The Sammlung Philara and Verlag Kettler are pleased to present a resource-saving and affordable art book series in pocket format, aimed at mobile readers. In them, discursive exhibitions of the Philara Collection are documented and complemented with socio-critical voices from theoretical, journalistic or writing perspectives. As an opener, the publication Attempts to Be Many poses the question of how dynamic concepts of identity can be formulated in opposition to rigid constructs of foreign attribution and ideological one-dimensionality. The exhibition of the same name with works by Nara Bak, Jana Buch, Donja Nasseri, Arisa Purkpong, Anys Reimann and Theresa Weber in the Philara Collection 2021/2022 also negotiated the plurality of identities and new narrative forms in relation to learned narratives. The renowned cultural scientist and writer Mithu Sanyal opens up a very personal approach with her text to the exhibition by breaking through identity-political regulatory discourses that flatten into the categories of origin, ethnicity, religion, or gender. Text in English, German and Thai.

“IN MANY LANGUAGES, ‘UNDERSTANDING’ ALSO COMES FROM THE IDEA OF PUTTING SOMETHING INSIDE YOUR BODY” – CAMILLE HENROT Over the past twenty years, Camille Henrot has developed a critically acclaimed practice that moves seamlessly between drawing, painting, sculpture, installation, and film. Mother Tongue is Henrot’s first publication focused solely on painting and drawing, bringing together over 200 works from the series System of Attachment, Wet Job, and Soon, created between 2018 and 2022. This recent body of work addresses the ambivalent nature of care and the tension between the simultaneous developmental need for attachment and independence, beginning at infancy and continuing throughout life. Her deeply personal and intimate interrogations ultimately relate to broader questions such as the expectations placed on mothers and the representation of the female body. This richly illustrated catalogue is accompanied by texts from Emily LaBarge, Legacy Russell, Marcus Steinweg, Hélene Cixous, Seamus Kealy, and a conversation with Camille Henrot and curator Julika Bosch.

The Swiss company Baloise has a reputation among art experts, but not just as an insurance and financial services company. With its programs that support art, its collaborations with museums, and the renowned Baloise Art Prize for young artists, which is awarded at Art Basel, the company has had a lasting effect on the development of contemporary art. Less well-known up to now is the fact that, parallel to the company's activities, it has also built a first-class art collection, which dates back to the mid-twentieth century. Since turning to contemporary art in the 1990s, the company has collected the works of notable artists. With a focus on photography and works on paper from the 1960s onward, some of the artists represented in the collection are Miriam Cahn, Simon Denny, Katharina Fritsch, Bruce Nauman, and Jeff Wall. Baloise Art is the first publication to provide a broader audience with an overview of the collection. Informative texts by prestigious authors accompany the artworks.