Actar New York

Exhibition
Thursday, November 16 - Friday, November 24, 2006

Opening Reception
Thursday, November 16, 2006
6:30 - 9:30 pm

at Van Alen Institute
30 West 22nd Street, 6th Floor
New York, NY 10010
212-924-7000

Van Alen Institute is pleased to announce an exhibition and reception for ACTAR, an international publisher of innovative books on art, architecture, photography and design based in Barcelona. As a leading nonprofit organization dedicated to architecture and public practice, Van Alen Institute is pleased to support ACTAR's growing presence in North America. The exhibition will celebrate ACTAR's publishing history and will mark the launch of ACTAR New York.

The opening reception on Thursday, November 16, 2006 will include remarks by:

Farshid Moussavi, Professor in Practice, Harvard Graduate School of Design and Director, Foreign Office Architects, London
Reinhold Martin, Director, Ph.D. Program in Architecture, Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, New York
Ramon Prat and Michael Kubo, Directors of ACTAR Barcelona and ACTAR New York
Adi Shamir, Executive Director, Van Alen Institute

ACTAR explores the shifting boundaries across the fields of art, architecture, photography and design, generating projects through independent research as well as in collaboration with external authors. ACTAR's books are based on overcoming the current gap between the producers of works—artistic, architectural, photographic, graphical or industrial—and those who describe them. Previous books have involved collaborations with architects including OMA / Rem Koolhaas, Foreign Office Architects, Toyo Ito, MVRDV, UN Studio, Massimiliano Fuksas, Diller + Scofidio, and Kazuyo Sejima / SANAA.

ACTAR New York, led by Michael Kubo, an architect and editor who has previously worked in Barcelona and Rotterdam, is organized in collaboration with Base Design, a leader in creative direction and brand identity development, with offices in New York, Paris, Brussels, Barcelona and Madrid. The ACTAR New York office is committed to pursuing connections to the current architecture and design scene in North America, and is currently collaborating with various authors and institutions, including Farshid Moussavi and Eve Blau of the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, Reinhold Martin and Kazys Varnelis of the Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, authors Sanford Kwinter and Beatriz Colomina, and architects Reiser + Umemoto and Aranda / Lasch.