Kiosk

A sourcebook on independent art publishing

Since 2001, Christoph Keller’s famous archive “Kiosk – Modes of Multiplication” has been exhibited 27 times all around the world, in institutions such as the ICA (London), the Witte de With (Rotterdam), Artists’Space (NY), the Emily Carr Institute (Vancouver), MUDAM (Luxembourg) and some biennials such as Manifesta 4, the 25th Graphic Biennial of Ljubljana and the Istanbul Biennial. Today it contains more than 7.000 publications by approximately 500 independent art publishing projects from non commercial publishers, magazines, fanzines, newspapers, journals, audio- and video-labels, corporate and institutional publishing, etc. The focus has never been set on exhibiting the most interesting individual artists’ publications but rather the whole bandwidth of publishing possibilities, the motivations and strategies of the people “behind the scenes,” the editors, publishers, designers, multipliers.

On the occasion of the final public presentation of the archive at the Kunstbibliothek, Berlin, which has now taken over the archive as a special collection, this handbook represents an overview and reflection on independent art publishing activities today. It contains statements by the protagonists of this scene, theoretical texts, illustrations, and a broad source-part with comprehensive information on the contributing publishing projects.

Published with the Stiftung Preussische Museen zu Berlin in the Christoph Keller Editions series.

Awarded in the competition “The most beautiful Swiss books 2009.”