We're back! As you probably know, last week we were at the Frankfurt Book Fair. Among other things, to find new distribution channels for Belio and our books. Through our facebook site we were daily posting about our experience at the fair. But now is time to resume and say our balance: Positive. And we hope to say "very positive" at the end of the year.

Apart from contacts with publishers and other professionals that may establish some collaboration in the future, the most immediate are those contacts with booksellers and distributors in countries where even now our scope was very limited. If everything goes on the right track for the end of this year our books may be found in stores in Japan, France and United Kingdom, apart from adding a new set of libraries in the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium. We come back euphoric with the great compliments that we received as new exhibitor, but also wasted after seven days of intense work, setting up and having meetings, etc. We will keep you informed...

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From 6 to 10 October will be held the Frankfurter Buch Messe, the largest book fair in the world. As its name indicates, it takes place in the German city of Frankfurt and Argentina is the Guest of Honour this year.

For the very first time Belio will be come to this kind of mecca of the publishing world to promote the work of its artists, find new distribution channels for our books and present the new editions that will be launch in the coming months.

The stand has been decorated by the Mexican artist Saner, our dear Die Young 008, and have been supported by welfare and cultural assitance from Arte y Derecho Foundation and the VEGAP.

As we mentioned earlier October is packed with activities. The Italian magazine FEFÉ and the IED from Rome have invited Belio to take part in their second edition of Belvedere Festival. A meeting point where to talk about visual magazines, the power of images in communications and the new languages. But also it's possible to meet the editorial staff of international magazines at work, flip through about a hundred titles from the best creative publishing and webzine. The new edition will also invite art-book publishing houses; conferences and meetings with experts from various fields; an event linked to the vinyl and ceramic toys phenomena; sound design events with the music of radiofefe.com. There will be also an opening event and a final party, etc... An unfailing appointment for Communication and Visual Artists and professionals. From Friday 22 until Saturday 23 of October Belio will be offering a experimental-design workshop at IED (via Alcamo 11. Rome).

It's really rare that we talk about the fashion world in Belio, yet there are already many publications dedicated to this field. And by other side there are few fashion designers who draw our attention. The proposals that concern us are those that transcend the boundaries and mix fashion with pure art, graphics and/or video. In this sense Gareth Pugh is probably our favorite designer, which we already talked about in an extensive article in Belio 026: Party. And if you don't want to lose the track, here is his new spring/summer 2011 collection, presented with such a wonderful video directed by Ruth Hogben:

Some of you already know her work through the pages of our magazine, as we published a long article on Belio 027: Wildlife where we introduced the work of Nicola Costantino. A world full of references to the film culture, in which fiction and reality blend to raise important ethical questions. As we mentioned in that article the work of Nicola does not make a judgment, it doesn't condemn the human behavior, but recreates an event where she plays the main role in order to show and let the viewers draw their own conclusions. Next Friday, October 1 her new work is presented at the Gallery Sicart in Barcelona.

In Trailer, her latest production, in which her motherhood takes center stage, reprises her sculptural experience to replicate herself and build on her double. Nicola comments us: "The double has its mythological origin in stagnant waters: where we see ourselves reflected, we recognize ourselves. The mirror allows self-knowledge. The Doppelgänger shows a broad literary and cinematographic past. From Romanticism, with Hoffman’s Medardus, Stevenson’s Dr Jekyll and Wilde’s Dorian Gray until nowadays with De Palma’s Body Double and Kieslówski’s The double life of Veronique. It is in the double where the concept of psychoanalysis identification is based; Freud defined: The double is the ominous, this is to say, the unknown familiar, something we know so deeply that feels strange and becomes horrifying. Jung said, the double is the Shadow. According to Swedish playwright Strindberg, if one can see his own double it means that he is going to die. The artifact Nicola exists by the work of my own creation; her distortion reinforces my identity. Two bodies, a single soul. The best encounter is with oneself; my double is the antidote against loneliness, a strange living corpse. My Doppelgänger, identical to me but not pregnant, interacts with me as if she was pregnant. She seems to be split off the original Nicola, and she eventually becomes threatening and perverse". The show will be open until the 19th of November.

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As always October is packed with interesting events, concerts, exhibitions, fairs, etc. And if you want to start planning your agenda here comes a suggestion, one of our favorite annual proposals: The Emerging Art Fair Preview Berlin held parallel to Art Forum Berlin. But also this year will coincide with the first urban art fair in Berlin: Stroke.03.

Antonio Santín - Wilde Gallery

Preview Berlin is the Berlin-based platform for a young generation of national and international galleries and project spaces. The aim of the organizers is to present ambitious, young art, still in its early stage, to the international art scene. Since 2007, the fair is being held at Berlin’s Tempelhof Airport, which is the most impressive stage for an exciting art exhibition. This year the list of exhibitors include Galerie Zuid (BE), Galerie Ilka Bree (FR), Galerie Deschler (DE), Hunchentoot (DE), Jarmuschek + Partner (DE), Kunsthaus Erfurt (DE), Loop – Raum für Aktuelle Kunst (DE), Wagner + Partner (DE), Wilde Gallery (DE), Patrick Heide Contemporary Art (GB), G/P gallery (JP), MKgalerie (NL), the Spanish Art Nueve, Galería Full_Art, Rosa Santos and Pilar Serra Gallery, among many other international galleries. You can find more information at: www.previewberlin.de

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To say that Berlin is one of the capitals of urban art is true because the amount of artists that pass through to leave their trace in its walls. But it is also true that the local street art scene is rather poor. From a critical point of view, the berliners urban artists that are really interesting could be counted with the fingers of one hand, maybe both hands (I'm sure this statement will certainly bring over a lot of controversy). And the same could be said for "urban art galleries", in this case i have enough with one single hand. That said, Jaybo Monk is one of those first fingers of the artists-hand and Circle Culture Gallery is one of the first fingers of the galleries-hand. And they work together, or let say that Circle Culture presents the new solo-show of Jaybo:

Jaybo Monk ran away from his house in southern France, settling in Berlin-Kreuzberg at the beginning of the 1980’s, where he busied himself as a graffiti writer, street actor and hip-hop musician. When he founded the streetwear label Irie Daily and the cultural magazine Style at the beginning of the 1990’s, his influence on Berlin’s youth culture could be clearly seen. Even today, urban subculture is the driving force behind his artistic activities. The new works presented at Hazardous Brushstrokes explore how the process of painting becomes uncontrollable and takes on a life of its own. The opening will be the next thursday 30 at 19 h. And the show will last until November 11.

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Yesterday we had the chance to enjoy one of those parties that we love at Belio: Martian dubstep with 64bit sound by electronic-beasts like Eprom, Puzzle or Lakritze. But we also had the opportunity to reconnect with Marcel from MFO, who took care of adding the perfect synaesthetic touch to the whole experience, I mean: great visuals plenty of good ideas and a minimalist style, signs of the personal identity of this German video artist. Here we introduce you his most recent video Multitude Solitude, a perfect example:

MFO was founded in 2001 as VJ solo project of Marcel Weber. In the following years MFO experimented itself into the form of a group by varying collaborations. They performed at festivals like Clubtransmediale (Berlin), Paysages Electroniques (Lille), Sperm Festival (Prague) or TodaysArt (Den Haag) among many other venues where they played as VJ. He also won the VJ award of the International Videofestival Bochum in 2008. Furthermore MFO participated in theatre productions as a video designer. I.e. at the Opera national de Paris, at the Akademie der Künste Berlin (academy of arts Berlin), at Sophiensaele Berlin and at the Brut Theatre in Vienna. Last but not least Marcel also collaborated in different occasions with one of our favorite music projects: Hecq. You can find different videos and performance at his vimeo profile.

Zimoun's sound sculptures and installations are graceful, mechanized works of playful poetry, their structural simplicity opens like an industrial bloom to reveal a complex and intricate series of relationships, an ongoing interplay between the “artificial” and the “organic”.

23 prepared dc-motors, grid.


Zimoun is interested in the artistic research of simple and elegant systems to generate and study complex behaviours in sound and motion. He creates sound pieces from basic components, often using multiples of the same prepared mechanical elements to examine the creation and degeneration of patterns.


25 woodworms, wood, microphone, sound system.

Sound installation based on live sounds of woodworms.



24 Sound contributions, speakers in automat.

A speaker membrane is fittet behind each of the 24 shutters, playing a single sound contribution by a sound artists. By opening a shutter, the sound behind it becomes louder and thus more distinctive. The volume is regulated by light sensors. At most three shutters (one per vertical row) may be opened at any time. These combination possibilities allow for 728 different sounds/sound mixes. When all shutters are closed, the soft collective sound of the automat can be heard.

The daily life, the stress, the job, the work hours, the unpaid overtime and the return to home through a city full of gray hives, buildings and more buildings under construction that will expand the outskirts of the city build up the gray routine which artists such as Ivan Larra try to escape, either through the brushes, photography or screen printing inks. Larra's work is like a brick that does not fit into its place, a tribute to the poetic details of the urban life, a reinterpretation of this landscape constantly under construction.

Under the title Building up a wasted landascape, Larra presents his new works, whose evolution goes through a reunion with the color and reaffirmation of his content: that passion for the industrial world around us. On Thursday 23, 20:00 h. there will be the opening of his new exhibition at The Brocense (Cáceres).

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If you haven’t yet been able to visit the Saner, Dhear and Neuzz exhibition at Montana Gallery in Barcelona, here we show you a photo-report where you can discover the new art works of these three urban artists from Mexico.

Dhear's art-works

Saner presents a collection of inedit works, paintings and ink illustrations. Dhear shows digital prints and paints full of amazing details to get lost inside. Neuzz surprises us with their creations in three dimensions. And of course the three left their sign on the walls of the gallery in the form of graffiti.

Come and see, here at our web-site, or at the 6th Comerç street in Barcelona until October the 11th.

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Some of you may think that lately we got into a kind of obsession with art installations and art made with lights. But in fact we have always considered ourselves lovers of the art that offers you a complete immersion for all the senses. In this sense the contemporary art (the one to live and enjoy right now) has an incredible wealth and health in terms of artists dedicated to installations as art. This is certainly a discipline wide open to all kinds of influences, and consequently its results are hybrids of video art, sculpture, architecture, light-art... In other words this kind of proposals are closest to the idea of Gesamtkunstwerk.

Installation by Carsten Höller

The next October 6, LABoral open Passages. Travels in Hyper-Space, a selection of works from the Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary (TB A21), shown for the first time in Spain. Composed mainly of installations and large-scale works, the exhibition has been designed to encourage a contemplative journey by reintroducing the viewer into the heart of the artistic experience, and proposes an immersive journey to a perceptual dimension that turns on the physical, the sensual and the brain activity. The exhibition is curated by Daniela Zyman and Benjamin Weil, features works by Ai Weiwei, Doug Aitken, Haluk Akakçe, Janet Cardiff & George Bures Miller, Maurizio Cattelan, Olafur Eliasson, Michael Elmgreen & Ingar Dragset, Carsten Höller, The Carpenters, Carsten Nicolai, Olaf Nicolai, Sergio Prego and Pipilotti Rist among many others, and can be enjoyed until February 21, 2011.

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Sometimes we publish short reports on our website with the simple aim of not forgetting something or someone. And this is the case that we present you today, the artist: Yann Travailler. We discovered his tattoos years ago, but casually we have never found the right time to introduce them to our readers. Therefore, it won't be surprising if you have already seen his work on skin elsewhere. Especially for those who feel interested in the tattoo culture.

The French Travailler has become famous among tattoo artists precisely because his uncommon style. Indeed it would be difficult to find a label (old-school, new-school, traditional, tribal, realism...) to define him because he simply has created a unique style. His work is defined mainly by the use of the line on the skin as if it would be pencil on paper. In other words, his tattoos have the appearance of sketches made directly on skin or scratches made of ink. His work is also characterized by the reduced use of color (red and black), calligraphy, abstract experiments, hearts and sketched characters. His career has been following the same guidelines in the last years, but probably it continues surprising more than one person.

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Tokujin Yoshioka is one of the most important designers of the current Japanese scene. His work ranges from the design of objects to spaces, including the creation of art works and installations for museums and galleries.

Sensing Nature

Born in Saga, Japan in 1967.  Worked under Shiro Kuramata in 1987 and Issey Miyake since 1988 and established his own studio, Tokujin Yoshioka Design in 2000. He has done many projects with Issey Miyake for nearly 20 years such as shop design and installation for A-POC.  Also, he has collaborated with various companies in and outside Japan such as HERMES, TOYOTA, BMW, KDDI, SWAROVSKI, and other noted ones.

Some of his most important works are displayed as a part of permanent collections in the world's well-known museums such as Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, Centre National d'Art et de Culture Georges Pompidou, Victoria and Albert Museum, Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum and Vitra Design Museum. 

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As we commented on Monday, last week visited the Caprice Horn Gallery and we wanted to dedicate an entire post about the solo-show of Chul-Hyun Ahn, which takes place until January 16 in Berlin. Trained originally as a painter in Korea, he moved on to adding a three dimensionality to his works-essentially he is translating geometric painting into an art of light, space and technology.

Chul-Hyun Ahn combines plywood, cast concrete, cinder block, mirrors and lights in arrangements with spectacular results. The use of one or two way mirrors, creates a depth such that the observer feels he is staring into infinity or dropping down the rabbit hole similar to Alice (in Wonderland). Ahn is not the first artist to combine art with technology, experimenting with human perception and relationships of space and time. Recent exhibitions of light based art demonstrate the vast panoply of ways in which artists have used light as a medium. Bruce Nauman, Ivan Navarro, Keith Sonnier, James Turrell, Olafur Eliasson, Daniel Canogar, etc. Ahn achieves the impossible creating an art-object of meditation, inviting the viewer to a quiet contemplation.

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The next Thursday, September the 16th, will be the opening of the group show "México D.F. Postgraffiti new aesthetic"at Montana Gallery in Barcelona. The exhibition presents the work of three Mexican artists: Saner (whom we dedicated the book Die Young 008), Dhear (you could read an interesting interview with him in the next Belio 032) and Neuzz.

The exhibition can be visited from September the 17th to October the 11th at the gallery runned by the Montana Colors’ crew at the 6th Comerç Street in Barcelona. The opening will be a day earlier at 19:30 pm. We hope to see you all there.

During the same days of the show we will offer at our online store the Saner's book for the special price of 14 euros, giving away also a mini spray 30ml keychain of Montana Colors and a collection of stickers with each order.

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Last Friday we spent the evening at the openings that took place in the Gallery District of Berlin. More than a dozen of galleries clustered in different buildings of the streets Rudi-Dutschke Str., Linden Str. and Markgrafen Str. agree to hold an opening night for their respective exhibitions. That turns the night into a great event where the public, glass in hand, walks from one gallery to another. Here you have a visual resume of those galleries and artists who drew our attention:

James Clar at Caprice Horn galerie

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The english electronic music producer Tom Jenkinson, best known for publishing his works on Warp Records as Squarepusher, has presented his new project: a band called Shobaleader One. Here you have their first video clip and an interesting interview.

What is Shobaleader One?
Shobaleader One is my band. Last summer a bunch of kids got in contact with me. They were talking about forming an ensemble, which I thought was a ridiculous idea but I was impressed by their perseverance so we met up. Their idea was that they wanted the 'fantasy group' I had written about in connection with 'Just A Souvenir' to become a real entity that would record and tour. So we had a go at doing some recording and the story so far is documented on this record.

Who is in the band?
Basically a bunch of people who you may or may not have heard of from other bands and projects. Part of their idea is that this music is a completely clean break with whatever they've done in the past so I'm not allowed to mention any names. I can tell you that they are pretty frightening players.

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Yesterday, the english electronic music producer Russ Chimes published the third and final chapter in the videographic trilogy "Midnight Club EP". After having seen the first video, titled: Never Look Back, few weeks ago, Russ left us with the intrigue of how would end this love and revenge story.

PART 1: NEVER LOOK BACK



We have found very original the idea of creating this mini-serial to present Russ Chimes’ work. For this purpose he had been working with the film maker Saman Keshavarz and the screenwriter Nate Eggert. Enjoy it!

PART 2: TERTRE ROUGE




PART 3: TARGA

Today we bring you an artistic curiosity from the world of the most cloying and tacky-trendy pop music, and never better said: The American artist Will Cotton, which was featured in a special article at Belio 019, the Alice in Wonderland issue, was the artist commissioned to create the cover of Katy Perry's latest album, Teenage Dream.

His collaboration had not been only that. He has also created a kind of Candyfornia for the video single "California Girls" filmed by the director Matthew Cullen, where Katy Perry is half Alice and half pin-up and is accompanied by nothing more and nothing less than the rapper Snopp Dogg.

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