Workshop Dummies: Metz + Leipzig
Below are dummies made at dienacht Publishing workshops in Metz at the festival Photographie mon Amour and in Leipzig. Next photobook making workshop will take place in Leipzig in late November. Learn more here.
After an accident 8 years ago Carole partly lost her memory. This project features phone images that were taken mostly just days before the accident, with no recollection of the events. Images are further photographed and edited in various ways. "Assembling the narrative allowed me to reconstruct a story but I remain unsure of what is real". The dummy is twofold: part with images is a free leporello on black paper, as no linear strict narrative can be applied to this story, with a few hidden photos and a tiny booklet on the back side.
The second part features a booklet with the text written by Carole's partner Ahmed Siddiqui. It's fictional and both supports the series and works as a piece on its own. Printed on thinner yellowish paper, pamphlet binding. The dummy has a flexible architectural form.
The project is approached through 2 completely different types of dummies and designs and 2 various titles and description texts are tested. 'Belgian Gallery' focuses on graphically remarkable and playful elements in the public space and is implemented with a more classical, elegant and museum-like approach. Classical cloth hard cover, yet with a curious feature (both playful and galleristic), — a framed (cut-out) cover picture in the pocket that can be altered. This dummy seeks to highlight the picturesque in the mundane pictures of Belgian outskirts.
'Belgian Playground' deals more with the deconstruction of the aesthetics of these quirky "ugly Belgian houses" and public spaces. The dummy is made up of a collection of unbound posters that are meticulously paired to seem to merge, to get deconstructed. And in the end to surprise, confuse and delight at the same time. Title and text are also split between the front and back cover. This dummy highlights the beautiful absurdity and potential of the unique Belgian design of space. The dummy is held together by the transparent banderole.
hand bound copies after the workshop
hand bound copies after the workshop
hand bound copies after the workshop
Imagine embarking on a road trip to the coal mines in Poland with a girl and end up driving around small towns of Eastern Europe… mostly hanging out in the car, having sex, shooting and filming each other, getting into abandoned houses, talking to random people, rambling around cemeteries. 'Erlebnispark' ('adventure park' in German) by Paul is a recollection of that adventure filled with freedom. Photographs are variously oriented on the page so that you turn the book in hands and get this freestyle vibe. Hand painted golden kitschy cover speaks for itself. Swiss binding. Self published, hand bound & hand painted in an edition of only 10 copies. A couple left.
'Ninth Planet' narrates about a variety elements, fossils and structures that, one the one hand, resemble those on Earth and, on the other hand, look completely otherworldly. Can it all belong to the ninth planet? The book is conceived as a wooden box full of variously sized and bound booklets, that is meant to resembles a natural history museum box, keeping discoveries found on a certain terrain. Each layer hides another one below and works as a complete surprise. The box is also supposed to be used as a self-sufficient exhibit at Martin's shows.
cover of the printed version of the book
cover of the printed version of the book
It’s a subtle story of fatherhood and melancholy that comes along. All in the presence of an imaginary friend Dapio, to whom both Victor's daughter and son seem to be attached. The book was self-published shortly after the workshop in an edition of 90 copies, all hand bound by Victor himself. Apart from the cover, the final book is true to the dummy. Above are pictures of both the dummy and the final book. Drop Victor a message if you’d like to get one: kataev_victor(at)posteo.de
