abC Art Book Fair Returns to 798 This Weekend With Talks, Workshops, Publications, and Tattoos
Since its inaugural edition in 2015, the abC Art Book Fair has grown into a mammoth event, amalgamating a vast militia of local and international editorial projects under its banner. Now in its third edition, the fair hits Beijing this year for a week of activities, talks, workshops, short-length exhibitions, book launches, and even a pop-up tattoo studio. M Woods acts as the event's base, comprising the largest collection of indie art publications, starting Friday, Jun 29 at noon.
There’s no shortage of material to wade through and we strongly advise visitors to set aside time to wander around the nave of M Woods to find which publications draw your attention most (given the breadth of what's on offer, you're unlikely to be disappointed by the specially picked selection).
The scheduled talks also provide a good way to map what’s happening in the kinetic art book world in China. Highlights include Friday's (Jun 29, 3.30-4.30pm) ‘Book as Exhibition, Book as Archive’ at UCCA, where a group of panelists representing UCCA, M Woods Museum, and Taikang Space will discuss their experiences and challenges in organizing editorial projects aimed at being more than mere extensions to their exhibitions.
Another in-depth talk suitable for art lovers and journalists alike will be ‘Angry Editors’ at M Woods Museum on Saturday, 4-5.30pm, whereby editors from esteemed art magazines LEAP, 艺术世界, and Randian will dissect the current state of publishing and the ways in which they sift through the throngs of art world information now available to them, as well as the way self-publishing projects serve as “places of extraterritoriality for cultural commentary.”
The abC Book Fair platform is also a good opportunity to see what our fellow Beijing-based art professionals have been busy with over the past year, serving as a propitious time for publication launches. Below are just a handful of what will be on offer:
3DPRK
Beijing-based photographer Matjaž Tančič reissues his photo book project 3DPRK, a publication that attempts – through 3D glasses and numerous images collected by the photographer during his travels to the Hermit Kingdom – to reach beyond the common rhetoric and vague insights that surround North Korea so as to get a deeper look at this mysterious country and its people.
Bajia House 2
Now in its second edition, Bactagon Projects’ Bajia House is a non-linear narrative compendium that dives into researching social spaces in China by: “presenting a printed space for surveying, highlighting, documenting, and abstracting different approaches to the social and the interpersonal relationships that comprise it, we hope to work towards conversations guided by the political, economic, and social complexities inherent to the region, and not those of a Western legacy.”
Maria Pomiansky: 100% Renaissance
Last, but not least, I:Project Space will launch Maria Pomiansky: 100% Renaissance under its own publishing house Tria Prima. The book is a visual survey through urban Zurich between 2013 and 2018 and arose from collaborations with fellow publishing houses from Switzerland (Edition Fink, Boabooks, and Junglebooks) and Berlin (TLTRPreß).
For a comprehensive itinerary of the workshops, talks, and exhibitions that will take place over the next week, keep an eye on the official WeChat accounts of M Woods Museum (ID: MWOODS) and the abC Art Book Fair (ID: abCofficial). Tickets to the book fair, Jun 29-Jul 1 cost RMB 50 or RMB 80 for two and can be purchased on the door. Talks are free and workshops are various prices.
Images courtesy of the publishers, hk-aga.org
