les presses du réel

Collection #03

excerpt
Editorial
Jean-Philippe Bretin, Vanessa Dziuba, Julien Kedryna, Marine Le Saout, Sammy Stein, Antoine Stevenot
(p. 2)


More than ever, the subtitle of the book—“about contemporary drawing” is stretched to its limit as Collection explores the world of and around contemporary drawing. For many of the articles herein, drawing was the impetus for us to meet the artist, without however remaining the primary subject of the interview. Some of these interviews, conducted via email in the previous issues, have allowed us to recognize the importance of a real meeting with the artists, which favors more spontaneous responses as well as the possibility to discuss with greater ease other aspects of the artist's work or daily life.
This year, we've invited two new editors to join our team. FibreTigre, an expert in interactive fictions, interviews American Lord Jon Ray and, through his detailed knowledge of the Heroic Fantasy world, provides precious clues to the neophyte reader. By happy accident, we met Bill Kartalopoulos, a specialist in American comic books, and entrusted him with the Benjamin Marra interview, without knowing they were already friends. These new contributor-friends have been asked to work with us for their respective expertise, but are also the result of propitious introductions during the creation of this review.
The table of contents highlights our desire to open up the field of drawing to new avenues: from the prolific, teeming drawings of Shoboshobo to Lætitia Gendre's installations, with a stop along the way at Fabio Viscogliosi's narrative work, which is imbued with writing and music—many of the artists interviewed herein explore with ease other artistic disciplines outside of drawing. The uniqueness of form that each interview takes is something we continue to hold very dear. A collaborative project between Thomas Mailaender and Dominique Théâte achieves finality in our review.
After having organized twenty-some exhibitions and events relating to the world of drawing, at both Kiosque/images and at the bookstore-cum-gallery le Monte-en-l'Air in Paris, our work has led us to accept the invitation of the Center for Contemporary Art in Lacoux, located in the Bugey region between Lyon and Geneva. It will be an opportunity to unite, in a physical space, a selection of pieces from the artists included in the first three issues of Collection, using the principles established in the books. To find connections, to carve out paths, to propose links between artistic disciplines and practices that would normally be complete opposites, if it weren't for what unites them: drawing as the starting point.


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