Aperçu avant impression (Print preview) — A residency focused on an art centre’s archives

After conducting this research in the espace 36 archives, and in order to gain clarity, we decided to work with data layers. Each colour corresponds to a type of document.

Fluorescent yellow refers to indirect archives (newspaper cuttings, blog articles, etc.). Magenta is based on the communication elements produced by espace 36, highlighting the plasticity of the documents themselves (folds, pagination, volumes, formats). The pastel green reflects a photographic report that we shot on-site.

During one of our visits, as a photograph by the artist Catherine Duverger was being removed during the unhanging of her exhibition (Les relations urbaines, 30 March to 27 April 2019), layers of paint came off with it, revealing an old wall painting by Janusz Stega (De Kyoto à Saint-Omer, 17 March to 16 June 2007). We salvaged this piece and incorporated it into our matrix by adding a final ink: a varnish superimposed on all the colours. This ghostly image witnesses all the works that have passed through this space.

Opting to work in layers, we naturally turned to screen printing, a technique involving superimposed halftones and layers, with our long-standing partners at the Lézard Graphique workshop in Brumath.

To emphasise this relationship with the technique, we worked on a specific printing halftone for each type of shape. For example, we used a stochastic pattern to reproduce the gradients in the magenta layer, and a round pattern that echoed the formal language developed for the yellow layer. The oblique linear pattern of the pastel green completes the range.

For the production of this economically constrained project, we were keen to manage the event’s communications in order to optimise the production process.

Once the large-format visual had been designed, all we needed to do was apply an extra layer of black ink for each additional document to transform the artwork into communication materials promoting the exhibition. For example, adding a ‘flyers’ black layer enabled us to print 63 copies per sheet.

Using 10 silkscreen screens (6 for black inks, 3 for colours, and 1 for varnish), we printed 150 sheets on blue-back paper. By printing in successive layers, we were able to mix and match inks. As a result, the number of inks varies from sheet to sheet, giving rise to colour variations for each printed surface.

We also used the amalgam technique (placing several documents side by side on the same sheet to optimise printing) to vary the composition of the text blocks. To take a previous example, the flyers (14 × 18 cm) come in 6 different iterations repeated and distributed 63 times across the total surface area of the sheet (118.5 × 175 cm). The resulting 1,260 flyers are almost unique.

In the end, only 150 sheets had to be printed to produce 2,625 invitation cards, 1,260 flyers, 96 A3 posters, 42 editions, 35 posters measuring 118.5 × 175 cm, and 32 posters measuring 50 × 70 cm.

We asked philosopher Olivier Koettlitz to write a text about this project. After an interview in August 2019, he generously offered us a series of four texts related to our questions (as well as others that he spotted in our work). Given this prodigality, we thought it would be a good idea to give concrete expression to it by producing an ambitious edition.

We aimed to continue our exploration of print optimisation by transforming constraints. Rather than filling a large sheet with a smaller format defined in advance (e.g., how many 14 × 18 cm flyers can fit into a Decaux format?), we defined the format of the edition with the intention of covering the entire surface without any loss. The layout was then adapted to this choice, using oversize typefaces that could be read by multiple people in an exhibition context.

As a result, the original matrix was cut into four pieces which, once folded and inserted, produced a 16-page edition measuring W. 42 × H. 55.75 cm (still the largest editorial object we have designed to date).