In 2013, upon my arrival in Zurich, informed by my zine practice within the collective DUPE, I co-founded the organisation VOLUMES with Gloria Wismer and Patrizia Mazzei. Together we organise small and large events around the practices of art publishing. VOLUMES was awarded the Jan Tschichold award 2022.
As artistic director, I take care of research, international collaborations and curating. Over the years I have been eager to develop a wide programmation of talks, workshops, performances and exhibitions. Especially interested in the paradigm of the archive, the challenge of categories and inventories, I have also been working on transforming our library of donated art publications into a site of investigation: the VOLUMES archive. I recently curated the exhibition "744km, Stories from the Swiss-Italian Alpine frontline" for the Swiss Institute in Milan, questionning border stories through the superimpositions, gaps and frictions present within the narratives and representations of art, academic and mainstream publications.
About VOLUMES:
Operating in various locations, VOLUMES organizes large and small book fair events, which showcase the production of local and international independent publishers as well as self-editing artists who use small means of production. Exploring the creativity gravitating around the practices of art publishing, we regularly invite performances, installations, workshops, symposiums or projections within our events. Feeling aware that publications can be part of a much larger set of mediums and investigations,VOLUMES aimed from the start to combine a classic book fair set up with series of exhibitions, workshops, talks and performances. A variety of geographies and temporalities were therefore developed within our events, in order to provide different experiences to the visitors but also to give more space and time to a selection of initiatives by artists, curators, researchers or activists. In 2020, in reaction to the pandemy, VOLUMES launched its annual Book Award, to further showcase and support recent independent publications. We also started the VOLUMES Book Club, a series of talks, to gather people and books in a series of intimate events.
Since 2013, VOLUMES has also been building a collection of art books, zines and magazines, thanks to the many donations received annually for our international open call exhibition. Taking this library as a site of investigation, we have been researching new forms for organizing and understanding the paradigm of the archive and the challenge of categories and inventories. To do so, we invite external voices to interact with what is there but also to look at what is not there and could be added, archiving the collection through curated constellations of publications which get showcased online, through talks and exhibition displays.
Much like many participants to our events, what we learnt from publishing so far has been acquired by doing and experimenting. We learnt the value of collective practices, of creating platforms for people to showcase their work, regardless of the scale or means of their production. We witnessed the importance of physical gatherings and community building. We also discovered the variety and transdisciplinary nature of practices connected with publishing. VOLUMES was never meant to have a finished form, it has been always changing, adapting to new spaces and learning from new circumstances. It can therefore be forever customized.
VOLUMES timeline:
VOLUMES Archive: The VOLUMES archive is part of “Living library of becomings”, a group exhibition curated by Miwa Negoro at VBKÖ, which derive from a performative library project dedicated to multiple narratives of intersectional, decolonial and queer feminist spirits. Exhibition duration: March 1 – April 10, 2024
VOLUMES Archive: “S-motion” at Visarte Zürich: installation and display of a selection from the VOLUMES archive section curated by the M.Paradoxa artist collective (Ziqi Jiang, Linda Strähl, Balca Ergener, Esther Schena, Lisa Biedlingmaier)
VOLUMES Award: VOLUMES Book Awards 2023, 18/11/23, Zentralwäscherei, Zürich, CH
VOLUMES Fair: VOLUMES 2023, 18-19/11/23, Zentralwäscherei, Zürich, CH
VOLUMES Fair: VOLUMES Mini Fair at Zurich Art Weekend, Saturday, 10/06/2023, 12-20h, on the ramp of Löwenbräukunst Zürich
VOLUMES archive: 744km, Stories from the Swiss-Italian Alpine Frontline, with SPRINT, Istituto Svizzero, Milan, IT
VOLUMES archive: VOLUMES archive launch: “Fossils” by Lourenço Soares, 01/10/22, Material, Zürich, CH
VOLUMES Fair: VOLUMES mini fair, The Most Beautiful Swiss Books, 25/06/22, Helmhaus, Zürich, CH
Invitation: Interview by Susanne Bieri of Anne-Laure Franchette, Patrizia Mazzei, Gloria Wismer for the publication Schweizer Künstlerbücher - Livres d’Artistes Suisses - Libri d’Artista Svizzeri, Swiss Artists’ Books, published by Walther und Franz König Verlag
Distinction: VOLUMES is awarded the Jan Tschichold Award 2022
Invitation: Interstices de la librairie, workshop by Anne-Laure Franchette for the Head-Ecal-édhéa symposium, 29/03/22, Château Mercier, Sierre, CH
VOLUMES Award: VOLUMES Book Awards 2021,19/12/21, Zentralwäscherei, Zürich, CH
VOLUMES Fair: VOLUMES, 1 day Christmas Edition, 19/12/21 Zentralwäscherei, Zürich, CH
Invitation: Die Sammlerin, interview of Gloria Wismer for Züritipp, Der Kopf, 16/12/21
VOLUMES Workshop: связь, a collaborative experiment between TETI Group, VOLUMES, Write Like A Girl Russia, organized by Anne-Laure Franchette and Svetlana Lukyanova, October 2021, Smena art center, Kazan, RU
VOLUMES Library: Mobile Soils, curated by TETI Group for Modern Nature III, la becque, 04/09/21, La Tour de Peilz, CH
VOLUMES Performance: Günzburger X Bar am Wasser X VOLUMES X Kunsthalle Zürich, Lange Nacht der Museen, 04/09/21, Kunsthalle, Zürich, CH
VOLUMES Fair: VOLUMES 1 day Summer Edition, 28/08/21, Sihlquai 274, Zürich, CH
VOLUMES Book Club Talks: Mexa: Archive Section Launch, talk by Adriana Dominguez and Paloma Ayala, moderated by Anne-Laure Franchette, 27/08/21, Kunsthalle Zürich, Zürich, CH
VOLUMES Book Club Workshop: How to make publications, with Tamara Maggi, moderated by Patrizia Mazzei, 03/07/21, Kunsthalle Zürich, Zürich, CH
VOLUMES Book Club Talks: Publishing as practice, talk with Mabe Bethonico, Tine Melzer, Lucille Haute, Berenice Serra, Petra Koehle & Nicolas Vermot-Petit-Outhenin, moderated by Anne-Laure Franchette, 26/06/21, Kunsthalle Zürich, Zürich, CH
VOLUMES Book Club: Publishers gathering, talk with Ciao Press, DEAR, Edition Ventile, Macaco Press, Tria publishing, moderated by Gloria Wismer, 19/06/21, Kunsthalle Zürich, Zürich CH
Invitation: Portal conversations, talk between Hellscrape, Freedom-Hi and Anne-Laure Franchette, June 2021, Shedhalle Zürich, Zürich, CH
VOLUMES Exhibition: Freedom Hi, zine exhibition coordinated with Zine Coop, May-June 2021, Continuity/Transpassing, Shedhalle Zürich, Zürich, CH
VOLUMES Archive launch: inter:archive digital platform, by Giovanna Bragaglia, Camille Regli, Miwa Negoro, VOLUMES archive, June 2021, Zürich, CH
Invitation: Ortsspezifisches Vokabular: Bücher, workshop with Barbara Biederman, A. Frei & Franziska Koch, Anne-Laure Franchette, Lucie Kolb, Jan Steinbach, Izet Sheshivari, Gloria Wismer, 29/04/21, Sitterwerk Kunstbibliothek, St Gallen, CH
Invitation: VOLUMES, talk by Anne-Laure Franchette, December 2020, Impressions Multiples #9, ENSBA, Caen, FR
VOLUMES Award: VOLUMES Book Awards 2020, November 2020, VOLUMES archive, Zürich, CH
Invitation: Coming Commons, Anne-Laure Franchette, Juan Pablo Garcia Sossa in conversation for Station of Commons, November 2020, HFKB Hamburg, DE
Invitation: How to postpone until tomorrow when tomorrow is uncertain? Anne-Laure Franchette, Ruggero Pietromarchi, Margaux Swhwab in conversation for FCDxradio-40, foodculture days, November 2021, Vevey, CH
Invitation: VOLUMES workshop by Anne-Laure Franchette, November 2020, Master Maps, édhéa, école d’art du Valais, Sierre, CH
VOLUMES Library: Nature-City archive by TETI Group for the exhibition “Oops a Daisy!”, Oct-Nov 2020, Dietikon Projektraum, Dietikon, CH
VOLUMES Library: Zürich archive, School of Commons, 2019-2020, ZhDK, Zürich, CH
Invitation: What running a book fair taught us about publishing, conversation between Anne-Laure Franchette, Patrizia Mazzei and Gloria Wismer, October 2020, YET magazine issue #12
VOLUMES on tour: Swiss Self Publishing and the question of the archive, Series of talks, Anne-Laure Franchette, Sep 2019, Smena art center, Kazan; Garage Center for Contemporary Arts, Moscow; Boomfest festival St Petersburg, RU
Invitation: How to do an art book fair now. Discussion between Yue Zhou, Sara Kamalvand and Reyhan Làl, Ruedi Steiner, Gloria Wismer, Bia Bittencourt and León Muñoz Santini. September 2020, I Never Read, Basel, CH
VOLUMES Fair: VOLUMES 2019, 29/11/. - 1/12/19, Kunsthalle Zürich, Zürich, CH
VOLUMES Fair: VOLUMES 2018, 23/11/ - 25/11/18, Kunsthalle Zürich, Zürich, CH
Invitation: The art of publishing art books independently, interview of Anne-Laure Franchette and Patrizia Mazzei, November 2018, Swissinfo, CH
Invitation: VOLUMES and Swiss Self Publishing, talk by Anne-Laure Franchette, September 2018, Museo de Arte Contemporaneo, IMPRESIONANTE Book Fair, Santiago, CHL
VOLUMES Library: The Zürich Archive, 2018, Keineklasse, Zürich, CH
VOLUMES Library: Hinterland, TETI Group, 05/05 - 23/06, Corner College, Zürich, CH
VOLUMES Fair: VOLUMES 2017, 24/11/ - 25/11/17, Helmhaus, Zürich, CH
VOLUMES Zine: A Snapshot of Independent Publishing in Switzerland, self published risograph zine by Anne-Laure Franchette and Alex Schauwecker, 2017, LAABF, USA
VOLUMES Exhibition: La Bibliothèque à déplacer, VESGE & Les Presses Editables, June 2017, BIG Biennale des espaces d’arts indépendants, Geneva, CH
VOLUMES Fair: VOLUMES 2016, 25/11/ - 26/11/16, Gessnerallee, Zürich, CH
VOLUMES Fair: VOLUMES 2015, 27/11/ - 28/11/15, Kunstraum Walcheturm, Zürich, CH
VOLUMES Talk: Self-Publishing as an art practice, with Esther Eppstein, Milenko Lazic, Ingo Giezendanner, Nicola Genovese, Alex Schauwecker, Gabriel Gee, moderated by Anne-Laure Franchette 25/01/2015, Penthouse Gallery, Zurich, CH
VOLUMES Workshop: #8, Anne-Laure Franchette and Patrizia Mazzei, 19/11/15, FRICTION Nordflügel, Gessnerallee, Zürich, CH
VOLUMES Workshop: #5, #6 and #7, Anne-Laure Franchette and Patrizia Mazzei, 2-4-6/11/15, Liceo Artistico, Zürich, CH
VOLUMES Workshop: #4, Anne-Laure Franchette, 15/10/15, ZHdK Fine Arts Bachelor, Zürich, CH
VOLUMES Workshop: #3, Anne-Laure Franchette and Patrizia Mazzei, 30/05/15 KASSETTE . für projekte, Zürich, CH
VOLUMES Workshop: #2, Anne-Laure Franchette, 29/04/15, ZHdK Fine Arts Bachelor, Zürich, CH
VOLUMES Workshop: #1, Anne-Laure Franchette and Patrizia Mazzei, 18/04/15, Corner College, Zürich, CH
VOLUMES Fair: VOLUMES 2014, 29/11/14, Perla-Mode, Zürich, CH
VOLUMES Fair: Üsin, Zurich Small Press Fair, 14/11/13, Karussell, Zürich CH