Mark Pezinger
Interview realised in winter 2022
Mark Pezinger Books was founded in 2009 by two artists, Karsten Födinger and Thomas Geiger two artists, and since 2015, it is run by Astrid Seme and Thomas Geiger. How do you come to this desire to develop your own publishing house?
I (Thomas Geiger) was already very involved with publications and printed matter during my studies, as I found this an ideal space to document and distribute my performances. Together with Karsten we made the plan to create a platform for like-minded artists who share this passion. One of the first artists we met was Astrid Seme, with whom we realized a publication (Urbirds singing the Sonata). The collaboration developed much more intensively than expected and Astrid became a part of the team. Her approach as a graphic designer and her interest in the relationship between spoken and written language gave the publishing house a new dimension.
As a publishing structure, you are exploring a lot of different forms, from booklet to sound work, prints and books from other artists. What does it mean as artists to publish other artists work?
First and foremost, it means being curious and empathetic about the work of other artists and how they see things. But it also means trusting each other. We trust the artist we work with, and on the other hand, we also expect artists to trust us with our experience in editing and publishing.
Collaboration is key in your approach, how would you define this aspect of your work, and how important is it to you?
Maybe this question has already been answered, but perhaps we can briefly tell you about our general way of working: we do not accept finished proposals of publications. Each publication is based on a raw editorial idea that we develop and design (Astrid) together in a dialogue between the artist and us. This close collaboration is extremely important to us and gives us a deep relation with each publication and its contents.
Also, since your beginnings you had participated and curated exhibitions. Is this something important to you, to not only think and publish books but show them? And how do you deal with some curatorial issues?
In the beginning, these exhibitions were very important, because many of our publications have very small print runs, and exhibitions are a way to make them available to a larger audience. But that has shifted in recent years. On the one hand, because we’ve started to publish in larger print runs. On the other hand we organise presentations and enjoy the exchange and the discussions with other people involved in (artist’s) books. For us, these are like a ‘‘condensed exhibition,’’ where we spotlight a selection of publications under a particular theme, which we can talk about and discuss with the audience. We really enjoy the energy of such events.
You also developed a specific project that is intriguing, ‘‘Adoptives’’ which are books that have already been published, and even self-published you decided to adopt and distribute them as if you published them. How does it work? and how do you came with that idea?
Actually, it was an idea that one of the artists we worked with, Eric Hattan, suggested to us. So the Adoptives are based on an adopted idea. The idea is pretty simple: many artists publish without a publisher. Many artists are lacking a network of distribution and it’s a great pity if their publications end up in a drawer. So when we find one of these hidden or forgotten publications that interests us, we propose to the artist to adopt it. That is, we include the remaining issues in our program and distribute them through our network.
We recently noticed a proper development of the editorial works, more and more artists and publishers are working with artists editions today, also, I was wondering what were your thoughts on this growth of interest for these practices? And what was your point of view on these contemporary editorial practices?
We think it’s fantastic that interest in this medium is growing – on the part of producers (artists, publishers). But we all need to find solutions to reach the interest of a wider audience. We experience ourselves how difficult the distribution of artists’ books is, and from our point of view it has become even more difficult in recent years. Recently, our German distributor also filed for insolvency. The main question we all face is how can we manage to make this medium, which we all call ‘‘democratic’’ become truly democratic, in a sense that there is a growing awareness and willingness to buy in society for artists’ books. Or to make a long story short: How can we get out of the bubble?