Centrefold 8

CENTREFOLD SCRAPBOOK 8: The Circle of Manias

Launch of Centrefold Scrapbook 8: 26 January 2012, 7.00 - 9.00 pm
Exhibition: 27 - 29 January 2012
Talk: 28 January 2012 3.00 pm

Centrefold Project is pleased to announce a four-day event at the Zabludowicz Collection to celebrate the launch of Centrefold Scrapbook 8: The Circle of Manias. Held as part of the Collection's annual Testing Ground season, the event includes an exhibition of the multiple works produced for Centrefold from 2003 to 2012, and a talk exploring the artistic and curatorial potential of artists' books, book art, and handmade publications (A short history of artists' books).

Centrefold 8 takes its title The Circle of Manias from Pier Paolo Pasolini's controversial 1975 film Salò or The 120 Days of Sodom, a film exploring themes of political corruption, abuse of power, sadism, sexual perversion and fascism. The film's chapter Circle of Manias presents some of the debauched and sexually explicit stories extracted from the first part of Marquis de Sade's book The 120 days of Sodom (1785). These stories are re-enacted, in the following chapters of the film, with the fictional source becoming the narrative reality. The Circle of Manias, as with all previous titles of Centrefold Scrapbooks, was chosen in consideration of the selection of artists and the production of artworks, and reflects pertinent socio-political issues of our time.

Centrefold is a limited edition publication in Scrapbook format, with a print run of no more than 41 copies. Created in 2003, Centrefold is a low-tech cut-and-paste production where artists are invited to treat one to two pages as their own scrapbook. All the pages are then compiled, formatted, and designed - the latter by Reza Aramesh.

At first Centrefold gathered artists from only the London art scene. It recently reconsidered its criteria and no longer restricts its invitation by geographical area. In fact, no initial parameters (theme, generation, medium, form or content) predetermine the choice of artists involved. The selection is simply made through personal relationships and chance encounters as a way of refusing any linear or fictionalised construction of art history.

As described by JJ Charlesworth in the press release of Scrapbook 2,
'Scrapbook takes its cue from the childhood fascination for collecting and collating, the improvised cutting and pasting through which a constellation of interests and desires are brought together. A group show in its own right'.

Centrefold Scrapbooks are held in private and public collections nationally and internationally including A-Foundation, Philip Aarons, Tate, and Zabludowicz Collection.

The exhibition of Centrefold 8 is organised in collaboration with the Zabludowicz Collection as part of its annual season Testing Ground for Art and Education, a month of innovative and experimental events and exhibitions.

For more information, please contact mail@rezaaramesh.com

Centrefold 8: The Circle of Manias features works by:

Vasco Araujo
Fereydoun Ave
Shezad Dawood
Anne Hardy
Andy Holden
A Kassen
Muntean/Rosenblum
Dariush Nehdaran
Shahpour Pouyan
Clunie Reid
Florian Roithmayr
Jack Strange
Vicki Thornton
Olav Westphalen
Simon Mathers
Othello De Souza-Hartley