The circus is a drama that extends its own means, and the metaphor of its name (itself clowning around with the word) is widespread across the art industry, financial world, and, of course, anything to do with performance. For four years during the mid-aughts, photographer, video and film artist Ieva Epnere immersed herself in the life of the Riga Circus – a type of traditional circus that cherishes the respectful use of animals, operating on a circus-family model (skills are passed down through generations to produce family units that travel and live on the road), and the big top tent (the landmark interior of one of the oldest circus structures, built for this purpose in Europe since 1888) as a performance space. This publication, that was developed during Ieva Epnere’s fellowship with the Artists-in-Berlin Program of the DAAD, symbolically marks four stages of her single, larger work. Fine-tuned digital color shots, a collection of black-and-white 35 mm film prints showing action at the Riga Circus, followed by a burst of color shots and black and white photos taken on a film camera, to end with a set of intimate black-and-white portraits of the performers. Whereas the conversion of circus into text might to some degree be a violation of the true nature of its subject, Ieva Epnere’s book – with the help of elephants, clowns, all the “freakery,” and her kaleidoscopic peek into the machinery that makes performances in the arena possible – itself stands as an adventurous act of reinvention. ↑ ↓ ↓

Stickers presents itself as a genre of artist books on its own. The book demonstrates Anna M. Pasco Bolta’s works, including various techniques, within the genre of stickers, and explores the idea how objects can exist in two states: as objects themselves, and as their images. Every copy of the edition is unique and overflowing with stickers waiting to be stuck on. The stickers act as a medium for displaying all content: artwork, text, sponsor logos, ISBN and barcodes, giving a certain autonomy to the images. Thus, Stickers is a changing and pluralistic platform that allows an approach from the audiences individual point of view to Pasco’s work and emphasizes the importance of action and interaction for the perception of reality. ↑ ↓ ↓

Taking as its starting point Robin Fior’s personal collection, which was recently donated to the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation’s Art Library, the exhibition Robin Fior. Call to Action/Abril em Portugal brings together, for the first time, objects conceived by the graphic designer both in England and Portugal, between the 1960s and the 1980s. The publication that accompanies the exhibition includes the contribution of Robin Kinross, author and editor of several essays and publications on visual communication and typography. His essay explores the beginning of Fior’s career and his English period, as well as his connection to the anti-nuclear campaign and his link to left-wing political movements. ↑ ↓ ↓