Travel with the Students to Leipzig Book Fair 2017

Guy Langevin, Canada

Travel with the Students to Leipzig Book Fair

 

Travel Time: 21-27 March 2017

This year Lithuania was the official guest of the Leipzig Book Fair. Graphic Art Department from the Vilnius Academy of Arts was the partner of the project “Lithuania in the Leipzig Book Fair”. One goup of students – official participants went to Leipzig by airplane. They presented the Graphic Art Department in Leipzig Book Fair with the project “ė”.

Another group of students: Juste, Migle, Giedre, Kamile, Kristina, Jure and Diana, interested in artist’s books, book design and art decided to go with me to Leipzig. In our mission was the plane to make the exhibition of artist’s books made by professors from Graphic Art Department, from Vilnius in Leipzig Book Fair, in the “Globus Galerie”. Also we planned on the road to visit Berlin and to spend one day in Leipzig, to visit museums and Spinnerei. This is the fifth time that I’m going to Leipzig with the students.

We have rent micro bus and one raining morning started our journey. The distance it is not so big, 1200 km to Leipzig only, but the car was big and slow, it was heavy rain and the road was full of cars, somewhere were works on the road, and we were moving very slowly. On the road we decided to visit Academy of Art in Lodz, where were wonderful exhibition of “Printmaking from Canada”. After 10 hours of our travel prof. Alicja Habisiak Matczak met us in the Academy.

Alexadra-Haeseker-Canada

Students near Alexadra Haeseker, Canada

The Exhibition – fantastic, very good made installations of world most famous artists like Walter Jule, Davida Kidd, Sean Caulfield, Liz Ingram and others. Here we have found how traditional techniques come together with modern technologies and conceptuality. In the exhibition were beautiful artist’s books installation of Mark Bovey. After few hours we have left “printmakers of Canada” – we had to drive more 400 km till the first night place.

In the second day we went to Berlin. Here we had to buy find where to buy the”grüne Plakette” for the “Umweltzonen” – in the main Germany towns not allowed to go to the centre of the town without “grüne Plakette”, or you will have to pay 80 Euro taxes. Maybe the cheapest parking place for a car in the centre of Berlin is the parking near Hamburger Bahnhof – 1 euro / 1 hour.

Here in in the main hall of “Hamburger Bahnhof” we have seen big installation in the main hall of Adrian Pieper “The Probable Trust Registry”, Joseph Beuys “Das Kapital Raum 1970-1977”, many exhibition-installations on the name “Moving is in Every Direction” and the permanent collection of the museum – modern classics.

Students near Hamburger Bahnhof

In the “Standort Kulturforum” in the “Kunstbibliothek” we have seen wonderful exhibition: “Chinese Poster and Book Design Today”. It is beautiful Chinese characters forms and contents play. Sensitive posters and books aesthetics opposed to Western style with Latin alphabet. I always admire with Chinese book design and binding methods – books looks like small edition artist’s books, where you lost control what is made by hand and what – by machine. When I look on Chinese poster, I would like to say made in experimental typography, I see how they escaped from formal Western posters with big letters in bold shows the name of …. What I don’t like in this Exhibition – that the Exhibition was too small.

In the another space in the Library, “Kunstbibliothek”, we have found small and nice artist’s books exhibition of Nora Schattauer – “50 Workbooks”. The exhibition had 50 artist’s books.

Artist’s books of Nora Schattauer

What we say more about Berlin? That it is nice to be here, to walk in the evening, to drink coffee in Potsdamer Platz, to know that here are a lot of good art, good museums and galleries.

Drinking coffee in Berlin, in the Potsdamer Platz

On the way to our car, to “Hamburger Bahnhof” we found the Embassy of Lithuania. So it was normal to make a selfie… ok, Gabriele, helped for us to make this “selfie”.

In front of the Embassy of Lithuania in Berlin

Later in the evening we arrived in our private book’ hotel in Muhlbeck. In the next morning we had to go to Leipzig Book Fair.

Driver: Prof. Kestutis Vasiliunas

 

© Photos: Kestutis Vasiliunas
© Artist’s Book Creators 2018