Giorgia Basch BILDERATLAS Michela Palermo PALERMO PUBLISHING

ARCHIVES AND ARTISTS'

BOOKS

COLLECTIVE MEMORIES AND DIALOGICAL DEVICES

a conversation

JANUARY 25TH, 4 PM   THE ART CHAPTER, BASE, MILAN

This conversation, part of The Art Chapter art book fair 2025, will explore the potential of the artist's book and the use of image archives in contemporary practice. These tools, fundamental to the study and activation of collective memory, will be analysed by comparing two significant experiences. The panel will begin with Giorgia Basch's work Al cerchio delle tue mani, a book dedicated to the photographic oeuvre of author Bibi Tomasi, which traces the history of the Italian feminist movement through the image archives of the Libreria delle donne di Milano (Milan Women’s Bookstore Collective). The volume is published by BilderAtlas. In parallel, Michela Palermo will present Whereupon and Whereupon, Turmoil, respectively a photobook and a fanzine developed from the archives of Allen Frame, an American photographer, writer and theatre director who documented the New York art scene of the 1980s. The books are published by Palermo Publishing.

Through the dialogue between the two speakers, the conversation will explore how artists' books can reinterpret archival materials, transforming them into visual narratives that span different eras and contexts. The ways in which these works become dialogical devices capable of linking past and present will be analysed, proposing new critical perspectives on social, political and cultural frameworks. Finally, the panel will offer a space for shared reflection on the role of the artist's book, understood in its broadest sense as a publishing device that re-elaborates and amplifies an artist's production, and as a dynamic and relational tool capable of constructing collective memories and activating new relationships between authors, archives and the public.

Giorgia Basch (1992) is the founding director of BilderAtlas, engaged in curation, creative direction, publishing and cultural research from an interdisciplinary perspective. With BilderAtlas she publishes the series Eight Poems by, dedicated to the work of contemporary women visual artists. She has held managerial roles in fashion and advertising communications, and has directed a wide number of photographic series with international artists. In the academic field, she holds an MA Summa Cum Laude with Distinction in Visual Cultures and Curatorial Practices from the Brera Academy of Fine Arts in Milan. She is currently a lecturer at Istituto Marangoni.

 Michela Palermo (1980) is a photographer, visual artist and founder of Palermo Publishing, a platform that explores publishing as an artistic practice. With a background in political science, critical theory and gender studies, her work focuses on representation in contemporary societies and its connection to the visual arts. In 2022 she founded Palermo Publishing to combine publishing and curatorial practices, collaborating with artists such as Lucia Pescador (IT), Dietmar Busse (DE) and Allen Frame (US). Palermo Publishing reflects her commitment to the intersection of publishing, art and critical thinking, promoting contemporary visual narratives, poetics and reflections.