Ana Torfs: Album/Tracks A + B

Album/Tracks A+B is a comprehensive catalogue on the Belgian artist Ana Torfs, published on the occasion of her solo exhibitions in K21, Dusseldorf and Generali Foundation, Vienna. Its title refers to the idea of a photo album that starts out empty and slowly comes to tell a story as it is filled with pictures. Ana Torfs’ oeuvre pays homage to characters and events in history, literature and film, pursuing the traces they have left behind-their tracks-in order to breathe new life into them. Her subjects include Ludwig van Beethoven’s conversation books (for Zyklus von Kleinigkeiten [Cycle of Trifles], 1998), a play by Maurice Maeterlinck (for The Intruder, 2004) and the court records surrounding the murders of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht (for Anatomy, 2006). Torfs’ media range from film, video, slide installation and photographic series to xerography and silkscreen. This monograph, designed by Jurgen Persijn, comprehensively documents Torfs’ oeuvre between 1993 and 2010, with brief remarks on each individual work from critics Mieke Bal, Michael Glasmeier, Sabine Folie, Anselm Franke, Doris Krystof, Steven Jacobs, Gabriele Mackert, Friedrich Meschede and Catherine Robberechts. An introductory essay by Kassandra Nakas and an extensive correspondence between Gabriele Mackert and the artist complete this wide spectrum of perspectives on Torfs’ work.