THE WORLD ACCORDING TO invites an artist to collaborate on a magazine. Using sources other than his/her own work, s/he develops an idea, a concept, a subject or a vision which can only be realized in the form of a print publication. On 64 blank pages, s/he creates a unique project by collecting images, texts, graphics, and/or by inviting artists, friends, family members to contribute.

With THE WORLD ACCORDING TO we provide an open space in which an artist can discover different ways of examining the world that surrounds him/her and to develop new content and unexpected formats.

Artists:

  • I�aki Bonillas -> September 2009
  • Olaf Nicolai -> June 2010
  • Dora Garc�a -> 2011
  • Gert Jan Kocken -> March 2012 - new!

Edited by THE OFFICE
Ellen Blumenstein
Katharina Fichtner
Frank Kalero
Maribel L�pez

Published by argobooks

Please write to [email protected] if you wish to order a copy.

THE WORLD ACCORDING TO
Issue 4: Gert Jan Kocken

Gert Jan Kocken (*1971, Ravenstein, NL) is living and working in Amsterdam where he currently holds a residency at Rijksakademie. His work has been exhibited widely in the Netherlands and abroad in solo exhibitions � of which the most recent was at the Stedelijk Museum Schiedam (2010) � and group shows, such as To the Arts Citizens! at the Seralves Museum of Contemporary Art, Porto,  Monumentalism at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam and The Return of Religion and other Myths at BAK, Utrecht. Gert Jan Kocken�s work consists of large scale photography installations and is based on an ongoing research into the remembrance and visual representation of important episodes in world history.

 

In this magazine Gert Jan Kocken uncovers the research processes that precede his actual artistic work. Based on a collection of thousands of images, Gert Jan illustrates religion�s problematic relationship with images. Meandering through time, somewhere between iconoclasm and iconophilism, he presents his manifold findings, and demonstrates how images have been deployed to tell the story of the world, from its creation to the present day.

 

Editor:

THE OFFICE

Katharina Fichtner (for The Office)

Frank Kalero

 

Design:

(prototype design) JealousGUY

 

Text:

Gert Jan Kocken, Dani�l van der Poel

 

Research:

Anna Dasovic

 

Kindly supported by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands

THE WORLD ACCORDING TO
Issue 2: Olaf Nicolai

Olaf Nicolai (Halle/Saale, 1962. Lives and works in Berlin).

Olaf Nicolai's work is conceptual in nature and often characterized by (socio) political references, in which multiple antipodal aspects (socialist and capitalist, hedonist and idealist) merge and overlap. Aspects such as production processes and the generation of commodities are reflected in his work as well as the realm of aesthetics and the role of the observer, i.e. participant. This issue of WAT appears in conjunction with his installation ?Warum Frauen gerne Stoffe kaufen, die sich gut anf�hlen" (Why women like to buy textiles that feel nice) at the Arbeiterkammer Wien in 2010, for which he designed a silk cotton curtain which lines the walls of the new building's reception hall. The publication is conceived as a textual system of references to this work in the form of an annotation apparatus with index of names and subjects. The title of the installation quotes a study by Elias Smith from 1937 on consumer behaviour regarding the purchase of textiles. Elias Smith is the pseudonym Paul Lazarsfeld used after his emigration to the USA. His studies are still seminal in market and opinion research today. Together with Marie Jahoda and Hans Zeisel he compiled the first long-term study on the effects of unemployment in the 20 th century: "Die Arbeitslosen von Marienthal" (The Unemployed of Marienthal), 1933. The research work on the demise of a former location of the textile industry was supported and co-financed by the Arbeiterkammer Wien and serves here as the starting point to unravel a complex web of references spanning from the decline of the textile industry to sociological opinion research, the development of consumer desires and psychological studies on tactile perception of fabrics, creating an intricate textural web. Olaf Nicolai has been awarded several grants (P.S.1 Museum Grant, New York, 1998; Art Award Wolfsburg, 2002; Villa Aurora Residency, Los Angeles, 2008). His work has been exhibited in numerous international group and solo exhibitions including documenta X, 1997 and Venice Biennale, 2001 and 2005

This issue of THE WORLD ACCORDING TO is published in conjunction with the exhibition
OLAF NICOLAI - WARUM FRAUEN GERNE STOFFE KAUFEN, DIE SICH GUT ANF�HLEN
at Arbeiterkammer Wien / Vienna
April 16-November 20, 2010
Prinz Eugen Stra�e 20-22
1040 Vienna, Austria
http://kultur.arbeiterkammer.at

THE WORLD ACCORDING TO
Issue 1: I�aki Bonillas

I�aki Bonillas (Mexico City, 1981. Lives and works in Mexico DF).

With a regard for the aesthetics and the conceptual practices of the 1960s and 1970s, I�aki Bonillas�  work is an investigation of photography, the photographic medium and the possibilities of the construction of the image. In 2003 Bonillas introduced the vast photo archives of his grandfather into his work. He links elements together that are a priori incompatible: on the one hand a personal, biographical narrative that consists of private anecdotes and emotions, and on the other a quasi-scientific element of compilation, classifying and archiving. Bonillas� work has been exhibited in institutions such as the Venice Biennale (2003), the Mies van der Rohe Pavilion (Barcelona, 2005), Matadero (Madrid, 2007), and most recently at the Museum f�r Gegenwartskunst in Basel (2009).
For the first issue of THE WORLD ACCORDING TO he opens his private library for us. Excerpts range from Parm�nides to William Blake, Fernando Pessoa, Karl Kraus, Roberto Bola�o, and Georg Christoph Lichtenberg.

http://www.thewato.blogspot.com/