Last summer, a collaboration between DISTANZ publishing and creative agency TRIADIC resulted in the new book STILL HERE – Moments in Isolation. Curated and edited by Mafalda Millies and Roya Sachs, the publication looks back on the early days of the pandemic through a compilation of words and still life images, contributed by creatives and innovators across the globe.
“What began as a simple task and playful request to creatives in our community, quickly morphed into a much larger storytelling of our time in confinement,” said Millies and Sachs in their introduction.
STILL HERE – Moments in Isolation, courtesy of DISTANZ publishing.
The thought-provoking compilation creates a unique narrative surrounding the unprecedented moment in history, seen through the gaze of visual artists, dancers, singers, chefs, musicians, photographers, architects, and other individuals. Examining the still life for its simple, universal nature, the book is composed of a series of submissions from names like Song Dong, Issy Wood, Humberto Campana, Tracey Emin, Pari Ehsan, Anne Imhof, Laure Prouvost, Shirin Neshat, and Simon de Pury, who were each asked to capture their shared experience.
Readers will find through this collective story both a comforting familiarity and a widened perspective, catching a glimpse at moments of this time experienced across the world, with each submission comprised of the same components—imagery, words, a location, and a date. Throughout the book are contributions like Pascal Möhlmann’s painting of a half-eaten jelly donut and a thermometer, while Justin Lowe and Jonah Freeman’s page includes a less traditional interpretation of the still life, depicting fruits and vegetables connected by a network of cables. And next to images of a rose appearing to float mid-air, the botanical set designer Ruby Barber said of her time in isolation, “During this suspended state I’ve found myself imagining our possible futures and how nature and technology will collide.”
Pascal Möhlmann,
“BISMARCK AND THERMOMETER,” 2019,
20 × 20 cm, courtesy of Pascal Möhlmann.
Produced by Elizabeth Edelman and published by Matthias Kliefoth, the physical publication is accompanied by additional images, texts, videos, AR components, and other media, which are accessible through the DISTANZ app. Profits belonging to the publishing house will be donated to the mentor-based Berlin Program for Artists.Meanwhile, all proceeds belonging to TRIADICwill be given directly to the New York City-based arts organization Performa, whose mission focus lies around the importance of live performance and new directions in art.
Tracey Emin, “My Fathers Dead – My Mother is Dead – Docket is Dead,” 2020, gouache on paper, 29.6 × 40.8 cm; courtesy of Tracey Emin.
Esmeralda Kosmatopoulos, “there yet?,” 2020,
digital photograph, courtesy of Esmeralda Kosmatopoulos.
Wolfgang Tillmans
“Clipped Tulip,” 2020,
courtesy of Wolfgang Tillmans and Galerie Buchholz, Berlin/Cologne.
