Lectures is a symposium involving photo editors, art directors, curators, photographers et all and their perception of contemporary photography. 
The first edition of Lectures will take place on May 31, 2013 in Mainz, Germany.

It is limited with only 100 tickets. Qompendium is giving away 3 seats to the first who will send us an email.
mail(at)qompendium(dot)com

More information: www.cult-lectures.com

Natural, monochromatic abstraction is how one could describe this young artist's work. At times loud maybe slightly psychedelic, yet we wish paradise would be like his photographies. We might then convert to Christianity.

David Benjamin Sherry: "I think anyone who finds pleasure in the natural world would enjoy seeing these ancient rocks and mountains in surreal colors. I would assume that they would be thrilled that I was inspired by nature; I wouldn’t expect judgment from a nature purist."

By marrying aspects of eastern and western culture in her paintings, Yun-Kyung Jeong's works are the painterly pursuit of an imagined and idealised natural Utopia. Through the repetition of a leaf-shaped symbol that signifies the elements as one, the artist attempts to portray the invisible and subtle collisions arising from the conflicts between the countless elements that make up the world.

Jeong’s current body of work meticulously pursues every possible combination of the repeated sign in patterns that have qualities of optical illusion in their play with depth, combined with a strong sense of perverse three dimentiality.

There are subtle hints of western Gothic architecture in the patterns; the curves of flying buttresses and barrel vaults. As such constructions are considered to have a visual similarity with natural forms, this can be seen as a meeting point or collision of eastern and western values. Unlike the western Christian ideology of man over nature, such eastern philosophies as animism suggest a sense of equality.

Yoko Ono is one of the most influential artists of our time. In honor of the 80th birthday of the artist, who was born in Tokyo on February 18, 1933, the Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt is presenting an extensive retrospective from February 15 to May 12, 2013. The exhibition will feature a comprehensive survey of the multifaceted universe of this extraordinary artist, who is regarded as a pioneer of early conceptual, film and performance art as well as a key figure in the world of music, the peace movement and feminism, who continues to play an influential role in current developments in art. Some 200 objects, films, spatial installations, photographs, drawings and textual pieces as well as a special music room will shed light on the diverse media landscape of Ono's art and the central themes of her oeuvre. The retrospective devotes particular attention to Yoko Ono's works from the 1960s and 1970s. It features, among other exhibits, such groundbreaking works as the Instructions for Paintings, first exhibited in 1961 and 1962; the performance Cut Piece (1964); and her book Grapefruit, published in 1964. Yoko Ono has also developed a new work—the installation and performance Moving Mountains—specifically for the exhibition in Frankfurt.

Yoko Ono
Half-A-Wind Show. A Retrospective
February 15–May 12, 2013
Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt
Römerberg, D-60311 Frankfurt

Hours:
Tuesday, Friday–Sunday 10–7pm;
Wednesday, Thursday 10–10pm

Our friend Joachim Baan at Another Something & Co. has updated his platform which is brilliantly coded by Drost & Co. He founded the agency in 2007 and offers brand design, creative direction, fashion initiatives and collaborations.

Another Something & Co. creates and shares a world of beauty and is an inspiration to us. Thank you Joachim.

We at Qompendium receive quite a number of emails and brand notifications on an hourly basis. But it is look books like this one that we keep on our desks and enjoy, regardless of the product or the brand itself.

Dear brands, please make more effort in printed look books along with all the digital ones. Create collectibles. Support graphic design. Enhance your brand brochures.

Here is one example of how it is done: Levi’s Vintage Clothing digs deep into the Levi’s Archives to reproduce iconic garments from bygone eras. For Spring 2013, Levi’s Vintage Clothing pays tribute to the golden era of the American Hot Rod, and the sharply dressed car owners and spectators who sported Levi's. In addition to releasing the collection of Hot Rod inspired jeans and Sportswear, Levi's Vintage Clothing presents a collection of vintage photography, special events and collaborations initiated by the brand.

What is the Bel Paese you ask?

"It is a mixture, a sum of many elements: flavors, history, landscape and cultures. It’s the feeling of the abundance just before the harvest. It’s the contemplation and awe while walking through Pompeii or the Etruscan tombs in Cerveteri, the theatre and fantasy of Frascati gardens and the valley of the temples in Agrigento. It’s the pure pleasure of drizzling olive oil on dense durum wheat bread, spotting the shepherd and his flock on the hill, candlelit dinner in a cave and driving the tractor plow with my 3 year-old son August."
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Since its founding in 1989 under the tutelage of director Tonio Creanza, Messors has worked on a host of preservation projects in the Puglia region in Italy covering archeological research, restoration projects on frescoes, wood and stone statues, decorative painting, guided tours, educational field school projects and study abroad university programs.

"I do not want to preach,  I really just want to share, believe it is all possibe and have fun doing it. If I could harvest, meet people and work with with them to conserve and restore, and feast with my wife, son and traveling friends every night I would."

Qompendium in talk with Tonio Creanza, click to read further

Aristotle’s Complete Master-Piece, a 17th century sex manual banned for over two centuries, has sold above estimate at Lyon & Turnbull.

First published in 1684, the book was intended as a guide for young couples to sex, conception, pregnancy and birth, as well as containing a few warnings against engaging in sinful activities.

Much of the advice was largely based on superstition. The book suggests that if parents were sinning whilst conceiving a child, the baby was likely to be born a monster, malformed or covered in fur. This notion was typical of the era, when portents and prodigies, witches and evil were rife in English culture.

The book includes a number of graphic illustrations. It was banned for its content in the 18th century, considered taboo and distasteful. Printers avoided including their names in the book for fear of prosecution.
Yet the work maintained a secretive popularity, selling extremely well under the counter to curious readers.
Book specialist at Lyon & Turnbull Simon Vickers stated: ‘Drawing from the works of Nicholas Culpepper and Albertus Magnus, with a good dose of old wife's tale, there were more editions of this work published in the 18th century than any other medical text’.

The anonymous writers attributed the work to Aristotle, possibly as a marketing ploy.

The copy of the book offered at the auction was the 1760s ‘Improved’ version. It was expected to sell for £300-£400, but heated bidding pushed it up to a hammer price of £550 at Lyon & Turnbull’s January 16 Books, Maps, Manuscripts and Photographs sale.

Established by Christian Andreas Speck in 1790 in Blankenheim, Germany, with a debut exhibition at the Leipzig Fair, Weimar Porzellan remains a stalwart in the elegant production of “white gold”. Even the great poet and privy councellor Johann Wolfgang von Goethe lauded the fine china when he remarked in a letter to Mrs. von Stein: “… The porcelain is very fine, better than what they make not far from here and yet it sells for a better price.”

Thu Thu is the label of 24 year old designer Thuy Duong Nguyen. The striking fabrics featured in Thu Thu design are sourced from vintage skirts and blankets in Sapa, a mountainous region in North Vietnam. Made by women of the H'mong ethnic group when a new baby is born, they take several months to complete. The fabric is produced using locally sourced natural dyes such as beeswax and indigo. 

Nguyen studied at the international fashion school ESMOD Berlin and is currently based in London.

Rwandan peace basket by Japanese company Ruise B., crafted by the country’s local ladies and imported with a joint effort from Rwandan cooperatives. All profits are donated back to the community with an aim to improve the quality of women’s lives.