Wednesday, December 7, 2016

Holiday Recommendations Guest Post: Maxine Proctor







Sergej Vutuc and We Make It, Berlin
Čista zona, Sergej Vutuc
Berlin, Germany: We Make It, 2016
48 pp., 28 x 20 cm., slip silkscreen glow in the dark cover
Edition of 400

"Čista zona, Sergej Vutuc is a collaborative book by Berlin-based artist Sergej Vutuc and We Make It, Berlin. Its thick inky black and white risograph pages and glow-in-the-dark silkscreen cover pay homage to Vutuc’s transient lifestyle and the decay of contemporary Europe. Vutuc has spent his artistic career skateboarding around crumbling cities including Detroit, Israel, Palestine, and Fukushima in an attempt to capture the mistakes of modern society.

Sergej Vutuc grew up Zagreb, Croatia during a time of violent political unrest. As a young man in the 90s, Vutuc took to wearing a beard, joined the punk and skateboarding community, and asserted himself as a modern nomad. Through these visual acts of social defiance, Vutuc utilized his position as an outsider to bear witness to the development of oppressive government regimes and specter of institutional powers. Skateboarding culture infiltrates the privatization of public spaces, encourages corporeal awareness, and creates subversive communities, all of which allow Vutuc a unique photographic vantage point. Čista zona, Sergej Vutuc illustrates the intrinsic relationship between Vutuc’s subtle observations and his skateboarding lifestyle - unhindered, transient, and collaborative. Vutuc’s ‘zines and artists’ books are comprised of analog photographs that document his many journeys. The photographs are then warped with broken glass, overexposure and his signature writing style. Many of the pages fold out into provocative landscapes that expands the visual narrative into a multitude of possible readings. "

Available here for 35 EUR/ $50 CAD

Maxine Proctor is the Creative Director and Co-founder of the Toronto Art Book Fair. She holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Saskatchewan and Master of Arts from York University.


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