Book[e]lab is an independent multidisciplinary project specializing in small-run editions. We work both in the field of curatorial and educational activities, as well as within our own artistic practice.
Our team provide spesialized education in the field of contemporary art and book design, with over 10 years of teaching experience. We are collaborating with the Rodchenko Artschool, GES-2, Garage Museum, Higher School of Economics (HSE), Momma, Zotov Center and other cultural and educational institutions.
Books created in the Book [Embodiment] Lab regularly receive awards in Russian and international competitions and are part of the collections of the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow Museum of Modern Art, ART4 Museum, Ground Solyanka gallery, PennLAB gallery, as well as private collections in Russia, England, Canada, Scotland, China, and elsewhere. We foster a professional community among students and graduates of our laboratory and continue to exchange experiences. We actively participate in photobook festivals, fairs and exhibitions.
The project highlights the territorial conflict between the urban development machine and the needs of a large municipal shelter, hosting several thousand animals. This conflict is an example of the gentrification phenomenon in the realities of modern Russia. In a series of photographs Veronika poses several questions: do domesticated animals have the right to preserve their temporary habitat? Can an entity that has significant power put its interests forward and ignore the needs of a weaker one? Trubnikova manages to expose this conflict by displaying three sides of the story: - the expanding city, - volunteers and their work, - and dogs themselves. Many images were taken from the animals’ perspective, conveying their states. Veronika often anthropomorphizes dogs that have become human companions over a long history of coexistence. The project is released as a photobook with images of dogs that became the main characters of the story. The book comes with an accompanying booklet shedding more light on the shelter and the city, as well as the volunteers’ narrative and the feelings they share when talking about each dog they have been taking care of.
«Wool» paper was chosen for the book cover, tactile and visually prickly. Pages are printed on recycled paper with inclusions. The book is black and white, partially copying the way animals see, as well as addressing to the visual language of volunteer forums: a black-and-white image means the loss of an animal.
soft cover 240 x 320 mm. 64 pages print run of 100 copies, including 25 in english Moscow, 2022
Safari is a personal diary of visual impressions received while traveling in a foreign country. The basis of the project contains intimate experiences of the close connection that exists between people and the environment. A series of lonely characters with blurred shapes, reminiscent of wild animals, are alternated with randomly snatched fragments of cities and deserted roads. Time and geography are relative here.
Hard cover 150х200 mm. 80 pages print run of 30 copies Moscow 2021
paper: remake eco 120 g/m2
Olga Andreeva According to the information received
Photobook-guide from archival materials concerning the subject of aircraft hijackings in the USSR (1954–1991). An attempt to explore the symbolic space of international borders and their imagined crossing by Soviet citizens who dreamed of leaving “the place of oppression” and raved about the “freedom” of the Western way of life. In order to achieve it, all one had to do was to get the plane to fly in the right direction. My interest lies in how a closed society affects the political imagination of its inhabitants and, moreover, shapes the specific relationship between citizens and the state.
hard cover 150 x 190 mm. 112 pages Print run of 60 copies, Moscow, 2021
Produced with the support of the Fotobookmarket Dummy Award book dummy award, Moscow, 2021, where the dummy was shortlisted.
Sophie Pankevich Shelter
In this photobook I explore the theme of shelter. When I encounter a traumatizing experience, I often want to hide, to remain unseen, to step back from painful feelings. Nature has become a space of safety for me. I started to photograph myself and others, trying to find our place in it.
Working on this series, I unconsciously was hiding people's faces placing them into natural landscapes. That way they started to look like frozen sculptures camouflaged in the surrounding environment. These figures are so organically inscribed in its shelters - they may remain unnoticed. My self-portraits, in turn, are filled with uneasiness and anxiety. Through them I work with my negative states which make me want to look for shelter. The question that arises in this series: can you really find shelter from yourself?
soft cover 144х195 мм 48 pages Print run of 15 copies Moscow, 2022
Within the Laboratory, we provide support in developing the book's concept, assistance in selecting printing house, as well as professional preparement of printing layout
We offer various forms of collaboration:
- participation in regular intensive course consisting of 9 meetings - full cycle of book creation in collaboration with the author, from the initial idea to support during printing - individual mentoring consultations
When we first checked out our new headphones, we noticed the box said 'improved bass by cool. We had to wonder, is this marketing jargon, or the real thing? But it only took a moment to realize that bass was not kidding.