Casco (an office for art, design, and theory) is located in Utrecht, NL. Their program focuses on the practice and presentation of experimental art and interdisciplinary forms. In addition to its public programs, as important is the inward examination of its own place as an cultural institution. They have a unique ability to connect the work of today's practitioners through the lens of their own infrastructure, which is itself an ongoing critical project. Casco Issues and their other publications are one arm of this methodology. This all sounds so serious, but we promise its presented in a highly readable and enjoyable way. Plus everything is designed beautifully.
*****
The so-called utopia of the centre beaubourg - An interpretation by Luca Frei. Ed. Gerrie van Noord; designed by Luca Frei. In 1976, La soi-disant utopie du centre beaubourg appeared under the pseudonym Gustave Affeulpin. Written by Swiss sociologist Albert Meister, the work coincided with the inauguration of the Centre Beaubourg (Paris), which was meant to become the cultural center of the city (now home to the Centre Pompidou). Mr. Meister’s fictionalized narrative imagined a subterranean, alternate world of cultural production directly beneath, where new, radical forms and ideas could be practiced away from state-sponsored, authorized channels.
This is the first English translation of the seminal text, re-interpreted by artist Luca Frei, whose own work often references the boundaries between private practice and public space. This version re-introduces some of the most basic and powerful questions satirized by Mr. Meister in the original – who owns art, how is culture defined – with Mr. Frei’s contemporary reading of what it means to answer those questions now. Co-published by Book Works and Casco. Edition of 1000. 5" x 8", 208 pages. $35. Add to cart
Lying Freely by Ruth Buchanan. Designed and edited by David Bennewith and Ruth Buchanan; texts by Ruth Buchanan and Marina Vishmidt. With Frederique Bergholtz, Binna Choi, Emily Pethick. Ms. Buchanan engaged in a 2-year, 4-part project investigating private need and public appearance, individual agency and collectively received legacy. Each segment was produced in a distinct medium - guided tour, theatrical performance, installation, and the final presentation, Lying Freely. A continuum of figure, location, and format can be found throughout, with the book acting as both documentation and playbook for recognition of reconfiguration. Edition of 500. Co-published by Jan van Eyck Academie and Casco. 6" x 9", 76 pages. $25. Add to cart
Dave Hullfish Bailey. What's Left. Eds. Stuart Bailey, Emily Pethick. With Lars Bang Larsen, Jan Tumlir, Emily Pethick. Based on the presentation "What's left to its own devices (On reclamation)" (Casco, July 2007) by Los Angeles-based artist Dave Hullfish Bailey. One of the many interesting devices employed in the book's design is its mirroring of the original organizational theme of the hang - that is to say, non-linear and experimental. Information on the page is arranged top down (critical essays) and bottom up (fragmented and whole research material). The type becomes an essential categorical device, the images their own topography, separate from the geographical focal points of the exhibit, which were Utrecht, NL and Slab City, CA. This book is pretty packed. Co-published by Casco and Sternberg Press. 9.25" x 5.25", 244 pages. $30. Add to cart
