ ⋱
Coming back to our reality, we will hear invited guests for short presentations of parallel workshops and participatory moments that will take place after the lunch break ⦂ Backstage, a workshop to make (up) one’s personna with artists and performers Vinciane Mandrin & Nino André ⎰⎰ an emancipatory science fiction reading group with artist & writer Clara Pacotte & graphic designer Sherida Kuffour ⎰⎰ diasporic memories and publishing with artists and graphic designers Joud Toamah, Garine Gokceyan & Marie Damageux ⎰⎰ an arpentage of the book “Abécédaire d’auto-édition féministe” by book-binder and researcher Lissa Choukrane ⎰⎰ a working table to prototype displays for soft publications, for those who prefer a different way to connect.
At 12⸰30 pm we will take a break, eat, and fill our body and eyes with the food creations of designers Roxanne Maillet and Leo Ren O’faigain. After the lunch break, at 1⸰30 pm the parallel workshops will start, spread in the room.
At 4°°, we will gather again to listen to slam artist Joëlle Sambi, designer and educator Mio Kojima and asiofeminist podcast creator Mélanie Cao, whose voices will compose a landscape full of tips and shared experiences in bringing different voices together.
The day will end with a mix of recordings from the day by designer and DJ Sarah Saleh, as part of her research “Archival Resistance, Sampling as a Political practice”.
A slow ending of the day from 5°° to 6°°pm to discuss, conspire, sit or lay down, sip a cup of tea, read booklets and ephemeras, listen to audio pieces, enjoy visual elements and rest.
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This is a multilingual event with partial language & accessibility translations in the form of hybrid publishing (projections, prints, audio files ⸰⸰⸰ bring your headphones with you!)
This program is organized by Loraine Furter, as part of the research project “The politics of publishing: researching encounters between artists’ books and intersectional feminist tools” which addresses artists’ books and the politics of publishing, creating forms to remember overlooked histories in this field, through a critical design approach which includes feminist tools. The project materializes in a series of hybrid publications (paper, digital, spatial, oral) that re·activate objects and histories and re·circulate them.
https://beursschouwburg.be/en/events/loraine-furter-whispering-pages-interrogation-hearts/