Caveat Home Reading: New Ecotones of Collaboration
Some inspiring reading material for the coming weeks: OSP published 5 new interviews in the Ecotones series with Atelier Brenda, D-E-A-L, Loraine Furter, Monica Gomes (la Balsamine) and Transquinquennal.
Ecotones of Collaboration questions the triangular relationship between graphic designers, artists and institutions through the format of long and short interviews. More specifically, the research tries to highlight the methods or “positive experiences”, where the parties involved try to escape from the common mechanics of commodification.
OSP contacted about 20 graphic designers, artists and partners established under various statutes in Brussels and elsewhere. The interviews, conducted by different members of OSP, often resulted in long conversations, some in-depth and freestyle, some trying to define the contours of the ‘pieces’ of collaboration. The results, of varying length, are published in text form and in the language that was used during the conversations.
Through its radical practice, Open Source Publishing (OSP) questions the modes of collaboration between graphic designers and artists, or between graphic designers and cultural institutions. In an effort to clarify the frame of the specific collaborations initiated by OSP, the collective produced a collaboration agreement in 2014, a document which has regularly been reviewed since. In November 2018, a workshop at Beurschouwburg gathered around 15 people with various backgrounds (designers, artists, curators, legal experts, etc.). While bringing to light the necessity to modify this document to be able to question it and its sometimes rigid proposals, it also showed that there is a common will to talk about these topics, which are often left undiscussed.
An ecotone is a transition area between two biomes where two communities meet and integrate. River beds are a common example.
Ecotones of collaboration is a project by OSP in the framework of Caveat.
All texts are published under CC BY-ND license.
Read the interviews on the Ecotones.Caveat website
Read more about Caveat on the Caveat website