“A research project based in Guangzhou, China, 芝麻开门! Abracadabra! seeks in-depth communication and information sharing with active ‘self-organizations’; within a not yet clearly defined stage of liminality, the project captures and presents the phenomenon of “creation” and methods found in these ‘self-organizations’ – the new generation of art practitioners commonly hold a more relaxed attitude of “mutual help” and “collaboration”, though each may have their own distinctive, highly individualized working methods.
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Practice is always ongoing; through continuous self-analysis and self-reflection, practitioners are able to establish innovative forms of output, which expand, in turn, our existing perception of what is art, and how it is produced.”
This is a book, a folder, a door, and a peephole. The object carries different forms of printed matter. Readers can take the folder with them on a visit to the featured ‘self-organizations’ strongholds to collect and build their own memory folders. The object is composed of a left and right sleeve. The left sleeve has a stitched-bound booklet for the textual content presenting the ‘self-organizations’. The right-end sleeve holds 2 large folded posters retelling some of the practices of these organizations. The publication is printed in a 4-color process with an extra silver pass used to add an overprinted textual layer in some areas. Texts are in both Chinese and English.
“芝麻开门！”调研项目以广州为基点，尝试与正在活跃的自我组织做更多的交流与信息共享，并在尚未明确的阈限阶段中，捕捉和呈现自我组织的“创作”现象和实践模式——新一代实践者多抱持“互助”和“共同工作”的轻松态度，但彼此存在不可复制、高度个体化特征的工作方法。
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实践正在进行，实践者在不断自我认识和自我反思中建立新的输出方式，以拓展我们对已有艺术生产和工作方法的认知。
这是一本书，一个文件夹，一扇门和一个猫眼，是一本承载着不同形式的印刷品。读者可以带着这本文件夹去参观书中自组织的据点，收集并建立自己的记忆。书由左右两个部分组成。左侧的封套里有一本骑马钉的小册子，用于介绍二十二个自组织。右侧的文件夹里有两张被折叠起来的海报，因一些自组织的工作实践逐渐呈现出复杂而难以概括的面貌。我们以其中的四个自组织：冯火月刊、《44月报》、高压俱乐部、夹山改梁为例，将他们的工作实践进行了简单的归纳版图，并制作成大幅海报。
该出版物采用四色工艺印刷，在海报部分使用了额外的银色专色来印刷文字部分。出版物为中、英双语。
Publisher: self-published
Editors: Qin Kechun, Zhang Jiwen
Size: 210 × 277 mm (unfolded: 845 × 308 mm)
Page count: 36 + 2 posters
First edition: 500 copies
Production: full color offset + 1, die-cuts
