On the occasion of CPG Publishing new release, Dorothée Baumann’s «Pleasure Arousal Dominance» (June 2017), the CPG invites you, Saturday June 3, to a Book Launch at 11:30, followed by a brunch, with presentations by Dorothée Baumann, in discussion with Séverine Garat ; Benjamin Hugard and Klaus Speidel who will talk about their publication “Sparkling Past” (RVB Books, 2016), and Thomas Galler for the presentation of his new book “Palm Trees, Sunsets, Turmoil” (Fink, 2017)
11h30 : Presentation of new publications by artists and contributors. Dorothée Baumann, Benjamin Hugard, Klaus Speidel, TBA.
Followed by a Brunch. Free.
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14:30 : Public talk with Efrat Shvily, Marie-José Mondzain & Joerg Bader, about CPG new exhibition “The Jerusalem Experience”.
The monograph "Pleasure Arousal Dominance" brings together all of the works Dorothée E. Baumann realized when she examined the practices and tools of a center for fundamental research in the field of cognitive neuroscience, a center that is unique in Europe. Putting into perspective the use of scientific and folk practices vis-à-vis imag critical view of Western visual culture.
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For "Sparkling Past", Benjamin Hugard and art critic Klaus Speidel appropriate preparatory images for studio photography that advertising photographer Jean-François De Witte only made to optimize his shots of mouth-watering beer, subtle dishwashers or carefully lit motors, pictures never published before, icons from the age of analogue, when a sparkle you wanted to see in a photo first had to be created in the world. All these pictures lack something or have something more than the finalshots chosen by the ad agencies at the time. But it's precisely in the diversity and quality of their blemishes that the authors see their critical and poetic potential. Beyond its documentary aspect, Sparkling Past is a visual and verbal essay that raises deep questions about authorship and the artworld’s paradoxical relationship to advertising. With a text by the authors, a preface by Raphaël Cuir and a foreword by Catherine Bédard. Graphic Design by Clovis Duran.
Klaus Speidel is an image and art theorist. In 2015, he won the AICA France prize for art-criticism. He directs a research project on narrative pictures at the Lab for Cognitive research in Art-History (CReA) at Vienna university.
Benjamin Hugard is a commercial photographer and an artist based in Brussels. He studied at the Villa Arson and at the HEAD in Geneva. Hugard questions the modalities of production, dissemination and reception of pictures by creating, recuperating or transferring photographs, sentences and objects.
Clovis Duran is an independent graphic designer based in Geneva, Switzerland. He graduated from Geneva University of Art and Design (HEAD – Genève). In 2012, he co-founded Rosa Brux (www.rosabrux.org), a research and exhibition space in Brussels.
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Thomas Galler’s "Palm Trees, Sunsets, Turmoil" comprises almost 1,000 pages of photographs collected from various online platforms such as Flickr, Panoramio and Photobucket. They show, among other scenes, familiar, clichéd sunset scenes; idyllic settings featuring beaches, palm trees and shimmering seas. But this semblance is deceptive. The images don’t stem from dream holiday destinations, but from the military occupation of Iraq (2003–2011) and the war in Afghanistan (from 2001). Taken by soldiers of the occupying armies, reporters and Iraqi and Afghani collaborators, they were published online via private social media accounts. Thomas Galler’s series challenges us to look beyond the boundaries of the visible.