Now only 14 days to attend 2009 edition – More speakers, more exhibitions, more details!
3 days – approx. 40 hours of talks – 16 exhibitions – many cocktails and parties.

Get your Flash Pass now and support the independent magazine!

Flash Pass or Dayticket ? Read here what’s the difference !

“A weekend devoted to the independent magazine scene, filled with encounters, exhibitions, talks, workshops, movies and networking events”

Curators: Jeremy Leslie, Andrew Losowsky, Mike Koedinger.

You’ve been many to ask what is the difference between a Day-ticket and a Flash Pass?

A Day-ticket to attend exhibitions and talks costs 10 € (30 € for three days), but see what else you get if you buy your nominative Flash Pass for 90 €:

• Your personal copy of the book « We Make Magazines » (approx. 320 pages, 210 x 270 mm, 36 €).
   
• Special rates in the hotels, partners of Colophon.
   
• Get your welcome bag including the Programme of Colophon.
   
• Access to Colophon’s online social network (exclusive to Flash Passers, partners and speakers) and keep in touch with all the other visitors (before the event, during and after).
   
• Get your own free wifi connection for Luxembourg-city (many areas all over town), with your personal code.
   
• Get special rates, free aperitives and coffees in restaurants and bars in Luxembourg partners of Colophon.
   

All these social events are « Flash Pass » - only (no additional entrance fees to pay) – including many open bars :

• Thursday night: exhibitions preview (starts 5:30 pm at Casino Luxembourg) tour followed by exhibitions openings (9 pm) at Carré Rotondes: “Design Backstage” and “Tribute to Café Crème Magazine”. Participate to the official Opening Dinner (10 pm) at the Kjub Restaurant. (Including private bus for the preview tour).
   
• Friday night: exhibition opening (6 pm, including sushi and excellent white wine from Domaines de Vinsmoselle of Luxembourg) in Casino Luxembourg followed by the Liebling / Be my guest - party (11 pm) at Carré Rotondes / Exit07 – with DJ Fetish and Miss Tabou.
   
• Saturday night: exhibition opening (7 pm) in Mudam followed by a first party (9 pm) in a secret venue where “J+E will juggle the songs” and, finally, the Luxuriant Party (midnight) at Byblos. (Including private bus from Casino to Mudam to secret venue).
   
• Sunday night: Closing Ceremony (5 pm) at Philharmonie followed by a cocktail (6 pm) and an official Closing Dinner (7:30 pm) at Apoteca Restaurant.
   
• Plus ! You will support the world’s unique event dedicated to the independent magazine. Keep in mind, it’s a non-profit organisation.
   

Get your Flash Pass now and support the independent magazine!

Updated version ! Download the press kit including details on exhbitions, talks, speakers, etc. (approx. 60 pages).

Updated version ! Download the overview of programme.

« Forward Ever, Backwards Never: On the Histories and Ambitions of 032c »

From humble limited edition newspaper print to high-profile cultural commentary, Berlin-based magazine 032c has propelled itself into the vanguard of publishing while remaining determinedly independent. Since its inception in 2000, 032c has evolved through several different forms and designs, but never to compromise its vision of innovating print and the culture surrounding it. According to the New York Times, “the magazine fuses art and architecture, literature, and urban studies in ways that can make one forget how depressing a visit to the newsstand has become.” Now, nine years since its founding, 032c continues to succeed in breaking the rules of the disciplines it covers, activating future trends in the media and energizing new platforms for communication.

By Jörg Koch (Creative director and co-founder of 032C, Germany)

Sunday 15.03 – 11:00/ Main Auditorium

Success Stories

« Fleischgeist: The Story of Meatpaper »

Meatpaper is a quarterly magazine covering art and ideas about meat. Why meat? What is the fleischgeist?  Sasha Wizansky will answer these questions and more.

By Sasha Wizansky (Editor-in-chief, Art Director and Publisher of Meatpaper, USA)

Friday 13.03 – 15:00 / Main Auditorium

« Inside Colors Magazine »

The history of Colors through its most famous spreads, but also the less known ones. Mauro Bedoni will also talk about the latest issues and provide insight into the creation, formation and editing of a concept-based magazine.

By Mauro Bedoni (Photo editor of Colors Magazine, Italy)

Friday 13.03 – 15:30 / Main Auditorium

« onlab redesigns domus – the magazine as a score »

Founded and edited by the Milanese architect Gio Ponti, the first issue of the monthly magazine domus came out on 15 January 1928. Over the course of its eighty plus-year history, the magazine has changed regularly to reflect the demands and interest of the times, but the aim of domus has always remained that of a privileged insight into identifying the style of a particular age.

onlab launched the latest new domus with its April 2008 issue. As the magazine’s editor-in-chief, Flavio Albanese, noted in that issue’s editorial, “With its new formal appearance, Domus has finally attained its objective of being a publication on the same wavelength as the Zeitgeist, the spirit of our times, that no longer accepts information and knowledge divided into water-tight compartments

By Nicolas Bourquin (Publisher and Designer, Switzerland)

Friday 13.03 – 16:00 / Main Auditorium. Note: this is a 40 min. session.

« Building MagNation »

At a time when magazines aren’t an easy sell, MagNation makes it look a breeze. Ravi Pathare and his nephew Sahil have created an award-winning chain of five independent magazine stores in Australia and New Zealand, selling more than 4,000 titles alongside a variety of original features to encourage people to buy more magazines.

By Ravi Pathare (Founder of MagNation, Australia and New Zealand)

Friday 13.03 – 14:30 / Project Room

« Feel type, breathe shapes, taste letters »

The search for the unexpected: the typeblog and magazine Slanted. Slanted was a blog that became an award-winning typography and design magazine. Today, neither would be so successful without the other (www.slanted.de).

By Lars Harmsen (Executive Director, Magma Brand Design, Germany)

Saturday 14.03 – 10:00/ Main Auditorium

« Generation Create - inspiring the creative elite »

Changes in the needs of the post-modern creative professional and Distill’s journey into aggregating sophisticated visual content in an intelligent fashion.

By Christopher Lockwood (Publisher of Distill and consultant, UK)

Saturday 14.03 – 15:00 / Main Auditorium

« Getting back our independence »

The team at Eye magazine bought their magazine back from a larger publisher. That was a year ago...

By Simon Esterson (Creative Director and co-owner from Eye, UK)

Saturday 14.03 – 15:30 / Main Auditorium

« Yummy Magazine: Dressed up as a juicy burger»

The short story of a burger and a diet coke bottle who wanted to be  supermodels for Vogue.

By Pascal Monfort (Founder of Yummy, France)

Saturday 14.03 – 12:00 / Project Room

« How to run a magazine store or judge a magazine by its cover »

In the 20th century, when the end of print was proclaimed, I joined a magazine workshop with David Carson, which was quite fun. So why shouldn't a shop, dedicated to fine magazines and reading from all over the world, be a good idea for the 21st?

By Mark Kiessling (Co-founder of do you read me?, Germany)

Saturday 14.03 – 12:30 / Project Room

« From local happy to global happy »

How putting happy first has taken le cool publishing from being a small Spanish publisher to become a niche leader in Europe, with the world around the corner.

By René Lönngren (Co-founder of le cool publishing, Spain)

Saturday 14.03 – 14:00 / Project Room

« Lula loves »

Independent publishing

By Becky Smith (Publisher from Lula, UK)

Saturday 14.03 – 14:30 / Project Room

« Stacking up »

Steven Watson started Stack in December 2008 as an independent magazine club. He speaks about why he started Stack, and how the independents can gain from strength in numbers.

By Steven Watson (Director of Stack, UK)

Saturday 14.03 – 15:00 / Project Room

« This should be made public – Grande Finale »

‘This should be made public’ is a project by the publication ‘shift!’ from Berlin. The project was originally developed for Colophon2007 where it was met with a very vivid response and interaction. It then travelled to Cairo, Milan and Bangkok, where it gathered several hundred responses in various workshops and public interventions. The project has spanned two years of exciting events, experiences and much food for thought, to now come full circle with a final publication and presentation at Colophon2009.

By Anja Lutz (Publisher of shift!,  Germany)

Saturday 14.03 – 15:30 / Project Room

« Reality school: creativity first »

The magazine program at Amsterdam Fashion Institue is one of the rare bachelor programs aimed at independent magazines and has been a big hit since it started five years ago. In 20 weeks students create a new magazine that is launched ‘for real’ and sold along with a product line in over 20 shops in the Netherlands. School can be fun and it is possible to create a good magazine with little financial resources and an inexperienced team.

By Frank Jurgen Wijlens (Editor, writer, lecturer – the Netherlands)

Sunday 15.03 – 12:00 / Project Room

« Doing invisible things together »

The German independent publishing scene has evolved late and is still small compared to the UK or France. Few publications earn money. b20 publishing is an effort to get some of the economies of scale of conventional large publishers without losing what makes independent publishing strong. It combines the best of both worlds.

By Lothar Eckstein (Co-owner b20 publishing, Germany)

Sunday 15.03 – 14:30 / Project Room

10 live Interviews

In three one-hour-sessions, the people behind the “Colophon2009 10 magazine exhibitions” are interviewed on stage by Mike Koedinger, Jeremy Leslie and Andrew Losowsky.

Listen to the makers of BabyBabyBaby (Mexico), Good (San Francisco), IdN (Hong Kong), Karen (London), Kasino A4 (Helsinki), La Mas Bella (Madrid), Liebling (Berlin), Nuke (Paris), Sang Bleu (Lausanne) and Volume (Amsterdam).

Friday, Saturday and Sunday – 14:00 / Main Auditorium

Lecture and discussion

In the framework of the exhibition « Beyond Kiosk – Modes of Multiplication » : Christophe Keller (Revolver, publisher and designer) will be joined in a discussion by Christophe Gallois (Mudam, head of programmes).

Saturday 14.03 – 6 pm / Mudam (take the official bus)

« Contemporary Art Reviews, between paper and the web. Temporary Autonomous Zone or cultural industry? »

By Christian Gattinoni, Aica France. Introduced by Paul di Felice. In collaboration with the University of Luxembourg.

Sunday 15.03 – 10:00 / Main Auditorium

Exhibition: «Beyond Kiosk – Modes of Multiplication»

From 15 March to 8 June 2009 Mudam Luxembourg will be hosting Christoph Keller’s itinerant archive project “BEYOND KIOSK – MODES OF MULTIPLICATION”. More than 500 of the most pertinent art publications can be consulted, with an original presentation by Martino Gamper.

The exhibition “BEYOND KIOSK – MODES OF MULTIPLICATION” offers the opportunity to see and consult some examples of the most remarkable independent art publications. Near to 500 works have been chosen and gathered together by the German designer, editor and curator Christoph Keller. Founder and former director of Revolver Publishing, Christoph Keller today directs the “Christoph Keller Editions” series, published by JRP | Ringier Zurich.

The works presented in “BEYOND KIOSK” were chosen from a wider selection that constitutes an itinerant archive. This collection, titled “KIOSK”, is in a state of perpetual evolution and currently includes more than 6000 copies of artists’ books, periodicals, video and audio supports linked to contemporary art. These documents are available for consultation and are thus a precious resource for students, conference delegates, artists and the general public. “KIOSK” has been on the road since 2001 and has already been exhibited in more than 20 institutions throughout the world, including the ICA in London, the Witte de With in Rotterdam, Manifesta 4 in Frankfurt and the Artists’ Space in New York. The archive has been included in the permanent collection of the Berlin State Library since the end of 2008.

In January 2008, Christoph Keller created a condensed version of the “KIOSK” archive. This project is called “BEYOND KIOSK” and includes between 400 and 500 publications plus 200 reviews and magazines. In contrast to the enormous “KIOSK” archive (which includes everything produced in the field of independent art publishing) the condensed version known as “BEYOND KIOSK” is carefully selected and requires a lot of curatorial effort. “BEYOND KIOSK” thus contains the most important publications in the field of independent publishing from the last decade. The selection is carried out according to criteria which relate the intellectual and/or artistic content of the publication to its graphic transcription. This new form of archive accentuates the possibility of alternative means of publication and distribution and presents a reflection on the ideas, motivations and strategies that motivate art projects (whether developed in printed form or otherwise).

“BEYOND KIOSK” is presented in a new form for each exhibition, the arrangement of the exhibition space being confided to a different artist or designer each time. In the case of Mudam, the Italian designer Martino Gamper was invited to come up with the presentation layout. Gamper recently came to notice for his project “100 Chairs in 100 Days”  (which was presented in 2007 at the London Design Museum) and is also known for his participation in Manifesta 7 in 2008.

Mudam is presenting another project in relation to the “BEYOND KIOSK” exhibition, called “DOUBLE PAGES”. It consists of a series of photographs of open books. Its curators (Christophe Keller, Jérôme Saint-Loubert Bié and Catherine de Smet) offer a glimpse of graphic creation through the vision of graphic designers involved in independent publishing by highlighting the role that the graphic artist plays in the visual organisation of a book and in the wider sense of the editorial dynamic involved in its development. They invited fifty international graphic designers to each choose two publications of contemporary art that they found interesting in terms of graphic conception. These graphic designers then photographed a double page from each work for the exhibition, the resulting image arising not only from the initial choice (such and such a book or catalogue of whichever artist, conceived by whichever designer) but also the tell-tale visual approach adopted.

Mudam. Open: Saturday (11 am – 9 pm), Sunday (11 am – 6 pm). The exhibition continues till June 8th 2009 (open daily from 11 am to 6 pm, Wednesdays till 8 pm, closed Tuesdays).

Exhibition: “Tribute to Café Crème”

“Café Crème was a luxurious bilingual publication in French and English dedicated to contemporary photography. We showcased approximately 150 photographs, including Alain Fleischer, François Méchain, Riwan Tromeur, Patrick Tosani, Jean Rault, Paul Pouvreau. Wolfgang Tillmans, Thomas Struth, Lewis Baltz, Andre Serrano, Les Krims, Sarah Jones, Nick Waplington, Beat Streuli, Chantal Michel, Alexia Walther, Inez van Lamsweerde, Rineke Dijkstra, Hellen van Meena, Nobuyoshi Araki, Katharina Bosse, Joan Fontcuberta, Marcello Simeone and many more. It was published for 10 years, until 1995. Only the final issue, number 16, is still available.” Paul di Felice, Pierre Stiwer, founders of Café Crème Magazine.

Where did the idea for Café Crème come from?

The idea behind Café Crème magazine began in 1983, following a failed exhibition project that aimed to bring together architecture, painting and photography. The first issue, released in autumn 1984, was created by Paul Bretz, Paul di Felice and Pierre Stiwer. It showcased architectural and artistic projects as well as design and fashion in a large format A3 magazine.

Who is behind Café Crème and when was it created?

After the departure of Paul Bretz (architect) in 1985, Robert Theisen joined the team as a photographer, followed by Marcello Eusani (public relations and sales). Management of the magazine is now run by Paul di Felice and Pierre Stiwer working closely with Robert Theisen.

Which other magazines inspired Café Crème?

The magazine was inspired by the famous magazine “Interview” by Andy Warhol, and a variety of magazines in the early 80s that spoke to a new urban culture. There was no intended audience, the idea was to have fun and to contribute to this birth of a new visual culture where image - and advertising – was playing a key role.

What was the state of photography in Luxembourg when the magazine launched?

The creation of Café Crème coincided with the rise of the photograph in artistic events in the early 80s. We remember the great event “photo” at the Venice Biennale in 1979 and the creation of the Month of Photography in Paris.

At the time the magazine was launched, photography in Luxembourg had not yet reached the status of art. By the mid 80s, we opened up our pages to visual artists, photographers and theorists with whom we have been able to establish working relationships. It then became a real art photography magazine.

How did the magazine grow and change?

We had strong contacts with the decision makers of the photographic movement of the time, such as Jean-Luc Monterosso (Director of the European House of Photography in Paris), Christian Gattinoni (Professor at the School of Photography in Arles), Carol Marc Lavrillier in Paris and the couple Tartarin - very involved in promoting photography in Metz – which facilitated the creation and distribution of our publication. First seen as “coffee-table magazine”, it gradually became an international photography magazine with distribution in Europe and the USA. The format changed twice, each change bringing an opportunity to rework the layout and adapt it to our goals.

Why did you decide to stop publishing the magazine?

In 1995 - as part of Luxembourg, European City of Culture - we held an exhibition on “Landscapes, places and non-places” in collaboration with galleries Nei Liicht and Dominique Lang in Dudelange. It consisted of photographic works of European artists from European collections, but also works from artists that we had published in our magazine. A photographic mission on the urban landscape, natural and industrial Luxembourg took place the same year.

Following this positive experience, we were asked to work on the concept of a reinterpretation of “The Family of Man” by Edward Steichen, a concept that took us two years to complete. The exhibition at the Casino Luxembourg, Forum d’art contemporain, completed in 1997, had considerable success and visibility far beyond national borders. The catalogue was a key document in the history of photography in the 90s.

All these activities helped give Café Crème international recognition. That year also coincided with the end of the magazine – the last edition appeared in January 1998. The internet was already up and running, and it was what now appears to have been the swansong of experimental art magazines.

We therefore decided to devote our time to organising exhibitions and publishing catalogues devoted to photography. We are now part of the European Month of Photography.

Each of the 7 participating cities (Berlin, Rome, Moscow, Paris, Bratislava, Vienna and Luxembourg) organises its own festival and creates an exhibition every two years on the theme of change/mutation in photography. The next edition of the European Month of Photography will be held in Luxembourg in March / April this year. The exhibition “Mutations 2 - Moving Stills - will be held at MUDAM. The third edition will be devoted to the image on the Internet and held in 2010/2011.

Carré Rotondes. Open: Friday (11 am – 10 pm), Saturday (11 am – 10 pm), Sunday (11 am – 8 pm). The exhibition continues until April 12th, 2009 (open Tuesday-Sunday 2 – 10 pm)

1. Pecha Kucha Presentations
2. Portfolios’ Markets: Photography, Illustration & Editorial Design
3. Making a Magazine
4. Magazine Store:  Magazines for the store need to arrive before March 10th !
5. Playlists by Magazines

Travel tips and hotels

First buy your flash pass and you’ll get important reductions at the partners hotels.

Under the Patronage of Mr Paul Helminger, Mayor of Luxembourg-City

Under the Patronage of Mr Jean-Louis Schiltz, Luxembourg’s Minister for Communications

With the kind support of the Ministry of the Economy & Foreign Trade

And the Minister of Tourism

National Office of Tourism

Luxembourg City Tourist Office

University of Luxembourg