Look Closely. Photobook

Look Closely is one of the action lines that shapes the mediation programme Casi libros (Almost Books). This particular line centres on training users in the artistic and documentary holdings from the Museo’s Library and disseminating manifold specialist tools designed for art research and contemporary creation by way of a series of formats comprising workshops, courses and thematic guides, to take place over the course of a year.

Its first edition sees the Library and Colectivo HUL put forward a mediation device around the collection of photobooks, addressing questions that include: What do the works in the Museo and the Library have in common? What are the connections between customary publications and artistic ones? What can a museum’s library learn from a local newsstand? And what similarities do Roy Lichtenstein’s works and HELLO! magazine share?

These questions are all set out in a morning workshop — split into three different access groups — in which, via four seasons based on the principles of four-colour process printing, attendees will explore the origins of the photobook while they emulate British artist Anna Atkins’ pioneering cyanotype photographic technique. Further, the workshop will take a closer look at the foremost creators in this artistic discipline, surveying unique copies and their connections inside and outside the Museo and ending in a critical review of experiences from the session.

This four-colour process workshop is set up innovatively and irreverently to approach one of the gems of Museo Reina Sofía: its Library.

Colectivo HUL came into being in 2014 in its association with the Damn, A Book! micropublishing and face-slap festival. Under the tag “cultural loutishness” it has carried out every kind of curatorial, artistic, editorial and education activity for institutions such as Matadero Madrid, Intermediae, Medialab Prado, Madrid City Council’s public libraries, M21 Radio, the Montemadrid Foundation, the Daniel and Nina Carasso Foundation, Institut Français Madrid and the Escuela de Art Thinking de Pedagogías Invisibles.