The Making of your Magazines
Graphic
designer and publisher
Nicolas Bourquin, together with
Sven Ehmann
and the
onlab team, designed the unofficial contribution of the architecture magazine
arch+ to this year’s
documenta in Kassel. In the exhibition
The Making of your Magazines, visitors can copy texts from a wide selection of
literature on architectural and social critique to create their own individual reading.
INMYX:
Entering the exhibition in the south wing of the Kassel Kulturbahnhof, one finds oneself in the middle
of a large, open office space. Why have you designed the exhibition as an editorial office that is open
to the public? Nicolas Bourquin: Ninety international magazines that publish cultural
critique were invited to
documenta 12 with the aim of producing an issue of their
magazine while in
Kassel.
arch+ was also invited and decided to work actively on-site. This is how
we came upon this idea
of an office, which was intended to expand on the
documenta discourse about modernity
in architectural
theory.
INMYX: An exhibition is usually set up as a forum
dealing with a specific content, in situ. Here, you are bringing content together
so that it can be
read somewhere else. In your opinion, what is an exhibition supposed to achieve?Bourquin:
You should always be able to take an exhibition away with you; it should stick in your memory so you
can go into the material in-depth again later. When I was working on a project on Museum Island in Berlin,
we considered an electronic solution that made specific content accessible afterwards. Here, it was
nice to go for the same idea, but on a low-tech level.
INMYX:
Visitors actually help create the exhibition, because you challenge them to actively participate. How
does that change the notion of an exhibition?Bourquin: It opens up a completely
new dimension. The exhibition is no longer limited to a place and time. It lives on and can disseminate
its ideas further. This goes beyond the notion of a classical exhibition that you enter almost like
a church, have the content of the show funneled into you, and then continue with your normal life afterwards.
With our approach we have tried to maintain the relevance of the themes we address even after the exhibition
is over.
INMYX: Instead of digitizing the process of copying
and assembling documents, which would be the most contemporary approach, you decided to make the photocopier
the central element of your contribution to documenta. How did that come about?
Bourquin:
At the very beginning we did discuss the possibility of an online database. One problem was the budget,
and having a clear physical presence at the site was also important. Besides that, we wanted to create
an interesting experience that used the aesthetics of the 1960s through to the mid 1990s and reflected
the founding spirit of the magazine. The representation of those times would have been lost with digitization.
We set everything up in A4 format, in order to link it with the daily routine of magazine creation at
the exhibition. At the same time, it was a also practical solution.
INMYX:
To what extent did the design idea influence the content of the exhibition? Bourquin:
The question should be asked the other way around: how did the content influence the design? Due to
the redesign of the magazine in the 1980s by Otl Aicher,
arch+ has a very clear
identity. For this reason,
we said right from the very start that we were not going to make an
arch+ exhibition
but a
Making of
your Magazines exhibition. We want to make that clear on a formal level and detach our concept
from
arch+. However, the arch+ archive is of course the source of all the content used
in the exhibit.
Of
course, we thought about the content: we definitely wanted to communicate theories on urbanity, ecology
and the modern. We wanted to create an introduction to these theories through images, so that we didn’t
simply graze the surface of such dense material. However, that did not match the self-image of the magazine.
INMYX:
You have already edited and designed a number of books. How do you see this project within the context
of what you have done so far? Bourquin: For me, it is a continuation of an exploration
of how complex information is arranged in space – or within a book. The medium may be different, but
it still remains a spatial experience. Even a book isn’t linear and has its own dynamic.
INMYX:
In your person, you bring together graphic design (onlab), a publication platform
(etc. publications)
and video art. Is it possible to clearly separate these fields? Bourquin: No,
everything flows into everything else. However, creative work is extremely subjective. With
onlab
I
have a completely different way of approaching issues, which is more solution-oriented. With etc., in
contrast, the work is very content-based and tries to be documentary. These different identities or
platforms allow me to avoid tainting myself with a commercial job that would not fit in my program.
INMYX:
What would your video artist say to the exhibition The Making of
your Magazines? Bourquin: As a video artist, I would
have addressed these themes differently, and I would perhaps say that this exhibition lacks an emotional
component. Theory does not just have to be unemotional, dry and devoid of sensuality. I don’t think
that communicating it via pop culture methods necessarily diminishes the knowledge that one conveys.
It is also possible to communicate complex content in a simple way—without becoming a populist.
Links:www.onlab.ch
www.etc-publications.com www.nicolasbourquin.net
