The project aims to report on the dynamic production of artists’ books internationally today, promote the work of emerging artists and publishers, and foster reflection on the book as an artistic medium. Since 2018, the selection responds to a topic, and this year it looks at notions of affects in the digital age.

The project has been supported by Arts Council England, the Austrian Chancellery, Fedrigoni Papers, G. F. Smith and Das Weisse Haus.

"All Rise" is a performance and installation by Lalu Delbracio conceived for Matèria's gallery spaces.
During the performance, the artist strips leaves of paper from the blank surface of the gallery wall, unveiling multiple layers of colour with each gesture. The piece interrogates the symbolic associations between the colour white and notions of purity; while exploring the tensions between homogeneity and diversity, civil disobedience and passivity.

Through simple bodily actions the artist digs, pokes and erodes photographs and paper rejecting the surface as defined and consolidated. With this Lalu suggests to peel through the layers and try to get back to a previous state of curiosity, exploration and flux similar to that of early childhood.