Public programme: entrance free
More information: Copenhagen Art Festival

Curator: Vivian Ziherl
Collaborator: Matthew Lutz-Kinoy
Contributors: Song Dong, Ruth Ewan, Steffani Jemison, Michael Vazquez

In the frame of the Copenhagen Art Festival, If I Can’t Dance, in collaboration with
Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, will conduct a summer print workshop to play with the practice and politics of the social space of the page. Over ten days, nine selected participants from Copenhagen, Bergen and Malmö Art Academies will work towards a collaboratively produced publication. Led by curator and critic Vivian Ziherl, in collaboration with artist Matthew Lutz-Kinoy, the programme will dive into the histories of the performativity of the page, examine theory of publics in relation to publications, as well as flipping through the pages of case examples.

The working-phase of the project will start-off with The Social Space of the Page, an open seminar gathering case histories, artist presentations and other points of inspiration. Guests will include Steffani Jemison with a presentation exploring the complex space of language, literacy, and independent publishing in African American print cultures. Her presentation will be the latest phase in Alpha’s Bet Is Not Over Yet, a collaboration with Jamal Cyrus initiated at Project Row Houses in Houston, Texas, and presented in 2011 at the New Museum of Contemporary Art. Senior editor at Bidoun magazine Michael Vazquez will discuss the ever-present issues of networks and patronage in relation to periodical publications, focusing on the 1960s-70s era of pan-African magazine Transition and its founder Rajat Neogy. Scottish artist Ruth Ewan will discuss her excavation and activation of the printed matter of protest, as well as her own publishing projects. Song Dong will be interviewed in relation to his 1997 exhibition-as-publication Wild and its stance as a space counter to the 1990s commercialization and institutionalization of art in China.

Following the seminar, a newsstand and temporary library of black American periodicals produced during the Great Depression (from 1929 to 1939), compiled by Steffani Jemison and Jamal Cyrus, will be open to the public.

The programme will close with a Brunch Launch of the collaborative publication, printed in the Academy’s workshops. The publication will compile the ideas and practices discussed and tested within the group throughout meetings with guest artists, theorists and historians, as well as through experiences of the festival. The Launch will feature accompanying scripted table-cloths and performative activations of the publication. Workshop participants are Dina Friemuth, Sofie Holten, Anne Fisher, Ellen Suhrke, and Sandra Mujinga.

Public programme:
- The Social Space of the Page
Seminar
Participants: Song Dong, Ruth Ewan, Steffani Jemison and Michael Vazquez.
August 25th, 3pm-5.30pm, Auditorium, Royal Danish Art Academy, Peder Skramsgade 2
- Alpha’s Bet Is Not Over Yet
An exhibition, reading-room and discussion hub featuring black American periodicals of the 1930s.
Open daily August 26th – September 1st, Royal Danish Art Academy, Department of Walls and Space.
- Brunch Launch
Publication launch with performance accompaniment and scripted table-cloths
September 2nd, 11:30am-1.30pm, Royal Danish Art Academy, Sculpture Garden.