The Quarantine Series Book

The Quarantine Series Book is published in association with the Quarantine Series exhibitions programme, held between June, 2003, and June, 2004, in the Quarantine Building in Amsterdam.

Quarantine Series has presented a dynamic programme focused on visual art, sound art, pop culture, film, video, fashion, typography and graphic design. This idiosyncratic programming is not a forced attempt to challenge prevailing hierarchies between high art and popular culture, but stemmed from an inclusive way of thinking and living, based on personal interests and enthusiasm.

This book is comprised of four segments interspersed throughout the book, which can be looked at and read in random order. You can, for example, begin with the photographs of the six solo exhibitions we organized, then leaf through the series’ of photographs of the various events. You could also read the texts first, beginning with curator Nina Folkersma’s article on the Quarantine Series’ principles and objectives, followed by statements by a number of international curators of contemporary art institutes. Oscar van den Boogaard’s literary contribution – a tale of war, love and a fear of the world losing its shine – can be read at any time, or over and over again. The final text, by Peter Bil’ak, talks about the design of letters and fonts and is a good introduction to the last section of the book, which includes the Quarantine Series (printed) invitations, which in themselves served as something of an additional exhibition space: for new typography. The credits and acknowledgements for the project have been cast in a new form, in the centre of the book: a network structure with the names of all those who have, in one way or another, been involved with Quarantine Series.

The Quarantine Series Book offers an opportunity to get acquainted with work of artists who are already well-known internationally and who all produced a new work especially for the project space of Quarantine Series. Furthermore the book contributes to the debate about innovative exhibition models for contemporary art. On the basis of the experiences of Quarantine Series and other related art institutes (for instance Palais de Tokyo, Paris) the discussion about the exhibition space as a ‘social area’ is pursued.

The book contains a text by curator Nina Folkersma, interviews with Thomas Michelon, Macha Roesink, Jerôme Sans and Jan Winkelmann, a literary contribution by Oscar van den Boogaard and a text about typedesign by Peter Bil’ak.

Finally, the book presents a state of art of Dutch typography, designed by one of Holland’s most promising graphic designers: Luna Maurer. The design of the book is based upon the printed invitations of the Quarantine Series. These invitations consisted of coloured A4 sheets with a different, yet unpublished typeface by a typedesigner living in The Netherlands. The invitations were part of the exhibition program, serving as an additional ‘exhibition space’ for typography.

Editors: Nina Folkersma, Femke Lutgerink, Luna Maurer
Design: Luna Maurer
Size: A4, 168 pages
ISBN 90-8546-025-5, 2005
PRICE: € 29,95

Published by Artimo, Amsterdam, 2005
Distribution by Idea Books