Press Release: Exhibition: Book Covers for Beletrina

Press Release: Book Covers for Beletrina

Dreamspace Gallery, 1–3 Dufferin Street, London, EC1Y 8NA

Exhibition: 3–9 October 2010, 9am–5.30pm

Literary Event: 4 October 2010,  6–8.30 pm (readings start at 6.30pm)

Children’s Workshop: 3 October 2010, 11am–1pm

Summary

An exhibition of book covers and illustrations by Andreja Brulc, a London-based Slovene graphic designer and illustrator, created since 2007 for Beletrina, a major literary imprint of the Slovene publisher Beletrina Academic Press. The exhibition will be accompanied by a literary event and a children’s creative workshop.

The project, sponsored by the government of the Republic of Slovenia, will present the publisher’s prolific literary activities for the first time in London through the display of selected book covers showing the unique relationship with their principle designer and illustrator. The event will also bring to a London audience three Slovene literary figures (including the best selling Slovene author of the last decade Goran Vojnović).

Exhibition

The book covers in the exhibition show a strong interest in typography and in combining illustration with photography, typography, traditional techniques such as hand-printing, stitching and patchwork, embroidery, knitting and crocheting, and industrial materials such as sandpaper and scrim tape.

Literary event

Readings will be held by poetess Miljana Cunta, shortlisted for the Veronika Prize for the best poetry collection of 2010; writer and film director Goran Vojnović, author of the region’s bestselling novel in 2009, entitled Southern Scum Go Home; and essayist and poet Aleš Šteger, recipient of numerous prestigious awards and scholarships, whose work has been translated into more than a dozen languages. The readings will be held in Slovene and English, and printed extracts will be available in English.

Children’s workshop

Children (3–14yrs old) will be invited to create their own illustrations based on a story which will be assembled into a picture book and included into the exhibition.

Notes for editors

Beletrina Academic Press

Beletrina is one of the most highly esteemed literary imprints in Slovenia. Beletrina Academic Press has gained its reputation primarily by introducing prominent works of contemporary national and world literature to Slovene readers. The publisher’s goal is to set standards for a new publishing philosophy which, in addition to focusing on noncommercial titles and giving priority to inventiveness, freshness and directness, respects authors and invests considerable effort in the promotion of their work.

Beletrina‘s list of contemporary Slovene authors is essential, focused as it is on highly regarded writers who not only attract substantial attention today but promise to flourish for decades to come. Although the imprint emphasises younger prose writers and poets, many older and established authors have contributed to its richness and diversity.

Andreja Brulc

Andreja Brulc completed an MA in Art History at University College London, and worked in the Exhibitions Department at the Royal Academy of Arts for nearly ten years. After studying design, typography, illustration and printmaking at the London College of Communications, she won a public competition to become principal cover designer and illustrator for Beletrina. By end of her fourth year in this role she will have created more than 140 book covers, along with promotional material for books and literary festivals – and a series of murals in the publisher’s press room!

Her illustrations for Beletrina have been selected for prestigious national and international biennials of illustration. Her book covers were given an award of excellence at the 4th Biennial of Slovene Visual Communication (2009). She was nominated as an Honorary Member of the Slovene Design Society (2010) and has won the highest funding award given to an illustrator for 2010 by the Association of the Slovene Fine Artists’ Societies.

She has worked on many other projects, including the recent UNESCO-sponsored public art project, Baptism at the River Savica, which dressed the principal statue of Slovenia’s national poet, France Preseren, in a cloak covered in hand-made lettering from the poet’s longest work in verse. The national newspaper Dnevnik (22 May 2010) wrote that the poem was given “a form never seen before” and that “the project gave Ljubljana new artistic inspiration”.

Contact

Book covers and workshop:
andreja.brulc@gmail.com
www.andrejabrulc.com

Literary event:
renata.zamida@zalozba.org
www.zalozba.org

Dreamspace Gallery:
hilaryw@adrem.uk.com
www.adrem.uk.com/dreamspace

Images are available.

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