Elisabeth Tonnard

A new work titled ‘Geldermalsen riots’, consisting of two images, is published in Printed Web #4, to be launched in Berlin next week. Above is a view of one of the images. The publication has a broadsheet size and is constructed of loose sheets folded into each other. Every participating artist (see below) worked with the two sides of one sheet only.

The background of the piece: On December 16, 2015 there were riots in Geldermalsen, a village in The Netherlands close to where I live. The rioters wanted to disturb a local council meeting where plans for a big center for refugees were discussed. After the riots the police asked people to send in any pictures they might have of this evening. A series of these was placed on the police website. Faces were made partly unrecognizable and an unusual strategy was announced: anyone who recognized themselves could come forward now, or else their pictures would be shown unblurred on tv later. The strategy worked, 9 out of 10 came forward. The pictures are now gone from the website.

Printed Web #4 presents projects by Wolfgang Plöger, Lorna Mills, Molly Soda, Travess Smalley, Angela Genusa, Eva and Franco Mattes, Anouk Kruithof, Elisabeth Tonnard, and  Christopher Clary, with a text by Rhizome artistic director Michael Connor (“Folding the Web”). Each artist contributed work that responds to the concept of privacy in relation to contemporary self-identity and public visibility. The 40-page print-on-demand newsprint publication is co-published by Paul Soulellis with the International Center of Photography Museum on the occasion of “Public, Private, Secret” (June 2016 – January 2017), the inaugural exhibition at the museum’s new location at 250 Bowery, organized by curator-in-residence Charlotte Cotton.

Printed Web #4 will launch at Miss Read, Berlin Art Book Fair at Akademie der Künste, Berlin (June 10–12) and be on display at ICP during its opening week (week of June 20).