Lars Pryds in MAP OF THE NEW ART, Venice Italy, from 1 September

In the current climate of arrested utopias, attacks on cultural heritage, assaults on imagination and knowledge, Imago Mundi, Luciano Benetton’s global art project, comes to Venice to propose an art without borders that breaks the silence, goes beyond differences, pushes forward civilization.

The exhibition MAP OF THE NEW ART includes collections from more than 40 nations and native peoples representing the five continents: 10×12 cm artworks by 6930 artists. On exhibition, Imago Mundi collections of Algeria, the Kalahari Bushmen, Nigeria, South Africa, Tunisia, Uganda/Rwanda/Burundi (AFRICA); Brazil, the Caribbean, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Mexico, the United States and Indigenous Native Americans (AMERICAS); Afghanistan, Iran, Israel, Jordan, North Korea, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Thailand, Tibet (ASIA); Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland (EUROPE); the Aboriginal artists of Australia (OCEANIA).

The exhibition wil be shown at Fondazione Giorgio Cini on the Island of San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice, Italy from 1st September to 1st November, 2015.

I’ll be there!
And yes – among Denmark’s 160 artists in the exhibition, you will find – me. Below is my spread in the catalogue – showing my collage (front and back!) alongside basic info. Other Danish artists include Åse Højer and Henrik Bøegh, in whose Spanish studio I’ve just had the pleasure of spending a full week brushing up on that good old intaglio feeling.

Lars Pryds’ entry in the catalogue – the title of the work is “BCN–CPH”, 2014. Painting/collage on paper, 10×12 cm.

Aase Højer’s entry in the catalogue.

Henrik Bøegh is one of 160 Danish artists in the Imago Mundo Denmark collection.

The cover of the catalogue for the Danish Collection – available from the www.imagomundoart.com website

Lars Pryds: “BCN–CPH”, 2014. Painting/collage on paper, 12×10 cm. Luciano Benetton Collection.

31. juli 2015

Non-toxic workshop day 6

Eva Lone and some old guy at Glyptoteket – one of two plates in a duotone print.

With just one day left of the non-toxic intaglio workshop we feel the pressure of too little time left to finish our experiments and try out all possibilities presented to us by Henrik Bøegh, our patient instructor.

Things are beginning to shape up, however, and each of the eight participants have found techniques that fit their line of work, or ways to get the expression wanted from one or two of the different techniques of intaglio printing.

The photos I have worked with (see below) include motifs from Venice, Kolding and Kassel scanned from old diapositive film, then printed to transparencies before being exposed to the copper plate for printing. Another is a recent double portrait of my daughter Eva Lone with one of the ancient heads in Glyptoteket (see above – Eva’s the one with the nose).

So, tomorrow we’ll walk down for the last time in this charming village, where the middle of the calle is reserved for water and donkeys. A great and inspirational week comes to an end.

“Ausfahrt” – originally a photo from Kassel, Germany. This print a little on the dark side, new version to be tested tomorrow…

Kolding and Kassel – photographs turned into photogravure in one or two colours.

A W on a wall in Venezia – photographed in 1986, scanned and now, almost 30 years later, a photogravure. Time travels.

Henrik Bøegh demonstrating one more new technique in the graphic workshop.

The narrow streets were created for people to walk on the sides, donkeys in the middle. This way, their shit will be washed away when water runs down the middle. Legs and red shoes belong to Eugenia Vells from Mexico.

29. juli 2015

Good news: FF Real Superfamily released

This must be the best news today: The release of the FF Real Superfamily by FontFont. FF Real began as the voice of Erik Spiekermann’s biography Hello, I am Erik, (reviewed in SNDS Magazine 4, 2014, p. 28-29) as his personal and efficiently beautiful revival of Helvetica – or as FontShop phrases it the design is “based closely on the original static grotesques of the turn of the twentieth century”.

For SNDS Magazine, we introduced Real Text with the redesign of the magazine, in combination with Museo, but we’re delighted that Real is now available as both FF Real Text and FF Real Head – thirteen weights each.

The FF Real Super Family was designed by Erik Spiekermann and Ralph Olivier du Carrois and published by FontFont.The sample above shows the FF Real Head weights.

28. juli 2015

Non-toxic workshop day 3

The weather is hot, the view is magnificent, and we’re working hard – the intaglio workshop is in motion. The great advantage of the non-toxic approach is that it’s possible to work with all steps in the process anywhere, even in your kitchen. And that’s exactly what we’re doing here – in Åse and Henrik’s wonderful place between the mountains in Capileira. Here’s a few images from the last few days. Still testing technical stuff – and as Henrik says, “After four or five test prints with the same technique you may have a finished piece of work, but you’ll need more before you’re ready to exhibit it”. We’ll get there, eventually, just wait and see.

Åse Højer demonstrating the spit-bite technique – in the kitchen.

Etchings? Unhealthy acids? No more. Susanne M Wahlkvist (Sweden) develops her plate in the non-toxic bath.

Printing is downstairs from the kitchen – Susanne M Wahlkvist operating the press, instructor Henrik Bøegh wiping the table in the background.

Henrik Bøegh, Åse Højer and me inspecting a day’s work on the magnetic board where prints hang to dry. Photo by Susanne M Wahlkvist.

Did I mention the view? From the terrace with the old work table we can see the two other ‘white villages’, Bubión and Pampaneira, in the valley below Capileira. Gabriela from Austria and Eugenia from Congo.

Tools in a box on the table – and my beloved notebook for later reference.

26. juli 2015

Non-toxic workshop day 1

I’m in Capileira, 1.436 metres above sea level in the hot mountains of Granada, Spain – attending a one-week international workshop in non-toxic intaglio printing. The last intaglio print I made was twenty years ago, in a symposium by the Gudenå river near Silkeborg, Denmark – so it’s about time I got my hands dirty from printing ink again.

On day one, Henrik Bøegh introduced us seven participants – artists from Sweden, Norway, Austria, France and Denmark – to his studio and to the photo-polymer technique we will explore during the week, while we’re being spoiled by delicious Spanish meals prepared in the breaks between assisting Henrik (and us) in the studio by Åse Højer – a renowned artist herself.

So – here it is: my first intaglio print plate in 20 years – before and after the short trip through the printing press. It’ just a test of techniques, art it definitely is not. That will come later (maybe)…