About this Event
Join Ulises to celebrate the launch of the publication Ulises Carrión: Bookworks and Beyond, issued in conjunction with an exhibition of the same title, on view at Princeton University Library’s Milberg Gallery through June 13, 2024 and curated by Sal Hamerman and Javier Rivero Ramos.
The event features a conversation between Sal Hamerman; artist, publisher and curator Camilo Otero, and Ulises co-founders, reflecting on Carrión’s legacy and resonance across the contemporary field of artists’ publishing. The conversation will be followed by an informal activity to create and send mail art, featuring artists’ stamps and postcards inspired by Carrión’s own contributions to the transnational mail art networks of the 1970s and 1980s.
Taking cues from the networked, pluralistic and collaborative aspects of Carrión’s practice, this event expands outward from the exhibition and publication to more broadly what it means to make and circulate books as a cultural strategy.
Ulises Carrión: Bookworks and Beyond presents a richly illustrated, panoramic account of the life and work of multidisciplinary artist, publisher, curator, and cultural organizer Ulises Carrión (1941-1989). The publication highlights how he transformed conventional understandings of the book by reimagining it as a material, semiotic, and social platform capable of redefining the artist’s role in society. Carrión worked in a wide range of media: artists’ books, sound poetry, performance art, mail art, video art, theoretical writing, and exhibitions. In 1975, he founded Other Books & So, a trailblazing bookstore-gallery that became a hub for exhibiting and promoting artistic experiments taking place in Amsterdam and internationally, and serves as an inspiration and namesake for Ulises’ activities in Philadelphia. The book includes evocative and representative selection of the artist’s books, artworks, and ephemera, as well as new essays by Rivero Ramos, Hamerman, Felipe Becerra, Mónica de la Torre, and Zanna Gilbert, providing new critical interpretations and interdisciplinary perspectives on Carrión’s work.
Sal Hamerman (they/them) is a Metadata Librarian specializing in rare books at Princeton University Library. Their work draws upon their background in library and archival theory and practice to engage the histories and futures of artists’ publishing, artists’ networks, and alternative spaces of cultural work. Together with Javier Rivero Ramos, Sal co-curated the exhibition Ulises Carrión: Bookworks and Beyond and co-edited the accompanying catalog of the same title. They have also written chapters for the books Art’s Biggest Stage: Collecting the Venice Biennale (2019) and Library of the Printed Web: Collected Works, 2013–2017. They co-founded the artist-run projects Office Space 2 (New Brunswick, NJ, 2018–19) and the Cybernetics Library (New York, 2017–), and co-organize the experimental music series Spindrift (Philadelphia, 2023-).
Camilo Otero (he/him) is the Artist Programs Manager at the Center for Book Arts in New York City. At CBA, he works closely with artists, curators, poets, and educators to offer a diverse program of exhibitions, public programs, and Artist Residency programs.
Otero has been deeply involved with the artist book scene in Spain and Colombia for the last decade curating exhibitions, organizing artist residencies, and publishing artist books.
He has an MFA in Contemporary Art History and Visual Culture by Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía and an MBA in Cultural Management by Universidad Complutense in Spain.
In 2015, Otero co-founded Calipso Press—a small risograph printing studio and publishing label focused on artists’ books and publications based in Cali, Colombia.
Event registration is encouraged.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Ulises, 1525 North American Street, Philadelphia, United States
USD 0.00
