The Book [embodiment] Lab Interacting with a Book: Body, Breath, Touch, Media

During our meeting, we’ll delve into books as living organisms, where each body possesses its own unique structure, trace, and personality. 

Using examples of various book constructions by our authors, we’ll explore every stage of the viewer’s interaction with the book: from immersing themselves in the narrative to perceiving the printed project as a product. 
We’ll also discuss the significance of the book medium as an exhibition space and explore shifts in visual tradition.Book[e]lab is an independent multidisciplinary project specializing in small-run editions, founded by Olga Matveeva and Jenia Yahina.

Since its establishment in 2020, Book[e]lab has been curating immersive laboratories and workshops focused on creating artist’s photobooks and zines.

In our exploration of photobooks, we engage all senses through interaction with space, surface, volume, material, and proportions. Sometimes, a book can offer artists more freedom and resources than a gallery space, opening up new layers of meaning in authorial expression through tactile experiences.

Throughout the various stages of working with photobooks, we combine the experiences of artists, photographers, designers, and even technologists. This collaborative process inspires and encourages thinking and experimentation. Book design becomes an integral part of the project, enriching its semantic scope. That`s why we carefully consider the choice of paper, printing method, and construction of each future book.

The peculiarity of our laboratory lies in the synthesis of artist and designer practices, providing an opportunity to view one’s work through the lens of different professional experiences and to explore how the authorial idea interacts with book design and the viewer’s perception.

Our collective mission is to delve into the depths of visual imagination, overcome creative obstacles, and uncover the language of individual expression, ultimately crafting layouts ripe for the printing press.

Instagram @bookelab

Olga Matveeva is a visual artist who works with photography, installation, artist’s books, and analogue printing processes. She is also an independent curator, publisher, and educator, as well as the co-founder of Book[e]Lab.Olga graduated in political science at the State University for Human Sciences in Moscow in 2008, and from photography at the Rodchenko Art School in 2013.

Participant of international festivals and exhibitions of contemporary art.In her artistic practice she is focused on the experiences of an individual in an ever changing socio-political turmoil while being immersed in mythology and mysticism. Originally from Moscow, she currently lives and works in Belgrade, Serbia. 

Jenya Yahina, the co-founder of the Book[e]Lab, she participates in photobook workshops as an independent curator-researcher and teaches the Author’s Photobook course at the Rodchenko Art School. She is also a dance artist, practicing contemporary dance and dance performance.

The focus of her artistic research lies in perceiving the body’s interaction with the surrounding reality through performative contemporary dance practices, unfixed identities, and the synthesis of body and space in artist/research/photo book.