Book Launch: The Imaginary Reader
, 20:00
Johannes Heldén is a poet, visual artist and musician who lives and works in Stockholm. He has published twelve books, most recently Astroecology (2016) which was published simultaneously in three languages and made into an interdisciplinary performance at the The Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm, and a digital artwork published by Bonniers Konsthall. Helden was the recipient of the Swedish art prize the Åke Andrén Fellowship in 2015 and the Evolution project won the inaugural N. Katherine Hayles prize in 2014. His work has recently been shown at ISEA 2015 in Vancouver, Broken Dimanche in Berlin, Bonniers Konsthall in Stockholm, Centre Pompidou in Paris, Inspace in Edinburgh, Moderna Museet Stockholm, UB Center for the Arts Buffalo, The Fifth Moscow Biennale among others. Heldén has published three music albums, most recently System (Irrlicht), and seven digital online works of poetry and visual art.
Stein Urheim & Mari Kvien Brunvoll
The two Bergen-based musicians Stein Urheim and Mari Kvien Brunvoll has collaborated in several years and released three albums together. Latest For Individuals Facing The Terror Of Cosmic Loneliness on Jazzland Recordings in 2015, in 2013 the Spellmann Price Nomineed album Daydream Twin and in 2011 the duo’s debut album Daydream Community on Jazzland Recordings.
With Urheim on various stringed instruments, harmonica, whistles and vocals and Kvien Brunvoll on vocals, electronics, zither, kalimba and percussion they have played concerts at a variety of clubs and festivals among them Vossa Jazz, Nattjazz, Finsejazz, in addition to a tour in India.
The reviewer Dave Mullan writes about their latest album: “The old and new have always been combined in a unique way by the duo, but with For Individuals Facing The Terror Of Cosmic Loneliness, they have taken their craft even further. The distinctive alchemy of lo-fi transmuted to something more evocative than the purest of hi-fi, the shimmering melodies and hazy sunshine progressions, and the bizarre conglomeration of the childlike with the eerie that were present on their previous releases Daydream Community and Daydream Twin are here given additional winding paths to wander through.
The Imaginary Reader is both an anthology of commissioned texts by a variety of writers, artists, critics, art historians and philosophers and an exhibition in the form of a book with several artworks. The book is meant as a stimulus to thinking about the imaginary and the relationship between fiction and reality. By way of artworks, experimental texts and reflections it offers a range of angles and ideas on different aspects of the imaginary.
Contributors:
Øystein Aasan, aiPotu, Andreas Angelidakis, BADco., Erick Beltrán & Bernardo Ortiz, Milena Bonilla, Michel de Broin, Barbara Casavecchia, Daniela Cascella, Jan Christensen, Phil Coy, Bojana Cvejić & Ana Vujanović, Judith Dybendal, Mette Edvardsen, Espen Sommer Eide, Tom Engels, Jan Freuchen, Stian Gabrielsen, Dora García, Andrea Geyer, Pedro Gómez-Egaña, Avery F. Gordon, Ane Graff, Luis Guerra, Mai Hofstad Gunnes, Johannes Heldén, Vlatka Horvat, Richard Ibghy & Marilou Lemmens, Institutt for Farge, Dimitris Ioannou, Ivana Ivković, Marte Johnslien, Cecilia Jonsson, Valentinas Klimašauskas, Brandon LaBelle, John Lely, Per-Oskar Leu, Lewis & Taggart, Isabell Lorey, Young Lunde, Kristin Nordhøy, Linn Pedersen, plan b, Alexandra Pirici, Mikkel Bolt Rasmussen, Hans Rosenström, Andreas Schlaegel, Ingerid S. Straume, Jon Benjamin Tallerås, Hans E. Thorsen, Ève K. Tremblay, Synnøve Marie Vik, Jacob Wren, Icaro Zorbar
Editor: Marie Nerland
Book design: Erik Johan Worsøe Eriksen
Volt 2016
ISBN 978-82-303-2814-9
Pages: 240
Hardcover: 24 × 33 cm
Language: English
The book is available to order online from Audiatur and at selected book stores.
The book and the launch is funded by Arts Council Norway, City of Bergen, Fritt ord and Public Art Norway (URO).