Guy Schraenen is the founder of the Galerie Kontakt (1965-78), of the publishing house Guy Schraenen éditeur (1973-78), of the Archive for Small Press & Communication (A.S.P.C.) (1974-1999). His many activities as producer, publisher, distributor, collector, curator and theorist are focused on artists’ publications of the various international avant-garde and independent art movements from the late 1950s until the 1980s. In 2016-2017, Guy Schraenen was curator of the exhibition Ulises Carrión. Dear reader. Don’t read at Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía and Museo Jumex. Speaking from his own experience and his experience of collaborating with the artist, Schraenen will address the complexity of such a versatile body of work that comprises literature, video, film, theoretical production, the opening of a bookstore and gallery space, curatorial and public projects, among others. He will also delve into Carrion’s concept of poetry against the classic academic approach.

A key figure in Mexican conceptual art, Ulises Carrión (1941-1989) was an artist, editor, curator, and theorist of the post-1960s international artistic avant-garde. He co-founded the independent artists’ run space In-Out Center in Amsterdam and founded the legendary bookshop-gallery Other Books and So (1975-79), the first of its kind dedicated to artists’ publications. The name “Other Books” indicates the purpose of this bookshop-gallery: the presentation, production, and distribution of publications that were no longer literary texts nor about art, but rather books that were art or, as Carrión himself called them, “non books, anti books, pseudo books, quasi books, concrete books, visual books, conceptual books, structural books, project books, statement books, instruction books” 

Additional information: 

http://www.wiels.org/en/57/995/Guy-Schraenen-Its-Over-and-Over-  

https://www.guyschraenenediteur.com/