Fall/winter program

Portikus announces upcoming projects and a new commission.

HOW(EVER)—Portikus Art Book Festival
October 20–23, 2022

HOW(EVER) is an event dedicated to contemporary forms of art publishing. Taking place in conjunction with the Frankfurt Book Fair, HOW(EVER) offers a glimpse into the vibrant practices of over 200 publishing communities and showcases diverse approaches to book-making. The title of this inaugural program is inspired by the eponymous journal founded by US-American poet Kathleen Fraser (1935–2019), a radical platform that championed the work of women writers.

Rethinking ways of engaging with artist publications, the Barcelona-based architecture studio MAIO has been commissioned to create an installation in-situ, which displays a curated selection of art books and zines from all continents that are available for purchase. HOW(EVER) examines the poetic and political power of publishing—its ongoing exploration of alternative methods of cultural production and its possibilities as a form of resistance. Over the course of four days, Portikus turns into a site that highlights new editorial discourses and fosters the circulation of art books.

The Portikus Art Book Festival is accompanied by the symposium HOW(EVER) RADICAL OBJECTS curated in collaboration with Eina Idea (Barcelona) featuring: Christophe Boutin (Three Star Press, Paris), Carlos Copertone & Patxi Eguiluz (Caniche Editorial, Bilbao/Madrid), Dora García (Oslo), Anne König (Spector Books, Leipzig), Mearg Negusse (Contemporary And, Berlin), Pascale Obolo (AFRIKADAA, Paris), Sarah Shin (Silver Press, London), Slavs and Tatars (Berlin), and many more.

Ximena Garrido-Lecca: Inflorescence 
November 12, 2022–February 12, 2023

Corn is one of the most important crops in the global economy. While it held a central position in Pre-Columbian mythology and was a major source of nourishment, its origin as a plant native to the Americas has been widely overlooked. Considered the origin of humanity by the Aztecs and Maya, the cultivation of corn has shaped all aspects of life, from social environments to the measurements of time. In Ximena Garrido-Lecca’s exhibition Inflorescence at Portikus, the artist explores the crop’s multilayered meanings in relation to ancient beliefs, the colonial appropriation of knowledge and wealth, and the processes of modernization. Conceived in the fall months, the harvesting season of maize in Europe, the exhibition is a landscape that links traditional techniques of stacking and threshing corn in Latin America with the telecommunication systems that populate today’s fields. Both haystacks and antennas are also evocative of the rural landscape, whose abandonment by capitalism the artist’s work has revolved around for many years. 

Enhancing ancient rituals centered around corn and the communal value of broadcasting, the exhibition becomes a site where cultural transmissions and social exchanges can take place. Considering the museum not only produces but also transmits knowledge, Portikus acts as a radio station during the exhibition, airing a weekly program developed in collaboration with radios from Mexico City, Lima, and Frankfurt. Inflorescence reflects on the radical shifts in our relationship to the natural world, following industrial revolutions, social paradigms, and the current configuration of the information age.

Ximena Garrido-Lecca (b. 1980 in Lima, Peru) is an artist based in Mexico City, Mexico. Her works have been exhibited among others at the Museo Madre, Naples (2021), 34th Bienal de São Paulo (2020), Dhaka Art Summit (2020), Museo de Arte Contemporáneo, Lima (2019), Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires (2018), Sala de Arte Público Siqueiros (SAPS), Mexico City (2017). Inflorescence is the artist’s first institutional solo exhibition in Germany.

Director: Yasmil Raymond
Curators: Liberty Adrien & Carina Bukuts

Co-curator HOW(EVER) Symposium: Manuel Cirauqui
Assistant Curator HOW(EVER): Lucas Jacques-Witz
Assistant Curator HOW(EVER) Symposium: Mireia Molina Costa

For more information, please contact our press officer Mira Starke via presse [​at​] portikus.de.

Portikus fall/winter program 2022–23 is generously supported by Hessisches Ministerium für Wissenschaft und Kunst, Kulturfonds Frankfurt RheinMain, Acción Cultural Española (AC/E), Institut français Deutschland, Institut français Paris, and Städelschule Portikus e.V..