Archiv 451: Trikont Verlag

“Thinking ahead instead of holding out, renovating instead of tearing down, reaching out instead of giving up, not letting our voice become silent, but rather creating new platforms.” —Franz Dobler, Writer, DJ, Trikont-Biographer

The exhibition series Archives in Residence in the Archiv Galerie of Haus der Kunst focuses on archives as alternative places of knowledge production. After presentations of archive holdings from the euward Archive and the Forum Queeres Archiv München, the series continues in 2023 with testimonies of the subcultural awakening and anti-authoritarian protest movements with Archiv 451 / Trikont Verlag.

Trikont Verlag is one of the first independent publishing houses in the Federal Republic of Germany. Founded in Cologne in 1967 and active in Munich since 1968, Trikont championed alternative perspectives and inspired new social and ecological movements. The publishing house named itself after the 1966 Tricontinental Conference in Havana, which developed strategies against the discrimination of the so-called “Third World”. Trikont Verlag published mainly German-language publications and translations on the European and regional workers’ movement, on decolonisation and anti-fascism, on alternative ways of life and radical social change. Among the first and most successful publications of the publishing house were the Mao Bible and Che Guevara’s Bolivian Diary, which had a total of eleven editions. Trikont also developed the publishing house Frauenoffensive (1975), the first autonomous feminist publishing house in the Federal Republic of Germany.

Trikont discovered the unifying power of music early on. In 1972, it began producing records under the name TRIKONT—Unsere Stimme [Our Voice], which later became Trikont Musikverlag, today Germany’s oldest independent label. The first record of Trikont Musikverlag was Arbeitersache München—Wir befreien uns selbst [Workers’ Matter Munich—We Free Ourselves], which contained protest and fight songs of “Arbeitersache München”, to which the members of the Trikont publishing collective belonged. Another early release was the record Keine Macht für Niemand [No Power for Nobody], Ton Steine Scherben’s most famous album. In 1980, the book publisher and the record label separated. After the book publisher filed for bankruptcy in 1986, the former editor Christine Dombrowsky built the Archive 451 from the remaining publications and materials, the name of which is an allusion to the Truffaut film “Fahrenheit 451”. In 2010, shortly before her death, she handed over her holdings to the archive of Münchner Arbeiterbewegung e.V.

The exhibition brings together documents from Archive 451 and the archive holdings of Trikont—Unsere Stimme. One of the main focuses is on publications and records as well as posters, photographs, and film materials. In addition to music tracks, the diverse exhibition also includes original sound recordings by actors, companions, and artists. These personal testimonies are connected with the exhibits in terms of content and space, and thus form a soundtrack to the Trikont stories.

The exhibition at Haus der Kunst München is curated by Sabine Brantl (Haus der Kunst München).
With thanks to the Archiv der Münchner Arbeiterbewegung e.V. and TRIKONT Unsere Stimme Verlags GmbH.

Open Call for Super BOOKS 4
November 3—4, 2023

In November, Haus der Kunst hosts the fourth edition of Super BOOKS. Over two days, artists, designers, and alternative publishers will show their publications. Super BOOKS was organised for the first time in 2019 at Haus der Kunst as part of the exhibition Archives in Residence: AAP Archiv Künstlerpublikationen curated by Sabine Brantl. The project aims to be part of the tradition of independent showcases for artists’ publications that have formed in the context of the international, post-avant-garde art scene since the 1960s.

Open Call
Applications for a participation are welcome. The application form and further information can be found here.

Super BOOKS is a collaborative project between Haus der Kunst, AAP Archive Artist Publications, the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, the Academy of Fine Arts Munich, and the Kunsthochschule Kassel.