Today is October 14th, World PhotoBook Day, a yearly celebration set up by PhotoBook Club Madrid and Matt Johnston back in September 2013. It’s an homage to the first photobook ever published, which is Photographs of British algae. Cyanotype impressions, by Anna Atkins. There are lots of activities organized around the globe to follow this celebration and at Centro de la Imagen in Mexico have chosen this date to share three BookJockey Sessions with all of you photobookies. Sessions will be broadcasted online and I hope they remain recorded on youtube. Find all the details on their facebook event.
Daniela Bojórquez Vértiz, Omar Gámez, Cecilia Hurtado World PhotoBook Day Centro de la Imagen Plaza de la Ciudadela, 2 thursday, October 14th, 2021 6 pm. GMT+5 Mexico City, Mexico
Daniela Bojórquez Vértiz, Omar Gámez, Cecilia Hurtado Día Internacional del Fotolibro Centro de la Imagen Plaza de la Ciudadela, 2 jueves, 14 de octubre de 2021 18:00 h. GMT+5 Ciudad de México, México
Yesterday, a photobookjockey on Japanese photography took place in the impressive setting of the church of San Telmo Museum, by Juan Cires, a great specialist in this topic. Juan knows Japanese photography like (almost) nobody, and especially its photobook side.
Being able to enjoy his presence, yesterday in the church, was a luxury. Dansu, dansu, dansu turned out to be a sort of performance, mixing image, film, sound and books, as well as reading of texts.
Japan is a world apart, and as Juan said, entering its culture is, for a foreigner, like finding himself on Mars. He led us by the hand through its history, its traditions, through the hidden corners of its physical or sentimental geography, all represented in the books. Part of those were from Juan’s collection, a well-kept treasure that he wanted to share with us, and the other part came from the more contemporary collection deposited in San Telmo. In this way, any representation of Dansu, dansu, dansu is unique, although Juan has already shown it twice, in Madrid and Granada.
Japanese photobooks are a special world within photobooks, so ingrained is this medium of expression within Japanese photography. This would not be understood without the book, its natural means of communication, almost of existence.
Ryuichi Kaneko, a great historian of Japanese photography, a great collector, and also participant in the Photobook Phenomenon exhibition, died last July, and this bookjockey was also a tribute to him, the one that has worked the most to publicize the Japanese photobook throughout the world.
Dansu, dansu, dansu gets its name from a novel by Haruki Murakami, and Juan picks up the idea of ‘dance’, to create a choreography of images and sound that go from traditional Butō to the most ferocious experimentation.
One, Ken Ohara/小原 健, Benedikt Taschen Verlag, 1997 *
I can’t recall my first light/私は初めて見た光を覚えていない, Sayuki Inoue/井上佐由紀, nap gallery, 2018 *
The bookjockey format, devised by Bonifacio Barrio Hijosa is ideal for proposing a broader and enriching experience, a more playful or in-depth reading, approaching the book in a different way. This, the second in the already long list of activities organized by the Gabriela Cendoya Bergareche Collection in San Telmo, has been intense, exciting and spectacular.
I hope the list is extended. From here, a thousand thanks to Juan Cires and San Telmo for the organization.
Third occasion to assist to this Dansu, Dansu, Dansu BookJockey Session by Juan Cires. It’s been two years and a pandemic since this same session took place in Granada. Last summer was not possible to organize it in San Telmo, but luckily they were able this year.
This time photobooks and public will meet at the church inside the Museum, a magnificent scenario for an event like this. It was also the place chosen by Julián Barón and Colin Pantall for their joint session, back in 2018.
Juan Cires will lead a BookJockey session on Japanese photobooks. Under the title Dansu Dansu Dansu, taken from a novel by Haruki Murakami, he will show us a selection of photography books of Japanese origin that, somehow, dance among themselves.
Dansu, Dansu, Dansu, by Juan Cires San Telmo Museoa Plaza Zuloaga, 1 saturday, August 28th, 2021 6 pm. San Sebastian, Spain
Cartel para Dansu Dansu Dansu de Juan Cires / Poster for Dansu Dansu Dansu by Juan Cires
Tercera ocasión para asistir a esta sesión BookJockey titulada Dansu, Dansu, Dansu, a cargo de Juan Cires. Han pasado dos años y una pandemia desde que esta misma sesión tuvo lugar en Granada. El verano pasado no fue posible organizarla en San Telmo, pero afortunadamente este año sí han podido.
Esta vez los fotolibros y el público se encontrarán en la iglesia del Museo, un escenario magnífico para un evento como este. También fue el lugar elegido por Julián Barón and Colin Pantall para sus sesión conjunta en 2018.
Juan Cires dirigirá una sesión de BookJockey sobre fotolibros japoneses. Bajo el título de Dansu Dansu Dansu, tomado de una novela de Haruki Murakami, nos mostrará una selección de libros de fotografía de origen japonés que, de alguna manera, bailan entre sí.
Dansu, Dansu, Dansu, by Juan Cires San Telmo Museoa Plaza Zuloaga, 1 sábado, 28 de agosto de 2021 18:00 h. San Sebastián-Donostia, España
Between November 2020 and April 2021 have been celebrated another two BookJockey Sessions in Zaragoza and Valencia, both in Spain, that I missed so I failed to announce them on time. I will back at them as soon as possible.
So, apparently, we are reaching the vaccination season retaking the last session we announced. But it is a mirage. This is what Laura C. Vela, Xirou Xiao and Miguel Aparicio are going to perform about:
«The piece is a “landscape” where images sound and words are seen. Three beings from different worlds, different trajectories and different “languages” causing the borders to dance and the breath to flow collectively.»
For more information check below the list of books they are going to play and the organizers website.
“El lago hierve, las olas mugen [The lake boils, the waves moo]”, by Laura C. Vela, Xirou Xiao and Miguel Aparicio Conde Duque, Hall c/ Conde Duque, 9 tuesday, April 13th, 2021 8:30 pm Madrid, Spain
Image for the BookJockey Session by Laura C. Vela, Miguel Aparicio and Xirou Xiao
Entre noviembre se 2020 y abril de 2021 se han celebrado otras dos sesiones BookJockey en Zaragoza y Valencia, ambas en España, que me he perdido y no he anunciado a tiempo. Volveré con ellas tan pronto me sea posible.
Así que parece que llegamos a la temporada de vacunación retomando la última sesión anunciada. Pero es un espejismo. Así nos dicen que va a ser su sesión Laura C. Vela, Xirou Xiao y Miguel Aparicio:
«La pieza es un “paisaje” donde las imágenes suenan y las palabras se ven. Tres seres de distintos mundos, distintas trayectorias y distintas “lenguas” haciendo que bailen las fronteras y el aliento fluya colectivamente.»
“El lago hierve, las olas mugen”, de Laura C. Vela, Xirou Xiao y Miguel Aparicio Conde Duque, Auditorio c/ Conde Duque, 9 martes, 13 de abril de 2021 20:30 h. Madrid, España
Book playlist / Lista de libros: El plátano hamaca, Salvador Arellano Edén, Bernardita Morello Utatane, Rinko Kawawuchi Universos, David Jiménez Contravisiones, Joan Fontcuberta Las simples cosas, Helena Goñi, Laia Sabaté, Maider Jiménez, Laura C. Vela Como la casa mía, Laura C. Vela Vorhandenheit, Laura C. Vela Un lugar de la mancha, Juan Valbuena Sentimental Journey, Nobuyoshi Araki Diario de la mirada, Bernard Noël La misión de la literatura, Han Yu The day-to-day life of Albert Hastings, KayLynn Deveney
BookJockey 