After a first part dedicated to the illustrated book and to the Portuguese editorial panorama, the WHAT A BOOK MAY encounter continue their exploration of the children’s book. We are interested in showing the children’s book in its dimension of artistic object; that is, in the ways an artist occupies and shapes the book as a means of presenting his work. We would like to reflect on the ambiguity and ambivalence of the place that these books reserve to childhood (as theme or source of inspiration) and to the children themselves as readers (and / or users) or as mere “pretexts” of such works.

The children’s book is text, illustrations, total design; an object of manufacture and a commercial product; a social, cultural and historical document. And, above all, an experience for the child. As an art form, it lives on the interdependence of images and words, on the simultaneous presentation of two pages side by side, and on the drama of turning the page. Creating a children’s book means for many of the authors, illustrators and editors to return “to the zero degree of culture,” where “everything” is possible. To question the conventions of narration, the representations of reality, and, finally, to rethink the very form of the book. This utopia of the children’s book – as “zero grade” – thus favors original experimental postures both in terms of plastic expression and in terms of formal diversity.

The program of the 5th Encounters “What a book can” [part 2] includes an exhibition (“Click! Tell the camera” – children’s photo books), talks, workshops for children (7-12 years old, of photo-books with the plastic artist Catarina Botelho: “Photographs for a Story”) and a book room (sale of books by STET and Nouvelle Librairie Française publishers related to the topics covered in the meetings) and with the participation of several guests national and international: Isabel Baraona, Susana Gaudêncio, André E. Teodósio, Philippe UG, Aude Séguinier, Cristophe Daviet-Théry, Filipa Valladares, David-Alexandre Guéniot, Elisabeth Lortic and Mário Moura.

David-Alexandre Guéniot

credits

organized and produced by GHOST, OFICINA DO CEGO, TIPO.PT, STET – books and photography