UW-Green Bay to host international symposium on artists’ periodicals

The University of Wisconsin-Green Bay will host an international event dedicated to a unique artistic medium June 2-4 on campus, 2420 Nicolet Drive.

“The Territories of Artists’ Periodicals,” an international symposium, seeks to provide a venue for dialogue between researchers, artists, publishers, archivists, librarians and others interested in artists’ periodicals in order to bring into focus the many issues and themes that make up the contents of these publications.

The event is the first symposium of its kind devoted to artists’ periodicals in the U.S., said Stephen Perkins, conference co-organizer and curator of UW-Green Bay’s Lawton Gallery.

“Artists’ periodicals are part of a larger movement in which experimental artists began seeking new venues to show their experimental and conceptual artworks, and these periodicals provided an alternative printed matter space in which to showcase these works,” Perkins said. “They can be distinguished from traditional art periodicals because rather than being sites for the reproduction of artworks, artists’ periodicals function as the primary sites for the realization and production of artworks. The periodical format itself becomes the artistic medium.”

Perkins is co-organizing the symposium with Marie Boivent, a faculty member at the Universite of Rennes, France. Presenters and attendees include individuals from Italy, the United Kingdom and across the United States, and the conference will include a Skype interview with artist Felipe Ehrenberg, who lives and works in Brazil.

Registration for the 3-day conference costs just $25, Perkins notes, making it an affordable option for members of the campus and greater Green Bay communities who wish to learn more about the medium.

“We hope to explore the characteristics of these periodicals and begin to sketch out a topology and history of these fascinating publications,” Perkins said. “Participants to the symposium will also have access to a substantial archive of artists’ periodicals, which will also provide a locus for discussion.”

The idea for the symposium arose last summer, the result of correspondence and collaboration between Perkins and Boivent, both of whom wrote their Ph.D. dissertations on the subject of artists’ periodicals. The event was international in scope from the beginning, Perkins said, and individuals from a number of different countries submitted proposals for consideration. The symposium will include presentations and panel discussions on myriad aspects of artists’ periodicals.

Perkins blogs about artists’ periodicals at http://artistsperiodicals.blogspot.com/. For more information about the symposium, interested parties can contact him or Boivent at symposium.artistsperiodicals@gmail.com. Registration is available online at https://outreach.uwgb.edu/ei/getdemo.ei?id=37&s=_3JK0IF8TU.

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