A publishing project and mobile exhibition in edition format; boxes containing A0 posters and specially commissioned texts.
For each iteration of Micromegas 7 artists/designers and a writer are invited to respond to Voltaire’s Micromégas novella of 1752.
With reference to Marcel Duchamp’s Boîte en Valise (copy number two of this seminal work is held in Scotland, in the National Galleries of Scotland collection) the Micromegas project reflects Tracy & Edwin’s interest in publishing, reproduction, distribution and portability.
The project also explores issues central to their art practice such as cultural recycling, appropriation, reproduction and artist-led curatorial practice.
Each component of the project contributes to an exploration of the innovative possibilities of visual publishing.
The associated academic paper, Republished Matter: a philosophical story translated through time, medium and space was presented during Impact8 International Printmaking conference (Borders and Crossings: the Artist as Explorer; Aug-Sept 2013) and is published in the Impact8 publication (2014).
Micromegas >
Powers of 10
Dora Garcia (left) and Jonathan Monk (right)
The artists Pavel Büchler, Dora Garcia, Jonathan Monk, Scott Myles, Thomson & Craighead and Tracy & Edwin, the designer Marco Stout and the academic Mark Dorrian (text: In the abyss of the infinitesimally small) contributed to the first edition of the Micromegas project, Micromegas > Powers of 10.
Voltaire’s Micromégas, an early and seminal work in the genre of science fiction, explores a wide range of issues contemporary to Voltaire such as scale, human foible, scientific superstitions, science as ruse, science as spectacle, anti-utopias, human essence, and the formation of ideas.
For The Pier Arts Centre, Stromness, Orkney in 2014 Tracy & Edwin curated MICROMEGAS > POWERS OF 10: 58°57′53″N – 3°17′45″W. This exhibition brought the first edition of Micromegas together with the work of two Orkney-based art publishers, Brae Editions and Hansel Cooperative Press.
Micromegas:
Vagabond Flux
Laure Prouvos (left) and Jacques Longuecolline (right)
The second edition, Micromegas: Vagabond Flux, includes posters by Jonn Herschend, Stefanos Pavlakis & Tobias Kauer, Jacques Longuecolline, Mick Peter, Bik Van der Pol, Laure Prouvost, Tracy Mackenna & Edwin Janssen and a booklet with essay by Emma Bolland, Micromegas, Dog Star: Dreaming Transmissions of a Cosmonaut Bitch.
Micromegas: Vagabond Flux was first presented in Tourcoing, France in 2015 as part of Vagabond Flux, a mobile modular presentation unit commissioned by Fondation de France’s ‘Nouxeaux commanditaires’ scheme, by the Masters CEAC students (exhibition-production) of Lille 3 University.