Our Festival of Books and Voices continues for the month of November with Indrek Sirkels’ Lugemik 100 books exhibition, a window commission by Marge Monko, Flawless, Seamless 2023  and Tracks and Envelopes a sound archive by Sandra Nuut and Ott Kagovere which emerged from their Dear Friend project and publication.

On 25th November from 1pm we welcome you to our closing event of the Festival of Books and Voices  at PUBLICS.

Included in our schedule will be book launches, talks, lectures, round table discussions and a sound lounge event. The event is free and open to everyone. Please find the schedule and further information about the individual speakers below:-

1.00-1.30    Aura Saarikoski, Grey Mélange Book Launch
1.30-2.00   Sasha Huber & Petri Saarikko, Remedies Book Launch
2.15- 2.45   PUBLICS / Lugemik, The Voice that Remains Book Launch
2.45- 3.00  PUBLICS Youth, Dear Friend, Letter for Nine Voices
3.15-4.00    Round table with Lugemik, Khaos Publishing, Multipöly and Rooftop Press
4.30-5.30   Lecture by Becky Beasley
6.00-7.00   Live music Kaino Kim Vieno

Aura Saarikoski’s Grey Mélange book launch 

On the way home from a birthday party, Saarikoski found herself weeping on a street corner in the embrace of a consoler. A dark stain of tears and mascara remained on the consoler’s shirt, directly over their heart. As time passed and the shirt remained unwashed, the stain accumulated significance, bearing witness to both grief and solace.

Grey Mélange is Aura Saarikoski’s second book that combines photographs and text to explore the conditions and ethics of autofiction and how lived experiences can be transformed into art. The publication is based on an exhibition of the same name held by Aura Saarikoski at the Hippolyte Gallery in January 2022. Both the exhibition and the publication are based on the events described above, which took place some years ago.

Sasha Huber & Petri Saarikko’s Dziedināšana Remedies book launch 

Dziedināšana Remedies was commissioned by the 1st Riga International Biennial of Contemporary Art, RIBOCA1, Everything Was Forever Until It Was No More, curated by Katerina Gregos. 2 June – 28 October 2018.

Dziedināšana Remedies presents Latvian sauna culture as a form of commonly shared healing remedy. Pirts is the old Latvian traditional cleansing space, corresponding to that of a Finnish sauna or a Russian banya. The pirts-related cleansing ceremony is considered to have both physical and mental benefits.

Latvian people share healing practices and rituals such as pirtošanās which is a sacred practice, where not only the flesh but also the mind and spirit are being cleansed and cured. These traditions live and survive among practicing generations, commonly bound to oral traditions. Natural forms of self-reliance and care are shared orally as remedies and practiced in combination with established medical systems. Remedies bind people and the landscape together without extensive technological means. They are living practices that utilise plants and other natural resources that survive and evolve in the hands and words of people who consider ecological thinking as a source of their and others’ wellbeing.

Most cultures have methods of self-help and medical healing. When it comes to health, we rarely use our common sense and environmental awareness. Regardless of whether the methods actually work or not, they contain strands of cultural and inherited knowledge that celebrate a heritage. Perhaps people’s attitudes to healing are inscribed into beliefs and the enactment of narrative remedies.

The Voice that Remains / PUBLICS & Lugemik book launch 

The Voice that Remains explores the keepsakes, the remnants, the traces of exhibitions no longer there, and interaction between people, their acoustic worlds and the sounds of the environment that the listener hears and imagines when no longer there. The exhibition as the ‘THAT WHICH IS NOT HERE’ in still images, in other times, voices, sounds, locations, accounts, experiences; in retrospect.

A Reading and informal presentation with Paul O’Neill and friends of four recent recent artist-led publications published by Publics: Independence Days: Maryam Jafri (2022);Letters and Banners: Dave McKenzie (2023); Kathrin Böhm: Art on the Scale of Life (2023), and The Voice That Remains, edited by Publics and co-published with Lugemik, (2023)

PUBLICS Youth will present their Dear Friend, Letter for Nine Voices at PUBLICS as part of the Festival of Books and Voices.

Our Invited guest Artist from the UK Becky Beasley will explore her reading practices and spatial imagination in the context of her circular and revolutionary approach to learning from others’ perspectives and voices. The slide lecture will cover the background to her unique reading of, amongst others,  William Faulkner and Thomas Bernard’s literary voices. She will also speak about her new-found understanding of how all this is an expression of her autistic point of view.

Round Table discussion about artists and small scale publishing with Finnish Publishers Lugemik, Khaos Publishing, Multipöly and Rooftop Press.

Kaino Kim Vieno’s album launch –European Histories in E(strogen)

European Histories in E(strogen)’ is the sophomore album from Kaino Kim Vieno. Published by the Helsinki-based Minna Records, the album moves around the murky political affects surrounding the history of the European Union and NATO.

The songs feature vocals from Karin Mäkiranta, Tuomas A. Laitinen (TAL), Sami Suova, and Ulijona Odišarija. The album is based on Kaino’s stage performance ‘Fixit’, which premiered in ANTI Festival, in 2022, and was broadcasted as a radio essay for Yle Radio 1, live from Oodi central library, in 2023.

The album release party at Publics will feature Karin, Tuomas, and Sami, with Kaino accompanying on guitar and sharing some spicy Euro-stories behind the songs.

A pop up book store by the participating Publishers, artists and physical copies of the album will be sold throughout the day.

FOOD Refreshments will be served in the afternoon.

Artists Bios

Becky Beasley (b. 1975, UK) is a Paul Hamlyn Artist Award recipient (2018) and Freelands Award Shortlist artist (2023), who has participated in numerous international exhibitions, among them 80WSE Gallery (NYU), New York; Towner Gallery, Eastbourne; South London Gallery, London; Leeds City Gallery, Leeds; Spike Island, Bristol; Serpentine Gallery Pavilion, London; Tate Britain, London; Stanley Picker Gallery, London; Whitworth, Manchester; Bluecoat, Liverpool; Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool; Whitechapel Gallery, London; Kunstverein Freiburg; Kunstverein Munich; Kunsthalle Bern.

She received a late autism diagnosis in 2021 and is a passionate advocate for autism understanding. She is Senior Lecturer in Fine Art at Goldsmiths College, London and is represented internationally by Galeria Plan B, Berlin and Francesca Minini Gallery, Milan.

Sasha Huber & Petri Saarikko
Sasha Huber from Switzerland with Haitian roots and Petri Saarikko from Finland are a visual artist duo living and working in Helsinki, Finland. They have been working and exhibiting both collaboratively and individually around the world since early 2000. In 2011 they initiated an independent art space Kallio Kunsthalle based in Helsinki and in 2016 in Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand. Since 2011, Sasha Huber and Petri Saarikko have been working on the Remedies project. The project explores methods of self-help and medical healing in different geographical and cultural contexts. Remedies has taken different form of expression such as publications, live performance and video in Sweden, Aotearoa New Zealand, Australia, Haiti, Russia, Germany, Tasmania, United States and Finland.

Aura Saarikoski (born 1987) is a visual artist, writer, and doctoral candidate in photography at Aalto University. Saarikoski graduated from Turku Arts Academy as a visual artist and received her Master’s degree in photography from Aalto University. She has also studied creative writing.

Saarikoski’s debut book “Gray Days” (Parvs, 2020) was awarded the Edvard Richter honorary award by the Finnish Art Society in 2020. “Grey Mélange” is Saarikoski’s second book. Saarikoski works with photography, writing, exhibitions, and publications, exploring the terrain of mist, gray tones, and autobiographical themes.

Kaino Wennerstrand
Kaino Wennerstrand, who records as Kaino Kim Vieno, is a Helsinki-based artist who does performances, videos, and texts. Her works have been shown in EKKM, Tallinn, FACT, Liverpool, Kunsthalle, Helsinki, Babycastles, New York, and the White Building, London. She was awarded the Finnish State Prize for Media Art in 2021.

Khaos
Khaos is an independent publisher based in Helsinki, Finland, founded by photographic artist and publisher Iina Esko in 2015. Among Khaos’ publications, the book Wasted Years – Sad, Sexy, and Artist-Run (Sorbus 2020) was awarded the Edvard Richter Recognition by the Finnish Art Society. Additionally, the works Almost All the Flowers in My Mother’s Garden (Kurki 2022) and Kone-Suomi (ed. Kinnunen 2017) have been selected for the collection of the Most Beautiful Books by the Finnish Book Art Committee.

Multipöly is an experimental collective, publisher, reader, neighbour, archive, dance, party, particle, landscape, laboratory. Pöly is Finnish for dust or pollen – our metaphor for stirring and scattering. Multipöly  make publications and probe publishing as a concept, as a site, and as a practice. These might result in books, events, schools, text based art, and more. Multipöly was founded by graphic designer Arja Karhumaa and artist Maarit Mustonen in 2021. Multipöly reside in Multipöly Room, our joint studio and library in Vallila, Helsinki.

Rooftop Press
Helsinki based publisher of bookworks and multiples. Founded by Timo Vaittinen and Tuukka Kaila, Rooftop Press explores publishing as artistic practice and publications as spaces for contemporary art. The artists use the platform for creating their own works as well as working closely with other artists to investigate the potential of publishing in relation to their practice and to help realize works intended for book form. Rooftop Press maintains a micro-press Vallilan Risopaja in Helsinki with facilities for risoprinting and perfect binding.

Lugemik
Lugemik is an independent publishing initiative based in Tallinn, Estonia, founded in 2010 by designer Indrek Sirkel and artist Anu Vahtra. In collaboration with different artists, designers and theorists, Lugemik has published more than 100 titles to date.

In 2013, Lugemik opened its first bookshop on the premises of the Contemporary Art Museum of Estonia (EKKM) and in 2020, its second location under Tallinn Art Hall. At the moment Lugemik Bookshop has two locations in Tallinn: in Kai Art Center at Noblessner and at the Estonian Museum of Applied Art and Design (ETDM) in Tallinn Old Town.

Since 2013 Lugemik has participated in various art book fairs around the world: Printed Matter’s NY Art Book Fair, Offprint Paris and London, Bergen Art Book Fair, Ghent Art Book Fair, Singapore Art Book Fair, Miss Read: The Berlin Art Book Fair, and Friends with Books.

Indrek Sirkel
Indrek Sirkel (1984, Estonia) is a graphic designer, educator and publisher based in Tallinn. After graduating from the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam in 2007 and a one-year residency at the Jan van Eyck Academie in Maastricht in 2008, he received his MA degree from the Estonian Academy of Arts (EKA) in 2014. Since 2007, Sirkel has been teaching and co-organising the programme at the Department of Graphic Design of the Estonian Academy of Arts (EKA). In 2015, he became the head of the department and in 2020 was elected to be the professor of Graphic Design. Since September 2022 he is a junior researcher and a doctoral student at the Doctoral School of EKA.