JB. INSTITUTE
It is a platform for creating publications or objects in close collaboration and with a personal approach with artists, writers or designers. Recurring themes can originate from skateboarding or music culture, documentary photography, painting or interventions in public space. Depending on the content, each publication, each object gets its own purpose and appearance and varies in the edition.
Founded originally in 2004 in the realm of electronic music in Berlin, publishing a music and art magazine in digital and print between 2006 and 2014, focusing on making zines, books, objects and art prints since then.
JB. Institute occasionally curates art shows, especially for the release of new publications.
Artists: Pierre Descamps, Dela Charles, Eriz Moreno, Tessa Perutz, Daniel Rich, Cody Hudson, Jeroen Erosie, Tim Head, Jenne Grabowski, Otto Grokenberger/Jim Jarmusch, Quentin Chambry, Tobias Bärmann, and more.
Photo book
256 Pages
240 Color photographs
Including Map
With a text by Franziska Schmidt
Hardcover
Cloth binding
13,5 x 18,0 cm
ISBN 978-3-00-071473-3
In his photographic work Berlin (America), Eriz Moreno shows all 30 places in the USA with the name Berlin and takes a surprising look at the subject of the road trip.
In his photographic projects, Spanish artist Eriz Moreno interweaves history and the present day, seeking to grasp the historical dimensions in landscapes shaped by humanity. Works such as Beton (Concrete), Transfăgărășan or Bratstvo / Jedinstvo visualize large-scale, built projects as symbols of national identity. To make Berlin (America), Moreno embarked on a journey to all thirty of America’s municipalities identified as “Berlin” on the map; a trip of 43 days and 21,394 kilometres across 27 states. In a sense, the American myth of the country’s settlement by immigrants from all over the world, including Germany, was founded here on the prairie. The outcome is a compendium of 2430 slides, with 81 motifs from each place. Other shots from the journey as well as a road-trip video documentary complete the project, generating their own pictorial spaces and visual moments: desolate scenes with characteristic motifs and colours that seem to resemble each other in a strange and somewhat irritating manner. Berlin (America) is like a journey into the open, with no beginning and no end. The book comprises 240 photographs and includes a text by Franziska Schmidt.
Texts by Richard Leydier, Iain Borden and Pierre Descamps
Hardcover
Offset Printing
21 x 29,7 cm
144 Pages, 78 images
Edition of 500
ISBN 978-3-00-069477-6
“Having started skateboarding in the late eighties, I cannot help seeing the city and its forms as an infinite playground – one eye constantly observing all the architectural forms. Steps cease to be steps, handrails cease to be handrails, sidewalks cease to be sidewalks. They all become abstract forms open to reinterpretation: they can be perceived as ready-made sculptures, or equally as an inventory of skateable forms.
In 2006, I spontaneously started taking photographs of architectural spaces that skaters could use. I soon realised that the most accomplished pictures recall specific codes of skateboarding photography. Their focus, lighting, and perspectives are arranged to magnify the space where the action is taking place.” Pierre Descamps
548 DAYS
Photo book
22 x 29 cm
96 pages, 72 images
Offset printing
Soft cover, swiss brochure, thread-stitching, open binding
includes 40 x 56 cm poster
In 548 DAYS, the photographer Dela Charles from Berlin shows a series of images collected on travels across Europe, USA, and Australia over the course of several months. In her work, she combines her view of architecture and urban structures with her experience as a skateboarder. An important aspect of her work includes her position as a female skateboarder in a still male-dominated scene. In essence, this may not be visible in her images, nor how much time and patience and perseverance goes into her work to make her view and engagement with a spot tangible.