Book Art Festival Forum

Forum programme:
14:00 – 14:30 „Arklys“ press (Mindaugas Aniūnas and Mantas Puodžiukaitis) / “Anatomy of a horse, or how students create a publishing house”
14:30 – 15:00 Maria Izabella Lehtsaar / “Thinking in layers”
15:00 – 15:30 „Gegutė“ magazine (Deividas Preišegalavičius and Dominykas Matulionis) / “Bim Bam, or Bim Bam and the sea”
(break 30 min)
16:00 – 16:30 „As a Journal“ (Kotryna Lingienė) / “* as a Journal: unexpected cultural perspectives, from Lithuania to the world”
16:30 – 17:00 Agnes Isabelle Veevo / “I Wish for More Mushrooms to Emerge”

 

This year’s Book Art Festival Forum will be curated by artist Marija Repšytė, who currently curated the exhibition “in a maze. artists / graphic designers books and publications” at the Klaipėda Culture Communication Centre. As in the exhibition, the event will focus on young creators in art and graphic design, international collaborations and ideas looking for different forms of publications or books.

 

IN THE FORUM ACTIVITIES IN BOOKS and PUBLICATIONS WILL PRESENT:

“ARKLYS” press – an initiative created by students of the VAA Department of Graphic Art, which started operating in early 2024, with the first publication of a poetry zine. “Arklys” continues to publish various forms of both image and text-based books, zines and creates various book-objects, such as a book made of dough, pork filling and Japanese onion leaf binding. Uniqueness of publications and the actualization of ideas in all areas of book art are essential to the publishing house: layout, design, printing, binding.

 

MARIA IZABELLA LEHTSAAR is an Estonian artist who graduated this year with a Master’s degree in Contemporary Art from the Estonian Academy of Arts, and whose graduation work “You Have the Copy of the Keys to My Heart” is featured in the “in a maze” exhibition. Maria Izabella works primarily with underrepresented queer experience and narrative, often playing with the boundaries between reality and fantasy. In their work they blend pop culture aesthetics and sensitive monochrome graphics, combining them in practice with textiles, drawing and poetry. Their use of various mediums visually bend the familiarity with layered meanings.

The works of the artist will also be published next year by “12:15” in the Estonian-Lithuanian artists’ publication “Friendship Forever”.

In the context of cultural magazines, the magazine “GEGUTĖ” is distinguished by the fact that it is the only handmade cultural magazine in Lithuania, but also by its place of discovery – “Gegutė” can be taken out and read from specially designed wooden nesting boxes. The authors of the second issue of “Gegutė” will talk about the origins of the magazine and the sea cuckoos, the difficulties or joys of creating the magazine, the field of cultural publications, and their importance to the specific region.

 

* AS A JOURNAL offers a fresh outlook on contemporary cultural movements and recognises the insightful contributions that artists, creators and researchers from Lithuania and beyond bring to topics of global concern. The six issues published by the Lithuanian Culture Institute: Forest, Soundscapes, Cosmos, Memory, Body and Poem, will be introduced by the magazine’s editor-in-chief of the magazine Kotryna Lingienė.

Published twice a year, the title of “* as a Journal”, changes along with the theme of each issue and invites readers to immerse themselves in a single topic from a range of unexpected cultural perspectives. The content of each issue of the magazine is developed by guest editors with a special interest in the chosen topic and created by an international team of contributors.

 

AGNES ISABELLE VEEVO is a young Estonian graphic designer who recently graduated with an MA from the Estonian Academy of Arts. She has created a number of designs for books and projects and during the event, Agnes Isabelle will open some of her books for the audience. One of them “I Wish for More Mushrooms to Emerge” can be seen in the exhibition “in a maze”.

She will also talk about the Fair Enough Book Fair, which she initiated with a friend Linnea Lindgren, its future plans and importance in the local art and publishing scene.

Agnes Isabelle Veevo will design the Estonian-Lithuanian artists’ publication “Friendship Forever”, published by “12:15”.

 

More about the exhibition “in a maze. artists / graphic designers books and publications”:

in a maze. artists / graphic designers books and publications

MARIJA REPŠYTĖ is an artist operating in words, exhibitions, and exhibition architecture. After studying painting at the Vilnius Academy of Arts, she holds a BA and MA in Fine Arts from the Willem de Kooning Academy and the Bergen Academy of Art and Design. Recently, she curated the exhibitions “in a maze. artists books and publications” at the M. K. Čiurlionis National Museum of Art (2024); “Timemaker” together with Žilvinas Landzbergas at LNMA Pamarys Gallery (2020) and Jurga Barilaitė’s “Lines and Wrinkles. Dreams of Living and Delusions of the Dead” at Atletika Gallery, Vilnius (2021). She is an art editor of the journal “Sphairos”, published by the Lithuanian Culture Research Institute and the founder of the art/artist’s book publishing platform “12:15” and “12:15 Reading Room” in Vilnius.