Publications
Series
The center’s directors have tended to make their mark on the program by each introducing new publication series. To date, these include Cahiers, The Lectures, FROM, Forming Theory, Tamáss, Source Books, Reflections, and a loose series of artist’s books devoted to portraying the city of Rotterdam.
This annual series, published between 1991 and 1993, consists of pocket-sized books that each transcribe several lectures given by leading artists, curators, and intellectuals who visited Witte de With for an exchange of ideas in a given year. Many of the texts are related to specific exhibitions, but the series also tackles the broader themes defining contemporary culture. The series was initiated by Witte de With’s first director, Chris Dercon, and designed by Luc Derycke, Brussels.
The Cahier series was initiated by Witte de With’s first director, Chris Dercon, together with Hans Richter of Richter Verlag, Düsseldorf. In total, seven issues were published between 1993 and 1998, creating a unique and varied forum that documents and comments upon the different exhibitions, events, projects, lectures, and discussions presented at the center in that period. Through their wide circulation, the Cahier series helped to promote the center’s program internationally. It also functioned as a platform for design and artistic experimentation: All the issues are the same size, but each was designed by a different typographer; moreover, each cover was designed by a different artist, and 100 copies of each print run of 2,000 were signed, creating a special, limited-edition version.
A flexible series introduced by Witte de With’s second director, Bartomeu Marí, that also became a platform for collaboration with other exhibiting institutions, these journals are something between exhibition reader and symposium chronicle, with certain issues functioning as platforms for writing on or by individual artists. The cumulative effect is that of an ever-expanding textual frame for contemporary art. The publications were designed by Gracia Lebbink, Amsterdam, with a pastel color accent distinguishing each edition.
Introduced by Witte de With’s fourth director, Nicolaus Schafhausen, Source Books are critical and poetic tools, providing points of access into individual artists’ work or broader cultural questions. In commissioning and selecting texts, the aim is to offer readers new contexts for contemporary art practice. Artists have a chance to include materials that may not feature in their exhibitions but that form a vital part of their practice; they are also invited to recommend texts that are key sources of inspiration. While most Source Books are monographic, accompanying solo exhibitions at Witte de With, the format is flexible. Some volumes are readers or artist’s projects in their own right. Designed by Kummer & Herrman, Utrecht, each Source Book has a different “wallpaper” as its cover motif, chosen in collaboration with featured artist.
This English-language periodical was initiated by Witte de With’s second director, Bartomeu Marí. In total, five issues were published between 1998 and 2001. Like the Cahier series, each issue of FROM features short essays that provide an art historical and theoretical context to Witte de With’s exhibition program. As an added mandate, FROM set out to investigate and represent Europe’s changing cultural identity, as seen “from” the practice of contemporary art. All issues of FROM were designed by the Rotterdam-based designer Mark van Beest, the first two in partnership with Martijn Bertram, also from Rotterdam. Each cover features a different bold color.
While Witte de With is often touted as Rotterdam’s most internationally oriented institution, we have a sense that it is impossible to understand what this means without looking more closely at the Dutch city that hosts the center. Rotterdam is often called the most ethnically/culturally diverse city in the Netherlands and one of the most diverse in Europe. How can this condition be perceived and, furthermore, articulated? Since fall 2007, Witte de With has produced a series of books focused on Rotterdam, each showcasing the vision of one exceptional photo-based artist who has a strong relationship to the city. Several of the books also feature written contributions, providing a platform for emerging literary voices. Cumulatively, this loose series of artists’ books continues to bring into focus Rotterdam’s very different urban protagonists.
At stake in this series, introduced in 2008, are terms that define contemporary culture but that have been used to the point of meaninglessness. An editorial collaboration between Witte de With’s director, Nicolaus Schafhausen, and head of publications, Monika Szewczyk, together with Caroline Schneider of Sternberg Press in Berlin, Reflections editions are, as the series title evokes, sustained intellectual commitments. For each book in the series, one writer who exhibits particular originality of thought is invited to consider one problematic term, chosen by the editors. The book-length essay is something rarely seen in print and more rarely still in rigorous translation. In these compact books the text appears in three languages—in English, Dutch and a third language. The series is designed by Kummer & Herrman, Utrecht.
Introduced by Witte de With’s third director, Catherine David, Tamáss, is a series of journals that explore cultural discourse from and about the Arab world from the mid-2000s. Tamáss is interpreted as “contact; touch(ing); contiguity; adjacency; tangency,” as well as a reference to “demarcation line(s); confrontation line(s).” The first issue, published in English and Spanish, was co-produced with the Fundació Antoni Tàpies in Barcelona, which also distributed the Spanish version. For the second issue, published in Arabic as well as English and Spanish, Sharqiyat Publishing House in Cairo came on board and distributed the Arabic version. Witte de With distributes the English editions of the first two issues. The series forms part of David’s long-term project Contemporary Arab Representations, whose first two exhibition installments were shown at Witte de With. With contributions by leading intellectuals in each of the regions of focus, Tamáss remains a vital organ for the development and promotion of an experimental, critical contemporary Arabic culture. The journals are designed by Nieves Berenguer Ros, Barcelona.
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