October 28, 2016, 6pm
Aperto Raum
2/3 Hof, Sophie-Gips-Höfe
Sophienstraße 21
10178 Berlin-Mitte
T 030 36436670
info@apertoroom.com
On October 28 at 6pm, we invite you to the launch of Aperto Raum, the release of the second issue of the newspaper Aperto, and an exhibition of some of the artifacts discussed in the first, second and the third issues of the newspaper, including photographs from Susan Philipsz‘s ”War Damaged Instruments,” original materials from Egidio Marzona‘s archive and Alexander Shein‘s film VVMayakovsky: Lacanic.
Located at Sophienstraße 21 in Berlin’s Mitte district, Raum is a public laboratory, a library and an archive. It is an off-site, work-in-progress space for producing Aperto paper, which focuses on research in 20th and 21st century contemporary culture and serves as a platform for dialogues between East and West, and exploring processes and methods. Raum’s program is centered on publishing Aperto four times a year, and we invite the public to get involved in this process. The topics explored in the newspaper will take shape in exhibitions, performances, screenings, and conceptual dinners.
Aperto was founded by curator Elena Yushina in June 2016, and launched at Sammlung Hoffmann in Berlin. The first issue of the bilingual Russian-English newspaper was produced in collaboration with filmmaker Alexander Shein and featured contributions by Boris Groys, Erika Hoffmann-Koenige, Egidio Marzona, Francis Alÿs, Vladimir Paperny, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Viktor Mazin, Ekaterina Andreyeva, and others. Aperto aims to engage in dialogue and diagnose society, analyze the current situation, and find non-obvious links between different periods and people.
El Lissitsky and Ilya Ehrenburg‘s constructivist magazine Вещь (The Thing) was first published in Berlin in April 1922. Its principal idea was an intensive dialogue among nations and cultures, as reflected in the slogan “Art is now international.” Nearly 100 years later, and inspired by its format, we launched our newspaper with an issue entitled “Aperto Вещь (The Thing).” We based our work on the selfsame principles of international openness and cultural dialogue, but in a different historical context.
Aperto will be published quarterly. Each issue will tackle a current topic, whether interactions among generations, problems of intercultural reception, the post-internet or the image of modernity. Unrestricted in terms of time or format, Aperto is itself an artistic statement and aims to generate a community of kindred spirits.
In the second edition, Aperto “Game Over,” we investigate ideas of ending and restarting, of games and models, featuring Pasolini, a Japanese crossword by the Flying Cooperation, the parallel lives of Clement Greenberg and Vladimir Kemenov, letters by Liam Gillick, and Vitaly Komar and Alexander Shein discussing the life of Mayakovsky. The newspaper’s third edition will be published in February 2017 and entitled “Aperto Atlas.”
Aperto Library is an ongoing project between St. Petersburg and Berlin. Its collection of books, posters, and vinyl albums have been contributed by the members of Aperto‘s advisory board—artists, curators, museum directors, critics, and collectors who have rallied round the idea of supporting and shaping a cultural dialogue.
Aperto Archives consists of archival research projects, exhibitions, and a program produced in collaboration with German-Italian collector, archivist, patron and publisher Egidio Marzona.
Elena Yushina, Founder, Curator, and Editor-in-Chief
Maria Isserlis, Co-Curator