Published by: Buchhandlung Walther König, Köln
Year of publication: 2010
Language: Deutsch/Englisch
Pages: 160
ISBN: 978-3-86560-905-2

Contributions by: John Baldessari, Robert Barry, Yael Bartana, Monica Bonvicini, Ulla von Brandenburg, Mircea Cantor, Joe Coleman, Keren Cytter, Thomas Demand, Thea Djordjadze, Hans-Peter Feldmann, Peter Fischli und David Weiss, Cyprien Gaillard, Isa Genzken, Douglas Gordon, Petrit Halilaj, Rachel Harrison, Alfredo Jaar, Christian Jankowski, Sergej Jensen, Annika Kahrs, Annette Kelm, Alicja Kwade, Olaf Nicolai, Marcel Odenbach, Roman Ondák, Sarah Ortmeyer, Ulrike Ottinger, Dan Perjovschi, Willem de Rooj, Gregor Schneider, Norbert Schwontkowski, Santiago Sierra, Andreas Slominski, Elaine Sturtevant, Wolfgang Tillmans, Rosemarie Trockel, Luc Tuymans, Andro Wekua, Thomas Zipp

Content

Preface (invitation)

Dear …,

My Work and Me. The relationship between an artist and his or her work is possibly one of the most difficult, and most existential but also magnificent topics an artist has to deal with every day.

Being an artist means having ultimate freedom, it means, to be able to develop one’s own oeuvre or work entirely out of oneself. There is no other field, which opens greater possibilities for self-realization; each boundary hast o be defined by oneself. This makes being an artist a singularity, which comprises creative force and freedom as much as the wrestling which those very possibilities.

Under the title My Work and Me, I would like to cordially invite you to reflect about this topic in the framework of a pure artist book, which will consist solely of artistic contributions.

If one wanders through a museum of old masters one tends to pause and think: here a Rembrandt, a Rubens there, perhaps a Vermeer. The works are being called by the name of the artist, semiotically become the artist, and seem to be perceived as belonging to him or her. Rubens and his painting thus quasi merge into one. Yet, how does the artist perceive this becoming-one? Is the relationship between the artist and his or her work so existential that there is no separation and that both the creative act and the artwork are always inseparably connected with the own self? To what extent does one become part of the work? Or does one look for strategies that allow a separation from the own work? Is there perhaps no such unity of artist and work? Is the unlimited freedom of creativity and creative force only a blessing or is it sometimes also a curse?

I would be delighted if you accepted my invitation to participate in the planned artist book! The pages of the publication measure 24 (height) x 17 (width) cm (with an extra 3mm bleed). The visual aspect is entirely up to you. The following deadline is the only definite point: Please send the pages to me before July 25, 2010. The artist book will be published as the 57th Jahresring, a publication series edited by Brigitte Oetker on behalf of the Kulturkreis der deutschen Wirtschaft at BDI e. V. by Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König. Please let me know if you would like to take part!

I hope to hear from you soon and please feel free to contact me should you have any questions.

With my very best wishes,

Susanne Pfeffer

Instead of a postscript

„Bad art, you can tinker on it and turn it in to high art with your life’s work. Life’s work, that’s what it’s really all about, you must have produced something decent within your life. Actually, those are Heaven’s directives. Otherwise Hell.“
Martin Kippenberger

My Work and Me is after Der Öffentliche Blick (1991) und Schönheit (2003) the third Jahresring which appears in a series of independent artists‘ books. I thank the artists for the participation and Susanne Pfeffer for the conception of this book.

Brigitte Oetker