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When I ask him when he started collecting these volumes, he replies that for him, the act of collecting is the most tedious part (“referring to the ephemeral idea of possession”) of the research process which precedes and which, on the contrary, fascinates him the most: for him, it is a question of “discovering the object, the artist, the binding, the imagery, the photographs, the content”. It all started around the age of 17, when, in high school, he remembers coming across a first edition ofPoor Art of They are hiding in Germanof The Fourth Sex of Raf Simons and on some first editions of Joseph Beuys. “I remember being particularly attached to Celant’s publications, in particular to Poor Artnot only for the book itself, but also for the way in which it was able to combine and tell the story of the birth of such a powerful movement, probably the last true artistic movement. And, at the same time, the artists who were part of it (like Anselmo, Kounellis, Merz, Boetti, Penone) are also those who, through their methodology, their attitude, indirectly introduced me to this atypical and guerrilla anti-bookselling that ‘East Veins Books. If I ask him to name the five volumes not to be missed at the Milan pop-up, he replies:“Exit Dark Matter of Steven Parrino, The Perfect Childhood of Larry ClarkJürgen Klauke (I & I) of Jürgen Kaluke, My Body in Nitsch’s Actions and Schwarzkogler of Heinz Onion et FTW (Fuck The World) of Terry Richardson“.
Veins Books started as an online bookstore a few years ago. “This is still the case, but I felt the need to create a physical space that would fully reflect the soul of the project. A place that allows for a global experience: from the book archives to the musical selection, including the materials and furniture made specifically for the pop-up I wanted to create a space where people could enter my world, touch the books, leaf through them and experience them up close,” Bortoletto tells me. In real life, where he posts books on Instagram and exchanges them, he works in the creative team ofAnn Demeulemeester. It was there that he realized his fascination with searching for objects. “I love getting lost in the process of discovering artists, photographers and musicians who can be an evolution for Veins and Ann.” He also realized the importance of having a real, physical community to refer to. “The community aspect is essential for me. As Mario Perniola says in Expanded Artan artist is an artist when he works on his works for a living, to show them and, ideally, to be able to pay the bills. In the same way, I believe that the curator must also create a dialogue with the public and the community.” Among the names that compose it are Stefano Gallici, creative director of Ann Demeulemeester, the photographer Francis Delacroix and the artists October and Stella Rose Gahan. So many good reasons to take a look.
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Article originally published on Vogue.it
