B books

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b_books was founded in 1996 in Berlin-Kreuzberg as a bookstore, publisher, political center and event location. B_books ( bbooksz av ) has been active as a film production company since 2000 .

history

b_books emerged from various Berlin art projects that had been working on topics such as the (counter) public and the repoliticization of culture since the early 1990s. A network of self-organized rooms, bars, temporary institutions (Embassy eV, minimal club, BüroBert, anarchitektur, Class 2, Shedhalle Zurich), publications (CopyShop1, ANYP), exhibitions, congresses, welfare committees (tours against neo-Nazis with bands like Blumfeld ) as well as actions like especially the inner city actions (Berlin, Munich, Zurich, Frankfurt), which was already supported by a broad alliance of different political groups. Diedrich Diederichsen's book “The Long Way to the Middle” has documented some of this.

Bookstore

The bookstore b_books specializes in political theory, queer theory, film theory, independent films, philosophy. The bookstore also functions as a meeting point, which also turns into book tables and events, especially in the Berlin Volksbühne, such as for the 60th birthday of Rainer Werner Fassbinder . In 2007, b_books (together with "Pro qm") ran the bookstore for documenta 12 , exhibited in the Hamburger Kunstverein (3 shops) and acted as a shop and organizer at Lothringerstrasse 13 (Munich).

publishing company

The publisher has recorded many of the activities related to the politicization of the art scene as books such as the exhibition in the Berlin New Society for Fine Arts "Baustop.Randstadt, -" or the series on urbanism and globalization "metrozone" (edited by Jochen Becker and Stefan Lanz ). b_books publishes books on the topics of post-Fordism and political theory (Etienne Balibar), combined with cultural criticism, such as Antonio Negri , Harun Farocki , Jacques Derrida , Jean-Luc Godard . One focus is on texts and projects that are close to queer studies , such as the “Contrasexual Manifesto” by Beatriz Preciado . Jacques Rancière's "The Division of the Sensual" is the publisher's classic (and will be expanded to include Rancière's "Die Filmfabel" in 2014), Maurizio Lazzarato's "The Factory of the Indebted Man" is the politically topical one, a direct reaction to the financial and debt crisis. Despite the theoretical orientation, the books are close to a political practice, but are also open to other appropriations, such as a revision such as René Pollesch undertook in three plays that were based on b_books publications.

Political-cultural platform

The “montagsPRAXIS” acts as a platform for the broad environment of b_books, which manifests an activist understanding of culture that is particularly widespread in Berlin, in which practice and theory, post-Marxism and art are conditioned. In terms of personnel, too, the b_books collective is closely related to the attacks on the prevailing art practices and has thus contributed to the politicization of art. This was most recently the case in the attacks on the Flick Collection in the Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin. Organized by b_books and “ Texte zur Kunst ”, a wide list of supporters with advertisements in the FAZ and Süddeutsche Zeitung attacked Flick and the Collection. The initiative “The Flick Collection is closed!” Took a stand against the permanent installation officially presented by Gerhard Schröder in the “Hamburger Bahnhof” in Berlin, which was seen as an attempt to “normalize” the history of fascism and the connection between Flick's wealth and To conceal forced labor during fascism with contemporary art.

Movies

As in general in art practice, filmic productions became more and more important in the context of b_books, which resulted in the need for an own film production company ( bbooksz av ). Several films and videos have been made since 1998, such as the collective soap “Le Ping Pong d'Amour” (1996–2007), “With me to you” ( Judith Hopf / Stephan Geene, 1998) and the feature film After Effect (Stephan Geene, 2007, with Sabine Timoteo in the leading role, also appeared at the Filmgalerie451). The film reflects the existential and economic problems of an art market that is not only economically but also culturally unbounded. Other films are "Sunny Land" (Marietta Kesting, Aljoscha Weskott, International Forum of Young Films, Berlinale 2010) and "Free" (Stephan Geene, International Forum of Young Films, Forum expanded, Berlinale 2014, theatrical release July 2014).

bibliography

  • BüroBert (Ed.): Copy shop . Art Practice & Political Public. ID archive, Berlin 1993, ISBN 3-89408-032-X .
  • Susanne Schultz, BüroBert.minimal club (Ed.): Geld.Beat.Synthetik. Copy shop 2nd ID archive, Berlin 1996, ISBN 3-89408-055-8 .
  • Diedrich Diederichsen: The long way to the center. Kiepenheuer and Witsch, Cologne 1999, ISBN 3-462-02816-2 .
  • Holger Kube Ventura: Political Art Terms. In the 1990s in German-speaking countries. Selene, Vienna 2001, ISBN 3-85266-173-0 .
  • Hubertus Butin (ed.): DuMont's glossary of terms for contemporary art. DuMont, Cologne 2006, ISBN 3-8321-7692-6 .

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