Italia - Journeys around a Table

What is the role of art in processing the historical knowledge base for our time? Which topics can be negotiated, which possibilities does the current publishing practice offer? And what does it mean to establish a new publishing house for artists' books in today's Italy?

Artist Giovanna Silva entered pristine editorial terrain with Humboldt Books, the publishing house she founded in 2012. Thematically, her series of publications focuses on research expeditions of the 18th and 19th century and their reception by individual artists. During a table talk with Bernhard Cella, she tells about her life as an editor, while he translates her narration of the Italian cultural landscape in a cartographic sketch.

Giovanna Silva is an artist, photographer and publisher; recent publicatons: "Narratives / Relazioni: Baghdad. Red Zone, Green Zone, Babylon", "Libya – Inch by Inch, House by House, Alley by Alley" und "Foxtrot Gate – Cyprus"; additionally, she publishes in the magazines "Domus", "Abitare" und "Doppiozero"; she participated in the 10th International Architecture Exhibition and, most recently, in the 14th Mostra internazionale d'Architettura di Venezia where she presented the project "Nightswimming: Discotheques in Italy from the 1960s until now"; she is a member of the editorial board of the magazine for architecture "San Rocco" and the editor of "Humboldt Books"; she lives and works in Milan, Italy.