Distanz Publishing – förlag

Rethinking Art from the Inside OutThe Austrian artist Maria Lassnig (b. Kappel am Krappfeld, 1919; d. Vienna, 2014) and the Norwegian painter Edvard Munch (b. Løten, 1863; d. Ekely, Oslo, 1944) were equals in the radical and unsparing scrutiny of their own selves. Each also had a ­singular way of handling paint as a means of their art and powerful medium for expression of emotions like grief, love, loneliness, trepidation, joy, pain, or also for physical levels of perception. The richly illustrated volume accompanies the grand double exhibition of these two exceptional artists’ oeuvres. Released on occasion of the exhibitions at Hamburger Kunsthalle and Kunsthaus Zürich, it presents intimate insights into the artists’ works, highlighting parallels as well as differences between what are arguably two of the most celebrated oeuvres in more recent art history. With writings by Andreas Eriksson, ­Sandra Gianfreda, Sheela Gowda, Johanna Hornauer, Hans Dieter Huber, Siri Hustvedt, ­Brigitte Kölle, Maria Lassnig, Edvard Munch, Johanna Ortner, Ulrike Ottinger, Ashley Hans Scheirl, Luc Tuymans, and others.

“Finishing it is then the job of the human hand.”—Albert OehlenAlbert Oehlen’s (b. Krefeld, 1954; lives and works between Gais, La Palma, and Los Angeles) first Computer Paintings were made with the assistance of a notebook computer he had bought in 1990. The painter used it to sketch initial drawings he then transferred to the canvas in several series beginning in the 1990s. The constrained pixel aesthetic imposed by the technology with its aliasing and block effects became a consequential point of departure for a strand in his oeuvre that veers between cool austerity and a proliferating diversity of forms. It seems more relevant than ever in light of today’s debates around the use of artificial intelligence in art.The publication Computer Paintings accompanies the exhibition at Hamburger Kunsthalle and documents the eponymous body of work by Albert Oehlen, which has rarely been on public view. With an essay by the director Alexander Klar.

In Search of the Ideal ShapeConstantin Brancusi (b. Hobița, Romania, 1876; d. Paris, 1957) ranks among the pre-eminent modernist sculptors and has exercised a defining influence over generations of contemporary artists. Having completed his academic training in Romania, he set out at the age of twenty-eight for a tour of Europe before settling in Paris. Organic and stripped down to the essential, his works establish him as a pioneer of sculptural abstraction in the early twentieth century. Brancusi’s persistent pursuit of a creative ideal is manifest in the formal variations of a few motifs and his playful exploration of diverse materials and surfaces. He deftly used specific pedestals, lighting, and movement as well as photography and film to dramatize his sculptures. The retrospective at the Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin—produced in cooperation with the Centre Pompidou, Paris—is accompanied by this comprehensive catalogue, which sheds light on the manifold facets of Brancusi’s oeuvre: it features major works from international collections as well as views of his studio. Photographs of the artist from his personal collection round out the extensive plate section. With an introduction by Ariane Coulondre; and other essays by Nina Schallenberg on Brancusi’s staging of his works, and Maike Steinkamp on the reception of his art in Europe

Sigmar Polke (1941–2010) has been hailed as one of the world’s preeminent artists of the twentieth century. In his oeuvre, Polke worked through experiences of war, militarization and forced migration, and reflected on the image and the mass media in which it circulated. Taking an interest early on in the visual information contained in pictures and their agency, Polke set standards that younger generations of artists continue to emulate, and his work remains as relevant as ever—what might seem its historic dimension in fact turns out to speak directly to present-day concerns.Beneath the Cobblestones, the Earth is the catalogue for the exhibition devoted to Sigmar Polke at the Fondation Vincent van Gogh Arles. Bice Curiger, curator of the exhibition and a specialist in Polke’s work, is editing the book. It gathers paintings, photographs, and films plus graphic art from 1960 to 2009 to illustrate the multifaceted quality of the artist’s output, which is informed by astute observations and powerful creative choices that reflect the artist’s sense of irony and love of experimentation. One focus of the selection of works is on the political dimension of Polke’s oeuvre; he was an exacting analyst of the world around him and commented critically on politics, art, and history.

A World After the AnthropoceneWhat comes after the Anthropocene? Can we depart from our human-centered perspective to build a future for the benefit of all species? What tools and techniques might help us get there? These are the questions investigated by the long-term interdisciplinary project Interspecies Future, which brings together perspectives from art, science, and technology to explore what this future might look like. First initiated in 2022 by LAS Art Foundation, this project explores new pathways for planetary thinking and collective intelligence. With more than 60 contributions, this interactive reader is the first book to provide an extensive foundation of key concepts, debates, and case studies that propose ways to re-frame, repair, and re-imagine interspecies relations. Interspecies Future: A Primer draws on recent advancements in planetary computation and machine learning, new discoveries in non-human intelligence, as well as post-human theory and Indigenous knowledge. The publication offers both critical/concrete and abstract/imaginative propositions, including contributions by artists Jakob Kudsk Steensen, Anicka Yi, Jenna Sutela, Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg, James Bridle, and Tomás Saraceno alongside texts from leading scientists like Karen Bakker, Daniel Chamovitz, Mirjam Knörschild, Dorion Sagan, and Kristin Andrews, as well as notable philosophers like Sue Donaldson, Tyson Yunkaporta, Vinciane Despret, Benjamin Bratton, among others. The texts are brought to life through interactive augmented reality animations designed by Wang and Söderström, as well as video, audio, and 3D content from artists and scientists.

Decolonial Visions and Politics of the ImaginationThe exhibition In the Skeleton of the Stars explores the political potential of the ima-gination, focusing on the Caribbean and the Amazon Basin. It showcases memo-ries, narratives, and histories that have informed the region's imaginary, including indigenous mythologies and the violent conquest of the South American continent, through what Édouard Glissant has called the "tropical night" and its "spirits and figu-res that weigh on the shoulders." The tropical night-the sound and the silence, the darkness and the light-opens a portal to different orders of reality, unshackling the imagination and enabling us to re-configure our position in the world.In the Skeleton of the Stars is inspired by the decolonial and ecological vision of the Guyanese writer Wilson Harris. His stories portray a quest for the union of nature and humanity, delving into the alchemist thinking in which the material world is inextri-cably connected to the human soul. Harris limns a collective unconscious in which humans, nature, flora, and fauna share a common being that bridges distances of time and cultural differences.With works by Minia Biabiany, Pamela Colman Smith, Karl Joseph and Marc-Alexandre Tareau, Mirtho Linguet, Loren Minzú, Beatriz Santiago Muñoz, Marcel Pinas, and Apichatpong Weerasethakul, and essays by Mathieu Kleyebe Abonnenc, Lea Altner, Lorna Burns, Malcom Ferdinand, and Jonathan D. Hill.

The Scottish artist Susan Philipsz (b. Glasgow, 1965; lives and works in Berlin) creates works that revolve around memory, melancholy, and loss. For roughly the past two decades, she has dedicated herself to rearranging both musical and literary sources as well as their historical references. The artist often reuses familiar sequences from bands like Nirvana, Radiohead, and the Velvet Underground or works with Irish and Scottish ballads, folksongs, and classical compositions, which she deftly translates into site-specific sound installations. In 2010, she won the Turner Prize. In the project War Damaged Musical Instruments, Philipsz develops a visual and auditory archive of such instruments from the collections of museums in the United Kingdom and Germany: a flugelhorn riddled with bullet holes; a cavalry bugle salvaged from the wreck of the British freighter SS Pomeranian, which was sunk by a German U-boat in 1918; a clarinet destroyed by shrapnel; and a German tuba, a trophy captured in trench warfare. The book contains photographs of the instruments as well as wide-ranging contextual information on the individual sounds. Historic materials, maps, photographs, and written reports shed light on the events during which the instruments suffered damage. With an essay by Jasper Sharp. An audio guide integrated into the book enhances the visual research with the artist’s extraordinary sound compositions.

Words can rarely describe the complex state of mind we call love. Images created by artists often tell us much more about this vaunted feeling; they affect and seduce us while also teaching us something. Whether in classic nude photography, the private photo album, or pop culture, photography has always served to stage loving and eroticized bodies. How can the modern myth of love be subjected to critical examination, and which representations are missing from the collective memory, especially when it comes to empathetic forms of togetherness beyond erotic love? Love, Maybe spotlights multimedia installations, works of sculpture, and above all photographs that frame subjective, radical, witty, and critical perspectives on our notions of love, eroticism, and tenderness. The gathered works by Akosua Viktoria Adu-Sanyah, Bianca Baldi, Matthieu Croizier, Nan Goldin, Ren Hang, Gabby Laurent, Boris Mikhailov, Paul Mpagi Sepuya, Dayanita Singh, and others bring humor and vulnerability to the fore in telling stories of doubt, desire, and intimacy in all their facets. With an essay by curator Jana J. Haeckel and an interview with Paul Mpagi Sepuya.

Hair as a Medium of Information, Anchor of Identity, and Sign of BelongingHair has always been used to send political messages and signal personal convictions. A medium of both public representation and intimacy, hair marks profound social shifts, reflects changing ideas, and can become a tool of transformation and self- empowerment. Hair serves as a (sub)cultural code and symbol of political power and emancipatory liberation; it is an object of politics of the body and queer discourses. Grow It, Show It! is the first-ever large-scale photography exhibition in Germany that is all about hair. Historic and contemporary photographs, videos, and film clips show body hair or its absence and shed light on it from diverse cultural, formal-aesthetic, and media angles. The catalogue combines a rich selection of pictures—including fine art photographs and imagery from fashion and social media—with an artist contribution and ten interdisciplinary essays from art history and cultural studies to shed light on the manifold aspects of hair, with a focus on the political, religious, and social dimensions that manifest themselves in fine art, fashion, and advertising photography. With essays by the curators Miriam Bettin and Thomas Seelig as well as Monilola Olayemi Ilupeju, Shahram Khosravi, Alma Kittner, Annekathrin Kohout, Johanna Kuroczik, Helga Lüdtke, Adebayo Quadry-Adekanbi, Jörg Scheller, Bernd Stiegler, and Lori L. Tharps. Artists Hoda Afshar, Diane Arbus, Juan Pablo Echeverri, Samuel Fosso, Pippa Garner, Nan Goldin, Florence Henri, Peter Hujar, Herlinde Koelbl, Zoe Leonard, Ana Mendieta, Helmut Newton, Satomi Nihongi, Ulrike Ottinger, Ringl&Pitt, Roxana Rios, Thomas Ruff, Wolfgang Tillmans, and more.

Fragments of Time, Body, and SexualityRebecca Ackroyd’s (b. Cheltenham, UK, 1987; lives and works in Berlin and London) art blends abstract and surreal elements articulated in complex installations and sculptures made of synthetic resin, wood, or plaster, but also in large-format paintings: the artist combines turbines or dreaming eyes rendered in gouaches with abstracted casts of her own body or objects such as wigs, sunglasses, or cages. Based on psychoanalytic theories, her works question fundamental aspects of the human experience of time as well as of womanhood and fertility. In Period Drama, Ackroyd investigates fragmented realities, the subconscious, and the malleability of memory while also reflecting on their representation. The monograph is released on occasion of Ackroyd’s recent exhibitions at the Kestner Gesellschaft (Period Drama, 2023/24) and as a Collateral Event during the 60th Venice Biennale (Mirror Stage, 2024). The book is the first to survey the artist’s work. With essays by Attilia Fattori Franchini, Alexander Wilmschen, and an interview with the artist.

An air of confidence and vibrancy, but also vulnerability and fragility surround the works of the Iranian artist, photographer, and filmmaker Shirin Neshat (b. Qazvin, 1957; lives and works in New York). Central themes in Neshat’s art are identity, origin, and power structures. Her works are defined by a melding and broadening of the rich visual traditions of Persian and Western art. The US-based artist’s work is now the subject of the museum’s first presentation in association with the Written Art Collection. Neshat’s most recent work, Land of Dreams (2019), revolves around Persian calligraphy and Western canon of portraiture and combines for the fist time the media of photography and video in a single work. Combining documentary and fictional elements, it scrutinizes the American dream and its flipsides. The artist conducted interviews with the portrayed, asking them about their dreams, and then integrated summaries in Persian into the photographs together with traditional visual motifs. Interweaving writing, gestural expression, and formal variety achieves a rhythmical poetic density as it gathers individual narratives that reflect universal human experiences.

The Human in FocusIn over four decades, Christa Mayer (b. Bad Kissingen, 1945; lives and works in Berlin) has created a singular photographic oeuvre. The psychologist developed her distinctive progressive creative style in the early 1980s, when she studied at the Berliner Werkstatt für Photographie at Volkshochschule Kreuzberg, founded by Michael Schmidt; she was among the few women to hold her own in the competitive environment. She soon attracted attention with her unusually intimate and touching portraits from the long-term psychiatric care facility of a Berlin hospital, where she worked for more than two decades as a psychotherapist. Released on occasion of Christa Mayer’s eightieth birthday, this catalogue raisonné pays homage to a photographic oeuvre that encompasses major bodies of work like Abwesende (1982–1996), Silvia, “Ich will endlich leben” (1990), and Mensch und Hase (1994–1996) as well as self-portraits, landscapes, still lifes, and abstract compositions. With contributions by Carolin Förster, Maren Lübbke-Tidow, and Thomas Weski.

The artist and activist Poulomi Basu (b. Kolkata, 1983; lives and works in London) outlines in her creative practicespeculative visions of the future that intertwine a reflection on her protagonists’ present-day lives with an exploration ofpossible avenues of self-empowerment and resistance. Her work focuses on the close interweaving of ecological andfeminist issues as well as on the stories of women who, like her, have their origins in the Global South and are pushed tothe margins of society. Basu combines photography with virtual reality, film, and performance. She harnesses the activistpotential of these media to draw attention to people marginalized by society and victims of gender-based violence.Published in conjunction with Poulomi Basu’s debut institutional solo exhibition at Fotomuseum Winterthur,Phantasmagoria is the first book to provide an overview of central bodies of work. Essays by the scholar Breanne Fahs,the cultural commentator and writer Ann Mbuti, and the author and cultural scholar Mithu Sanyal analyze Basu’s artfrom various angles. In a conversation with the curator Bindi Vora the artist discusses self-love as emancipatory practice,menstruation as a political act, and the conception of docu-fiction. A glossary by Indian sociologist Moubani Maitracontextualizes key terms and offers further access to Poulomi Basu’s work and focal points.

Neven Allgeier’s (b. Wiesbaden, 1986; lives and works in Frankfurt/Main and Vienna) photographs revolve around themes such as environmental change, politics, pop culture, and subcultures. Most recently, his series were presented in extensive solo exhibitions at the Kunsthaus Göttingen and the Nassauischer Kunstverein Wiesbaden. He has also published pictures in media including SPIKE Art Quarterly and ZEIT Magazin. In his new photobook A Hole in the Sky, Allgeier explores the stylistic groups of our time. Portraits that spotlight the individual sitters’ carefully crafted self-presentation meet group constellations; cityscapes and landscapes awash in light meet positively enchanted details. The pictures are accompanied by text contributions. The authors articulate their perspectives on the contemporary world in free-form writing. They live in the places where the photographs were taken: Istanbul, Jakarta, Tbilisi, and Berlin. After Porträts (2021) and Fading Temples (2022), A Hole in the Sky is Allgeier’s third book published by DISTANZ.

Miraculously, Villa Aurora withstood the devastating fire that swept through large parts of Pacific Palisades in January 2025. Known in both Germany and the United States as a place of cultural memory, the Villa today stands more than ever for continuity and resilience. Since 1995, the former home-in-exile of Marta and Lion Feuchtwanger has served as a reminder of the artists and intellectuals who found refuge in California during the Nazi era and helped shape cultural life on the West Coast. As a residency for writers, composers, visual artists, and filmmakers, Villa Aurora brings together artistic practice and historical reflection—on exile and freedom, on language, responsibility, and the idea of home. This anniversary volume marking thirty years of Villa Aurora gathers voices from across all epoches—including literary and essayistic contributions by James Conlon, Sharon Dodua Otoo, Donna Rifkind, Alex Ross, Sabine Scho, E. Randol Schoenberg, Karosh Taha, Lawrence Weschler, and Maryam Zaree. The book is enriched by archival material, architectural photography by Mike Kelley, a recent photo series by Todd Gray, and an introduction by editors Claudia Gordon and Jakob Scherer.

Oliver Osborne’s (b. 1985 in Edinburgh; lives and works in Berlin) artistic practice encompasses silk-screen, and photorealistic oil painting. The artist uses repetition, as well as tweaks in composition and chiaroscuro, to excavate new images from sustained, often art historical fixations. In this sense, Osborne explores painting’s malleability over time, as well as its relationship to the personal – his subjects range from recognizably appropriated figures of portraiture to his own family. The richly illustrated monograph Recent Painting provides the most comprehensive overview of Osborne’s practice to date, delving deep into the nuanced layers of his work and showcasing his ability to oscillate between subjects and techniques with remarkable fluidity and purpose. It includes an essay by Michelle Cotton, director of Kunsthalle Wien, and a conversation between the artist and Alberto Salvadori, director of ICA Milano.

Homo Faber: Expanding Across MediaRolf Sachs (b. Lausanne, 1955; lives and works in Rome) is a multidisciplinary artist and designer whose practice includessculpture, photography, painting, design, as well as architectural projects and set designs for opera and ballet.The first complete monograph mirrors the multidisciplinary approach by Sachs showing works from the 1990s up untiltoday. The book proposes a non-linear approach, tracing the artist’s oeuvre in a non-chronological way to reveal visual,conceptual, and formal connections. With essays by Volker Albus, Gabrielle Ammann, Helen Chislett, Wilfried Dickhoff,Bill Kouwenhoven, Salvatore Lacagnina, Claudio Lazzarini and Carl Pickering, Otto and Maximilian Letze, Coralie Malissard,Mirja Sick, Valerie von Bechtolsheim, Betony Vernon and an interview with the artist.

Ambivalent InfrastructuresInfrastructures are not just technical systems but cultural and political orders that stabilize and transform societal processes. Following Brian Larkin’s study “The Politicsand Poetics of Infrastructure”, the writings collected in Desire and Denial conceive ofinfrastructures as material manifestations of symbolic and economic projects andefforts to build political power. They embody collective desires—for mobility, safety,control, or modernization, among other things—that not only structure planningprocesses, but also constitute normative ideas about the future.Meanwhile, infrastructures operate on the basis of denial: by systemically conceal-ing, say, environmental devastation, social inequality, political exclusion, and colonialcontinuities. As Donna Haraway already underscored in the late 1980s, techno-scientific orders are premised on stories of objectivity and innocence—narrative patternsthat also inform the planning and legitimation of infrastructures and the visions of thefuture they imply.The contributions explore this complex set of tensions, reading infrastructures as notjust part of the built environment, but also politically contested, culturally appropriated, and symbolically fraught scenes of social conflict.

Marc Brandenburg (b. Berlin, 1965; lives and works in Berlin and Barcelona) has won international acclaim as an outstanding graphic artist. His defining genre are pencil drawings after photographic sources, whose tonality he inverts as in photographic negatives. Brandenburg captures his sources as he travels the world or samples them from magazines, films, and books. The freehand translation of the inverted and distorted originals yields haunting and pensive renditions of the contemporary world. Brandenburg’s motifs originate from urban everyday life: protest marches, homeless people, snippets of subculture, but also portraits of celebrities that have become symbols of pop culture. His drawings grapple with society’s ills as well as the extravagance and consumerism that are concomitants of late capitalism. Released on occasion of Marc Brandenburg’s comprehensive retrospective at Berlinische Galerie, the publication gathers around 150 works, including recent drawings and rarely shown works from the 1990s as well as photographs and videos. With writings by Ilka Voermann, Thomas Love, Lynette Roth, and Franziska Ziegler.

"Jana Schulz (b. 1984; lives and works in Berlin) initiates encounters on film and in photographs with men previously unknown to her, in which intimacy emerges in the process of shooting: performative, shared, situational. She observes structures and dynamics within social groups, enriching her documentary approach by integrating fictional elements.With her works, she explores the inner world of male relationships; in that spirit, her most recent photographic series raises questions about masculinity on the threshold of adult life. At its center stands a portrait of the South African Bathenkosi Sphesihle Luphalule, his play with common role models and the search for his true self. Tetris B ­ Mountaingoat prompts reflections on identity beyond conventional categories. With a text by Logan February."