Programmes
At Least Five Difficulties: A Symposium on Artists’ Publishing
Symposium
Fiona Banner, Kathy Slade, Kay Higgins, Laura Daviña, Sebastién Aubin, Martha Wilson, Marc Fischer
Rennie Hall, Emily Carr University of Art + Design
Presented by READ Books and Libby Leshgold Gallery.
At Least Five Difficulties: A Symposium on Artists’ Publishing is a three-day symposium focused on the real and potential role of artists’ books, zines, and democratic multiples as a social agent in communities at large, and as a force for change within the art world, during an era of rising authoritarian movements internationally. Our title refers to Bertolt Brecht’s essay Fünf Schwierigkeiten beim Schreiben der Wahrheit, or Five Difficulties in Writing the Truth (1934), an essay about the difficulties of using writing to oppose fascism. The problems elucidated by Brecht can be extended to art-making in general, but are particularly relevant to the distribution and selective formation of publics that is characteristic of artists’ publishing. The symposium is intended for artist-publishers, curators, and scholars from Canada and internationally, with special focus on artist-publishers embodying and working with queer, indigenous, disabled, working class, gender equity, and people-of-colour publics and issues within the context of artists’ publishing, but not excluding other types of activist focus.
Keynote presentations will be made by Martha Wilson, founder of Franklin Furnace Archive, and by Fiona Banner aka The Vanity Press (in coversation with Kathy Slade). The exhibition Fiona Banner aka The Vanity Press in the Libby Leshgold Gallery accompanies the symposium.
The symposium will conclude on Sunday, July 14, with a group discussion and publication exchange open to all artist-publishers, moderated by Marc Fischer of Temporary Services/Half Letter Press.
Schedule (all locations are at Rennie Hall, Emily Carr University of Art + Design)
Fiona Banner in conversation with Kathy Slade
Friday, July 12, 6:30 PM
Welcome, followed by Revisiting Brecht’s Five Difficulties
Talk by Kay Higgins
Saturday, July 13, 1 PM
Publication as a Transformative Strategy
Talk by Laura Daviña of Publication Studio São Paulo
Saturday, July 13, 2:30 PM
Who do we need to talk to over here
Talk by Sebastién Aubin
Saturday, July 13, 4 PM
Keynote presentation
Martha Wilson
Saturday, July 13, 6:30 PM
Can Artist Publishers Be Useful?
A group discussion moderated by Marc Fischer of Temporary Services/Half-Letter Press, accompanied by a publication exchange and light lunch.
Sunday, July 14, 2 PM