Photos by Burrow, Berlin

THE FOURTH POLE


2019
artist book
in collaboration with Julia Wirsching
introduction: Tomke Braun
design: Burrow, Berlin
publisher: Edition Taube


“The expedition diary presented here brings together recollections, and charcoal drawings of the first expedition to the Fourth Pole. In contrast to Mount Everest, the highest point on earth and sometimes referred to as the Third Pole, the Fourth Pole is the lowest continental point. Situated in a terrain that, like no other, is marked by decades of political disputes between religions and states, its current form is of relatively recent origin and the result of the dwindling water level of the Dead Sea. The expedition shifts the biased perspective onto this terrain by declaring the region a Pole and, in so doing, it opens an imaginary space that is not so much defined by national coordinates as by topographical and autobiographical ones. “
–– excerpt of the introductory essay by Tomke Braun






Softcover, thread-stitching, 132 pages, 20 drawings, cover screen printing, edition of 500,
14.8 × 10.5 cm
ISBN978-3-945900-43-7

the book can be ordered here:
https://www.editiontaube.de/produkt/der-vierte-pol/


In 2015 artist Julia Wirsching and I left our studio in Tel Aviv to go on an expedition to find the Fourth Pole. We heard that the deepest dry point on earth lies on the Dead Sea shore. Wondering why this is much less known than the fact that Mount Everest (Third Pole) is the highest point on earth, we thought that the lowest point deserves more visibility and attention. Therefore we designed and sewed a flag to name this region the Fourth Pole. We carried this flag all the way from the Mediterranean Sea to the Dead Sea and left it in the deepest sinkhole there.

The installation of the flag is depicted in a video (6 min, https://vimeo.com/166976248 Password: tfp), and the book takes the form of an expedition diary. The text is written in four languages – Arabic, German, English, and Hebrew – which make their way from the front and back covers to the center of the book, where you find a visual dialog between the two expeditioners about a place that they don’t know.

The text is partly based on our personal experiences while walking through the political territories that were mostly unknown to us, and partly, on research about this specific area that we re-named as the Fourth Pole.






Photos by Burrow, Berlin

INCIDENT REPORTS



2019
artist book
in collaboration with Ashlee Conery
design: Burrow, Berlin
publisher: Verlag Für Moderne Kunst

Artist Gabriel Hensche and curator Ashlee Conery have compiled a catalogue of the work Hensche produced while in residence at Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris, in 2017. The publication includes witness reports that are formally based on actual incident report forms. Adopting the posture of an onlooker, while at the same time acknowledging his role as instigator, Hensche recounts observations of his works as incidents by taking into account the involvement of people and circumstances that led to the events. These protocols are concluded with a final report by Conery in which she adopts the conditions of a mother, a partner and a particle for considering one’s own perspective when acting as a witness, a curator or a bystander.


Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek: The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutschen National- bibliografie: detailed bibliographic data is available in the Internet at http://dnb.de

All rights reserved; no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher.

ISBN 978-3-903269-76-7
Printed in Germany

Published by
VfmK Verlag für moderne Kunst GmbH Schwedenplatz 2/24
A-1010 Vienna
hello@vfmk.org
www.vfmk.org

Distribution
Europe: LKG, www.lkg-va.de
UK: Cornerhouse Publications, www.cornerhousepublications.org USA: D.A.P., www.artbook.com

The book can be ordered here:
www.vfmk.org/shop/gabriel-hensche

Excerpts ‘Incident Reports’






HOW TO LOVE MANY IN MANY WAYS love stories


2023
publication
initiated by Engy Mohsen & Gabriel Hensche
publisher: HumDrumPress

What if we start practicing love not only within our romantic relationships, our families or with our friends, but with Ourselves, Other/s and Other Other/s, too? What happens if we understand love, not only as a private matter, but also as a form of collective practice? What if we start to understand love not as something that happens to us, but also as something that we can actively exercise? What would a collective practice of love towards Ourselves, Other/s, and Other Other/s then look like?

How to Love Many in Many Ways is an expanded artistic research project, initiated by Engy Mohsen and Gabriel Hensche in collaboration with nine invited artists and researchers, that takes the form of a set of games and exercises that playfully challenge the way we see and practice love and with whom we share it.

210 x 297 mm • 52 pages • Clairefontaine Trophée Intensive Pink 120 g/m² • edition of 30


For this publication the authors of the games and exercises explore the connections, encounters, concepts, and objects that stimulated the development of their individual games, in the form of a love story, intertwined with reference materials and processes that helped shape their contributions. This pamphlet therefore encapsulates narrative, image, text fragment, and drawing to reflect upon and unravel what captivated the authors of How To Love Many In Many Ways.


Excerpts ‘HOW TO LOVE MANY IN MANY WAYS incident reporst’



© Gabriel Hensche 2024