Double page// Photobook - Lenka L. Lukačovičová, Zuzana Pustaiová, Lea Tyrallová, Tomáš Pospěch

We cordially invite you to a discussion on the topic of photo books as part of the Dvojstrana series, which for the third year has brought you discussions on the topic of author's books at VŠVU. This time, presenters Beata Jablonská and Zuzana Lapitková will talk to three photographers and a photographer - Lenka Lindak Lukačovičová, Zuzana Pustaiová, Lea Tyrallová and Tomáš Pospěch, who are active in the field of artistic operation in several roles - including in the context of creating, publishing or exhibiting photography books.

In addition to this issue of Dvojstrana, which will take place on Wednesday, October 30, 2024 at 6:00 p.m. in the Academic Library of VŠVU at Hviezdoslavov námestí 18, be sure not to miss the opening of the exhibition on the occasion of the 12th year of the presentation of PHO BO student photo books in the Medium Gallery, which we open on Thursday, November 14, 2024 at 6:00 p.m. - we look forward to seeing you!

Lenka Lindak Lukačovičová is a graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Bratislava, she completed her studies with a doctorate at the Department of Photography and New Media and currently works as the head of the Protoateliér studio. As a teacher, she also participates in the PHO BO student photo book project, which will have an exhibition this November at the Medium Gallery. Together with Dominika Jackuliaková, they published a book from the educational project Slovakia, krajina slov/Slovakia, Land of Words. Her photographic work extends from photography to installation and performance. She won an award at the competition of contemporary photography of Central and Eastern Europe Different Worlds (2021), and in 2022 she became a laureate of the NOVUM Foundation Award.

Tomáš Pospěch is a photographer, art historian, curator, educator, and runs a small publishing house PositionF. He works in several institutions, but his career is mostly connected with the Institute of Creative Photography (ITF), University of Silesia in Opava, where he completed his studies and works as a teacher. He is the curator of the collections of the Art and Industry Museum in Prague. In his photographic work, he devotes himself to a subjective document, which he understands as an insight into contemporary Czech and Slovak society, often with humor and even sarcasm. He has published several of his own photography books - Šumperák (2015), Bezúčelná prozáchka/An Aimless Walk (2010), but within his PositiF publishing house he systematically publishes monographs by other (often lesser-known Czech photographers) - one of the latest is Nová Sedlica (2022) - photos Pavlo Vavroušek from the 1970s and early 1980s, he does not avoid author's books either - Libor Fojtík Trampové (2020). He is also the author of several theoretical books on photography and visual arts.

Zuzana Pustaiová completed her photography studies with a doctorate at VŠVU in 2022. She works at SNG in the Department of Digital Technologies and at the same time works as an independent photographer, leads seminars and training in photography and is the editor-in-chief of Fotonovín. She is a member of the Austrian platform Reflektor, which focuses on the presentation and publication of independent books, she is also a member of the Association of Slovak Professional Photographers and project manager of the DOKUMENT ZINE.EDITION project (zine edition presenting the work of Slovak authors with an emphasis on the diversity of creative and visual strategies in contemporary photography < and href="www.dokumentmagazin.sk">www.dokumentmagazin.sk). She is represented by Galéria Photon. She has received numerous awards and nominations, this year she was nominated for the C/O Berlin Talent Award 2024, she also received a nomination for the MAST grant 2023/24, she was a finalist of Images Vevey several times – most recently for the years 2023/24 in the Grant Prix and Book Award categories. With her first author's book, One Day Every Day (2022), she became one of the finalists of the Paris Photo Aperture Photobook Awards 2022.

Lea Tyrallová studied photography at the Institut d'Estudis Fotogràfics de Catalunya in Barcelona (2009 -2014), works as a freelance production coordinator and photo book editor, between 2015 and 2023 she worked for the independent publishing house RM, which focuses on photography and contemporary art with a special interest in Latin American work. In 2020, she started working with the Absynt Publishing House, at first she participated in the preparation of the Slovak edition of Ilona Németh's book Eastern Sugar (2021), later she started working as an editor on the publishing house's independent photo book project, within which she has so far prepared Lena Jakubčáková's author's book Baba z lesa (2023 ) and this year Ukraine was published 24/02/22-, which presents reportage photographs from the war in Ukraine by Tomáš Benediković, Gabriel Kuchta, Juraj Mravec, Pavel Pekarčík and Vladimír Šimíček with texts by Mirek Tóda. From 2021, he teaches at the School of Design and Visual Arts LCI Barcelona as part of the Master's Degree program in Documentary Photography a subject called: Photobook: New editorial horizons of Photography.

The Dvojstrana project is the result of a collaboration between the VŠVU Department of Art History and Theory, the VŠVU Academic Library and the Medium Gallery, which primarily focuses on the presentation of the book as a medium that combines literature with visual art. The Dvojstrana project includes lectures, performances, readings or other creative outputs of authors from the field of visual arts who have chosen a book as a means of expanding their work. We want to bring to the visitors of the library and gallery the possibilities of authorial access and "reading" of remarkable projects within two different contexts - an extroverted, performative exhibition environment and a more introverted, dialog-oriented environment of the library.

This project was created with financial support with the support of the Academy of Fine Arts in Bratislava.