Torreón Lectures - Friday
Within the programming of
Libros Mutantes 2023. Madrid Art Book Fair
Interactive lecture programme with a focus on publishing projects and the work of designers who discuss the intersection between design, technology and alienation, plus a variety of proposals that combine diverse disciplines like poetry, architecture and binary code.
| Target audience: | General public |
| Location: | Torreón II |
| Duration: | 4 hours |
6 pm – Presentation de CAPS LOCK by Ruben Pater
Untold Stories is the label under which Dutch designer Ruben Plater creates visual narratives that promote solidarity, justice and equality. In his work, Pater analyses the role of social and subversive design. His aim is to reach the widest possible audience through images, videos and printed artefacts. Always pushing the boundaries, he received worldwide attention for Drone Survival Guide (2013), which triggered a debate about the use of military drones in daily life by means of an infographic in different languages that anyone can download. Then, with The Politics of Design (BIS, 2016), he reflected on the responsibility of designers in contemporary visual culture, i.e. how designers can be more responsible and inclusive. Pater also teaches on the Graphic Design BA course and Non-Linear Narrative MA course of the KABK research group at the Royal Academy of the Arts in The Hague.
For this edition of Libros Mutantes, Pater, who makes very infrequent trips abroad because of his commitment to reduce his carbon footprint, offers a visual lecture on his latest book CAPS LOCK (2021), the Spanish edition of which was published this year by Libros Walden. The lecture will be followed by a conversation and debate moderated by freelance researcher Gabriel Calvin, head of Brut Press.
Libros Mutantes is sponsored by the Embassy of the Netherlands in Spain
8 pm – Presentation of the magazine and platform Epoch, with Francesca Gavin and Léonard Vernhet
Epoch is an indie magazine and platform that proposes a different, non-linear dialogue with the past. To present the project in Spain, Libros Mutantes welcomes its two founders: curator Francesca Gavin and creative director Léonard Vernhet. One of the hallmarks of this digital platform, which has a printed magazine version, is that the stories and images offer a new point of view about our civilisation. Werner Herzog, Hans Ulrich Orbist, Wolfgang Tillmans and Lea Colombo are some of the contributors.
Gavin started her career at the weekly magazine Dazed & Confused, subsequently working for and contributing to Twin, Kaleidoscope and Sleek magazine. Since 2016 she has had a radio programme on NTS called Rough Version where she talks to contemporary artists about their work in the art world and the connections between art and music. Léonard Vernhet was a driving force behind Ill Studio, one of the most influential design studios in Europe today and with which he visited Libros Mutantes in 2014.
