Rooftop Press

Founded by artists Timo Vaittinen and Tuukka Kaila, Rooftop Press explores publishing as a platform for artistic expression and collaborative work. We are interested in exploring how publications can have a meaningful presence in the contemporary art ecosystem. We use the platform for working closely with other artists to investigate the potential of publishing in relation to their practice and to help realise works intended for book form. We also treat the initiative as a framework for our own artist's publications. Rooftop Press maintains a micro-press in Helsinki with facilities for risoprinting, perfect binding and finishing. With changing partners, Rooftop organises an international artist-publishers' event Bookies to help strengthen the position and increase understanding of publishing as artistic practice within the Finnish contemporary art landscape.

Anastasia Khodyreva & Elina Suoyrjö, Aquatic Encounters. A glossary of hydrofeminisms, Rooftop Press, 2024, © Anastasia Khodyreva & Elina Suoyrjö

Aquatic Encounters grew out of a two-year research project carried out as reading and discussion sessions dreaming of more just aquatic conditions and relations. The publication combines artistic and scholarly methods of critical inquiry to open up the concept of hydrofeminism in the contexts of contemporary art practices, ecofeminism and feminist new materialisms. It challenges normative Western conceptions of waters and bodies we inhabit, while allying with concrete bodies of water. As a glossary, Aquatic Encounters provides a practical tool for accessing and implementing hydrofeminist thought.

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Highway presents 168 collages made with Xerox machines and publications in Helsinki University Library, Brooklyn Central Public Library, The Stockholm Public Library and Bibliotheek Sint-Gillis in Brussels between 2013 and 2016.

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