What do people do, if they are out in the street? Reading? Waiting? Can we recognize the inhabitant, the stranger, the traveler by his actions and deeds in an urban setting? This is the premise of Johannes Schwartz’s exploration, which was set in Athens in the fall of 2015. Places of culture and consumption, streets, public squares, museums, ruins and shops.
Divided in 17 chapters everything passes by in a set of chance driven encounters. The book is designed by Experimental Jetset and an other example of their intense cooperation.
The title on the cover and the grid-lines on the first page suggest you are reading a newspaper. I would rather say various dummy daily newspapers, holding found content between its folds, pressing the images in the invisible grid in the empty pages, forcing the reader to read about what can not be seen.
author: Johannes Schwartz
designers: Experimental Jetset
©2016 Roma 286
545 p, ills colour & bw, 27 x 38 cm, pb, English
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The Athens Reader was part of Test Press Books Pop-Up / 2021