A publishing survey of the diagrams produced by Ricardo Basbaum in recent years. Both autonomous pieces or elements from installations, these diagrams act as interventional tools and visual poems that connect the literary and plastic spaces.
“This book is the first comprehensive study of Ricardo Basbaum's diagrams, cataloguing a body of work that has been integral to his artistic practice. In turn, the book offers an invaluable resource for anyone engaging with non-linear thinking and compositional work”, writes Binna Choi and Emily Pethick in the Foreword. Produced as a result of the artist's exhibition at the Centro Galego de Arte Contemporáneo (2013), Diagrams, 1994 – ongoing brings a survey of the diagrams created and exhibited by Ricardo Basbaum in recent years, both as autonomous pieces or part of installations and other forms of action. In his own words, Basbaum takes the diagram as a “tool for intervention (…) a sort of drawing (or visual poem) that mediates the dynamic flow between words and images—discursive and non-discursive spaces—or literary and plastic spaces, etc”.
Three essays by the artist are included here, followed by extensive documentation of the GCAC exhibition, and a large selection of his diagrams. Contributors include Guy Brett, Cuauhtémoc Medina, Emily Pethick, Cecília Cotrim, Monika Szewczyk, Renata Marquez, Luiz Cláudio da Costa, Santiago Garcia Navarro, Bojana Piskur, Dieter Roelstraete, Francisco Ali-Brouchoud, Brandon LaBelle and Daniela Mattos, whose texts were assembled in the shape of a collective-conversation, where topics around diagram, alterity, group practice, temporality and affect are discussed in direct relation to the work of Ricardo Basbaum.
Diagrams – 1994-ongoing comes with three different covers, randomly distributed.
Published following the exhibition “Diagramas”, Centro Galego de Arte Contemporáneo, Santiago de Compostela, from June 28 to October 6, 2013.
Ricardo Basbaum (born 1961 in São Paulo, lives and works in Rio de Janeiro) is an artist and writer, investigating art as an intermediating device and platform for the articulation between sensorial experience, sociability and language. Since the late 1980s, he has been nurturing a vocabulary specific to his work, applying it in a particular way to each new project. Recent solo-projects include “The production of the artist as a collective conversation” (Audain Gallery, Vancouver), “nbp-etc: escolher linhas de repetição” (Galeria Laura Alvim, Rio de Janeiro), “Diagramas” (Centro Galego de Arte Contemporánea, Santiago de Compostela, 2013) and “Re-projecting (London)” (The Showroom, London, 2013). He exhibited at documenta 12 (2007). His work was recently included at the 20th Sydney Biennial (2016) and at The School of Kyiv – Kyiv Biennial 2015 (The House of Clothes, Kyiv). The artist was in residency at the Audain Gallery (Vancouver) in October 2014. He is the author of Manual do artista-etc (Azougue, 2013), Ouvido de corpo, ouvido de grupo (Universidade Nacional de Córdoba, 2010) and Além da pureza visual (Zouk, 2007). Professor at the Instituto de Artes, Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro and Visiting Professor at the University of Chicago (2013), he was recently appointed as Professor at Universidade Federal Fluminense (2016).
