27th Brno Biennial 2016 – 27th Brno Biennial

The 27th Brno Biennial examines the key phenomena of contemporary graphic design and visual communication. Is it possible to describe new things with old words? This edition responds to the metamorphoses and the state of contemporary graphic design; its multitude, variety, vagueness and apparent superficiality. Its ambition is to elucidate both on the general and subjective levels some of the phenomena which define or influence contemporary visual culture.

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27th Brno Biennial
2017•
Altitude
Append
Archive
Automatic Writing
A Body of Work
Brno Biennial
Contemporary Graphic Design?
Contextual Design
Design Shamanism
Edit: cut vs joint
Feast
Form
The Hands
Heat
Idea
If Graphic Design …
Infra-flat / Ultra-deep
International Exhibition
I as Introduction, …
Lumpenproletariat
Meme
Off Programme
Parity
The Study Room
Tone
Type
Ultralight
Which Mirror Do You Want to Lick?
Zdeněk Ziegler

COLOPHON

Catalogue concept and graphic design:
Radim Peško Radim Peško (1976) is a graphic designer based in London. He works in the field of type design, editorial and exhibition projects. In 2010 he has established his RP Digital Type Foundry that specializes on typefaces that are both formally and conceptually distinctive. His work includes identity for Secession Vienna, typefaces for identities of Boijmans Van Beuningen Museum in Rotterdam, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Aspen Art Museum, Fridericianum, Berlin Biennale 8, various work for the Moravian Gallery in Brno, Bedford Press London or a long-term collaboration with artist Kateřina Šedá. He has lectured at many schools including Gerrit Rietveld Academie Amsterdam, ÉCAL Lausanne, HFK Bremen, KISD Cologne, École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts de Lyon, Sint-Lucas Ghent, University of Seoul. Since 2011 he is part of the curatorial board of the International Biennial of Graphic Design Brno., Tomáš Celizna Tomáš Celizna (1977) is interested in graphic design in connection with new technologies. He is a founding partner of design studio dgú in Prague (2001 to 2005), recipient of J. W. Fulbright Scholarship (2006), and holds MFA in graphic design from Yale University School of Art (2008). He currently lives and works independently in Amsterdam. Collaborations include, among others, OASE Journal for Architecture, Royal Academy of Art, The Hague, Sandberg Instituut, Amsterdam and Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. Since 2011 he is a lecturer in graphic design at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam, and a member of the curatorial team of the International Biennial of Graphic Design Brno., Adam Macháček Adam Macháček (1980) is a graphic designer. Following studies at the AAAD in Prague, Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam and ÉCAL in Lausanne, he co-founded in 2004 studio Welcometo.as in Lausanne and is a member of 201∞ Designers collective. His work includes publications, exhibition catalogues, illustrations and identities. Collaborations include, among others, the Moravian Gallery in Brno, Théâtre de Vevey (seasons 2003–2012), Galerie Rudolfinum, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Chronicle Books, Editions Pyramyd, Museum of Czech Literature, Brno House of Arts, California College of the Arts, Airbnb. For Brno Biennial he initiated and organized exhibitions Work from Switzerland (2004) and From Mars (2006, together with Radim Peško). Since 2011 he is a member of the curatorial team of the International Biennial of Graphic Design in Brno. He lives and works in Berkeley.

Texts:
David Bennewith David Bennewith, 1977, Takapuna (New Zealand) A graphic designer and design researcher based in Amsterdam, David works on both research-oriented and commissioned projects under the name Colophon – with a particular interest and focus on the disciplines of type design and typography. He has done extensive research into New Zealand type design, particularly the work of Joseph Churchward, publishing a monograph on him in 2009. Recent work includes: Identity, editorial and catalogue design for Secret Power, New Zealand’s entry to the 2015 Biennale d’Arte in Venice, identity and graphic design for Casco – Office for Art, Design and Theory in Utrecht, and Taught. an essay about graphic designer Karel Martens teaching career, published in reprint karel martens by Roma Publications. Since 2015, he is the head of the graphic design department at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Amsterdam., Rachel Berger Rachel Berger is a graphic designer in Oakland, California. She is chair of Graphic Design at California College of the Arts. She holds an MFA from Yale., Emilia Bergmark Emilia Bergmark is a visual artist from Sweden. She takes as her source material the narrative of the everyday, and in her work rewraps phenomenological observations into poetic visual anecdotes in the form of writing, installation, film, and printed matter. Combining studies in art and graphic design at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie, she graduated in 2012 with a honors degree in art and research. Emilia co-designed the exhibition Taking a Line for a Walk at the 26th International Biennial of Graphic Design Brno 2014 and she is currently working with Nina Paim and Corinne Gisel on the publication Taking a Line for a Walk which will investigate assignments in design education. The book will be published by Spector books and released in the summer of 2016., Andrew Blauvelt Andrew Blauvelt is Director of the Cranbrook Art Museum, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, which organizes and hosts exhibitions, presents public programs, and collects objects in the areas of modern and contemporary art, architecture, craft, and design. Prior to Cranbrook, Blauvelt served in a variety of curatorial and administrative roles at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis for nearly 18 years including as design director and senior curator of architecture and design. He has organized numerous exhibitions and edited and designed several accompanying catalogues, including: Strangely Familiar: Design and Everyday Life (2003), Worlds Away: New Suburban Landscapes (2008), Graphic Design: Now in Production (2011), and most recently, Hippie Modernism: The Struggle for Utopia (2015). His research and writing integrates critical theory and cultural history into analyses of the humanbuilt environment. Blauvelt has taught and lectured at numerous universities in North America and Europe., Sulki & Min Choi Sulki Choi and Min Choi are graphic designers working in Seoul, Korea. They met at Yale University where they both earned their MFA degrees. After working as researchers at the Jan van Eyck Academie in Maastricht, they returned to Seoul in 2005 to start their own practice. Since then, they have created graphic identities, promotional materials, publications and websites for many cultural institutions and individuals in Korea and abroad. From 2010 until 2013, they worked as graphic designers of the BMW Guggenheim Lab, a collaborative project initiated by the Guggenheim Foundation and BMW, for which they created an interactive identity system based on online participation. In 2006, they held their first exhibition at the Gallery Factory in Seoul, for which they received the Art Award of the Year from the Arts Council Korea. They have participated in many group exhibitions, including the ones at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Plateau, Samsung Museum of Art; National Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul; and Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, New York. In 2014, they created a publication called Off-White Paper and an exhibition of the same name as part of the Brno Biennial 2014. They were among the three candidates for the Hermès Foundation Misulsang 2014. Sulki Choi teaches at Kaywon School of Art & Design and Min Choi at the University of Seoul., Jean-Marie Courant Graphic designer. Born in 1966. Lives and works in Paris. He devotes himself to editorial and visual identity projects. He is teaching and head of the graphic design Master’s of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts of Lyon (France)., Linda Dostálková Blurring the lines between disciplines, Linda Dostálková challenges accepted distinctions, in questioning of identity. Through her projects, she visualises self-doubt developed in art and in counterculture in simplified and commodified forms, delivers a specific input for a specific situation. Argues that the spectator is always already active. Linda Dostálková is the vice-chair of the Board of the Brno Biennial., Experimental Jetset Experimental Jetset is an Amsterdam-based graphic design studio founded in 1997 by Marieke Stolk, Erwin Brinkers and Danny van den Dungen. Focusing on printed matter and site-specific installations, Experimental Jetset have worked on projects for a variety of institutes, including Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Centre Pompidou, Dutch Post Group and Whitney Museum of American Art. Their work has been featured in group exhibitions such as Graphic Design: Now in Production (Walker Art Center, 2011) and Ecstatic Alphabets / Heaps of Language (MoMA, 2012). Solo exhibitions include Kelly 1:1 (Casco Projects, 2002), Two or Three Things I Know About Provo (W139, 2011 / Moravian Gallery, 2012), Provo Station (Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst, 2016) and Word-Things in Time-Space (Riot, 2016). In 2007, a large selection of printed matter by Experimental Jetset was acquired by the Museum of Modern Art (New York). Other institutes that have collected work by Experimental Jetset include Stedelijk Museum (Amsterdam), SFMOMA (San Francisco), Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago), Museum für Gestaltung (Zürich), Centre National des Arts Plastiques (Paris), and Cooper Hewitt (New York). In 2015, Roma Publications released a monograph titled Statement and Counter-Statement: Notes on Experimental Jetset, featuring essays by Linda van Deursen, Mark Owens, Ian Svenonius and Jon Sueda. Between 2000 and 2012, Experimental Jetset have been teaching at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie (Amsterdam). They’ve also been teaching at Artez (Arnhem), and are currently tutors at Werkplaats Typografie (Arnhem)., Kurt Finsten Art historian and architect. Engaged in graphic design, lighting design and painting. Since 1991 director of Krabbesholm Højskole, a Danish art college specialized in art, photography, architecture, design, and graphic design., Chris Fitzpatrick, Roland Früh Upon completing his studies in art history in Zurich, Roland Früh focused on research in the fields of architecture, book design and the history of publishing. He then moved to London to work as assistant to Robin Kinross at the publisher Hyphen Press, and later to Arnhem to work at Werkplaats Typografie as programme coordinator. He occasionally maintains a practice as an art and design historian and critic writing for publications and curating exhibitions. Since 2009, he has worked as a lecturer in art and design theory at design schools in Lausanne, ÉCAL and Zurich, ZhdK. In September 2014, Roland Früh was named the head librarian of the Art Library at the Sitterwerk in St. Gallen., Paul Gangloff Paul Gangloff (1982) is self-employed graphic designer working in Amsterdam. Interested in deviant practices of writing. Made books on punk self-publishing (Punk: periodical collection, 2012) and Lettrist’s hypergraphy (Rules of Hypergraphy, 2014). Next to self-initiated work, designs for authors, artists, companies and cultural organizations. Studied at ÉRBA (Valence, FR), Le Quai (Mulhouse, FR), Gerrit Rietveld Academie (Amsterdam, NL). Has been affiliated to the design department of the Jan van Eyck Academie (Maastricht, NL) from 2010 to 2012. Teaches at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie and HfG Karlsruhe (DE)., Tetsuya Goto Tetsuya Goto is a self-taught graphic designer, editor and curator based in Osaka, Japan. He is the founder & director of OOO Projects and full-time lecturer at the Faculty of Literature, Arts and Cultural Studies, Kindai University. Goto edited a serial interview with graphic designers in Asia entitled Yellow Pages in Idea magazine from issue 365 to 373 with Javin Mo (Hong Kong) and Sulki & Min (South Korea). Also, he was the editor in chief of the Japan Typography Association’s Typographics ti: from issue 263 to 270. He was the curator of Type Trip exhibition in Osaka (ddd gallery, 2013) & Hong Kong (K11 Art Gallery, 2014). Also participated in Seoul International Typography Biennale Typojanchi 2013 & 2015 as one of the curators., Catherine Ince Catherine Ince is senior curator at the Victoria and Albert Museum where she is developing the curatorial programme of V&A East, a new institution planned to open in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London in 2021. Until October 2015 Ince was a curator at the Barbican Centre where she produced major survey exhibitions and publications including The World of Charles and Ray Eames (2015), Bauhaus: Art as Life (2012) and Future Beauty: 30 Years of Japanese Fashion (2011). Prior to joining the Barbican she was curator, and subsequently co-director, of the British Council’s Architecture, Design and Fashion department where she organised touring exhibitions and collaborative projects about contemporary design and architecture, and commissioned the British Pavilion at the Venice Biennale of Architecture., Emily King Emily King is a London-based design historian with a specialism in graphic design. After a first degree in philosophy and economics, she completed an MA in design history with a thesis on film title sequences and a PhD concentrating on the design of type in wake of the digital revolution. Since then she has written, curated and, occasionally, lectured. Her books include monographs on Peter Saville, M/M Paris and the legendary 1950s art director Robert Brownjohn. Among her exhibitions is ‘Quick, Quick, Slow: graphic design and time’, which she curated for the Lisbon design biennial Experimenta, and monographic shows on Alan Fletcher and Richard Hollis. She has contributed to numerous magazines including Frieze, The Gentlewoman, Plant and Apartamento. Increasingly she appreciates design in the broadest sense and her current projects touch on food, scent, clothing and literature.’, James Langdon James Langdon is an independent graphic designer and writer. He is one of six directors of the artist-run gallery Eastside Projects in Birmingham, UK; and founder of the itinerant School for Design Fiction. In 2012 he received the Inform International Award for Conceptual Design, presented by Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst, Leipzig, Germany. He is presently working on a biography of English designer Norman Potter (1923–1995) as a teacher., Sheila Levrant de Bretteville Born in Brooklyn of Polish immigrants, educated at Barnard College and Yale University Sheila Levrant de Bretteville has constructed a social practice. She started with print graphics for Yale Press, Chanticleer Press, Olivetti, the International Design Conference in Aspen, Arts in Society, American Cinematographer. Influenced by Paolo Friere, Sheila’s pedagogy first took place in 1970 at CalArts where she created the first Women’s Design Program, leaving to create the Women’s Graphic Center in the Los Angeles Woman’s Building. Much of her work from that period is on exhibit in Hippie Modernism at the Walker Museum in Minneapolis, Now Dig This: Art and Black Los Angeles at the Hammer and WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution at LA MOCA and P.S. 1 in NYC and Elles@centrepompidou. Among her awards are the AIGA’s gold medal, Barnard College’s Distinguished Alumna, honorary doctorates from CalArts, MICA and various other Institutions of art and design. Since the mid 1980’s Sheila’s practice has focused on site specific installations in a wide variety of cities and communities. Even her named professorship at Yale Street Professor reflects the sites of her work permanently installed in New York, New Haven, Boston, Los Angeles, Hong Kong and Yekaterinburg, Russia. Embedded in each public place her designs reflect and support passersby and often extend an invitation to each person to participate in the signification of the work itself., Hélène Meisel Hélène Meisel is an art historian, art critic and curator. Since 2013, she is assistant curator at the Centre Pompidou-Metz and contributed to the conception of the group exhibition Sublime. Tremors of the World, in 2016. She is currently completing her PhD at the Sorbonne, Paris. Her research is an inquiry into romantic issues in conceptual art. She was the 2011 recipient of the Art History – Centre Pompidou Scholarship. At the Centre’s Kandinsky Library, she specifically worked on the Paris Biennial Archives. In 2012, she was selected as resident at the Pavillon, the Palais de Tokyo’s Research Lab in Paris. Hélène Meisel writes for various contemporary art magazines and academic journals amongst which 20/27, Les Cahiers du musée national d’art moderne, Volume, Palais, 02, Semaines, etc. & officeabc ‘Form is research, research is form.’ French design studio, officeabc, is led by Brice Domingues, graphic designer, and Catherine Guiral, graphic designer and researcher in history of design. Brice and Catherine also work on parallel projects that investigate the margins of graphic design. They co-founded the online magazine Tombolo with graphic design theoretician Thierry Chancogne. Together with critic and art historian Jérôme Dupeyrat, they launched the Agence du doute, a research platform exploring the editing gesture. The Agence du doute practices a research with a strong focus on books, edition and everything that may be connected to it, be that literature, graphic design or cinema. Its original mode of transmission is a display device called Crystal Maze, which combines the forms and principles of the conference, the montage, the screening, the exhibition and the edition. Officeabc has been invited to present work at Bold Italic in Ghent, the Chaumont Festival or the Strelka Institute in Moscow amongst other venues. Recent commissions include catalogues for artist Lisa Beck and for artist Justin Lieberman. Crystal Mazes have been presented at the Centre Pompidou and the Rosa Brux gallery in Brussels., Dan Michaelson Dan Michaelson is a partner in the New York-based design studio Linked by Air, which specializes in the production of public space, online and in the world. Prior to founding Linked by Air, Dan was a designer at 2 × 4 and at Pentagram. He holds an MFA degree in graphic design from Yale University, and a degree in American history from Columbia University. Dan teaches the Networks & Transactions, Mobile Computing, and thesis studio courses in Yale’s graduate graphic design department., Jon Sueda Originally from Hawaii, Jon Sueda has practiced design everywhere from Honolulu to Holland. After earning his MFA in Graphic Design from CalArts in 2002, he was invited to North Carolina State University to serve as a designer in residence, followed by an internship in the Netherlands with Studio Dumbar. In 2004, Sueda founded the design studio Stripe, which specializes in print and exhibition design for art and culture. He is also the co-editor of Task Newsletter, and the co-organizer of AtRandom events. In 2007, Sueda relocated to the San Francisco area where he served as director of design at the CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts for seven years, and is currently the chair of the MFA Design program at California College of the Arts. Most recently, he curated the exhibitions Work from California at the 25th International Graphic Design Biennial in Brno, Czech Republic, and All Possible Futures at SOMArts Cultural Center in San Francisco., Marta Sylvestrová Graduated in art history and history from the Faculty of Arts of Masaryk University in Brno (1981). From 1986 curator of the graphic design collection, curator of the Brno Biennial 2000–2010. She focuses on contemporary poster design, graphic design and research into the corporate identity of totalitarian regimes. In 2002 head of the international project Identita/Integrita – Brno, hlavní město vizuální komunikace 2002, with support from EU Culture 2000.

Since 1996 a member of the AICA – International Association of Art Critics, Paris. Selection of exhibitions and publications: Český filmový plakát 20. století (MG & Exlibris, 2004), Art as Activist – Revolutionary Posters from Central and Eastern Europe, travelling exhibition under the auspices of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC (with Dana Bartelt, Universe Press New York & Thames and Hudson London, 1992), Political Posters from Eastern and Central Europe 1945–1995 (head of project James Aulich, Manchester University Press, 2002), Alfons Mucha – Czech Master of the Belle Epoque, NHK Production Kyoto, Tokyo, Fukuoka, Kushiro, Yokohama, Miyazaki 2006–2007, Szépművészeti Múzeum Budapest & MG Brno 2009 (with Petr Štembera), Life With Posters 1880–1920, NHK Production Kyoto, Tokyo, Nagoya 2010–2011 (with Petr Štembera), Horizonty modernismu – Zdeněk Rossmann (with Jindřich Toman, MG 2015), Sign from Iran – Contemporary Iranian Posters, L. A. Mayer Museum for Islamic Art Jerusalem (with Yossi Lemel, 2016). Member of the team of authors: Vídeňská secese a moderna, MG Brno & Obecní dům Praha, 2005–2006, Bruselský sen (Arbor Vitae, 2008), Designing Democracy: Posters and the Political Transformation of Europe 1989–1991 (head of project David Crowley, Victoria & Albert Museum, London, 2009), Retromuseum Cheb (head of project Daniela Kramerová, 2016), etc., Frantisek Štorm František Štorm (1966), typographer, designer, graphic artist, musician (Master’s Hammer, Mortal Cabinet) and writer. In 1993 he founded a type foundry in which he manufactures his own type designs and historical alphabets by outstanding type designers; so far he has designed or produced around a thousand typefaces. He worked as lecturer in the studio of Type Design and Typography at the Academy of Art, Architecture and Design, between 2003 and 2008 as head of the studio. He publishes and exhibits in the Czech Republic and abroad and has received several foreign and local awards. In 2008, Štorm’s book Essays on Typography was published as the 33rd volume of the Revolver Revue Edition, and it was nominated for the Magnesia Litera award. He is the laureate of the Revolver Revue Prix for 2005., Linda van Deursen Linda van Deursen lives and works in Amsterdam, where she began a collaboration with Armand Mevis after graduating from the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in 1986. Mevis & van Deursen have produced identities for Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam, for Dutch fashion designers Viktor & Rolf, the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam and recently for the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago. Next to that they have designed numerous books for artists such as Carlos Amorales, Aglaia Konrad and Ryan Gander and photographers Geert van Kesteren and Rineke Dijkstra. They also made exhibition catalogues for the Venice Architectural Biennial 2010, for In and Out of Amsterdam at the MoMA New York. Their work has been shown in museums and educational institutions throughout the world. Their long and prolific collaboration has been documented in the book Recollected Work: Mevis & Van Deursen, published by Artimo in 2005. Linda van Deursen served as head of the graphic design department at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam from 2003 till 2014 where she also taught. She was appointed critic in graphic design at Yale School of Art in 2005., curators and authors of the exhibitions