FLIGHT CANCELLED

We are happy to announce the release of FLIGHT CANCELLED by Matteo Bittanti, a collection of comments written by consumers who flew with Alitalia, Italy's flagship air carrier, between 2003 and 2016. These travel experiences were originally published on different websites. They are reproduced in this book in unedited and unabridged form. These are stories of frustration and resistance. Loss and sorrow. Hope and resignation. Negligence and resilience. These are horror stories. These are cautionary tales. 

Read more here.

BORING POSTCARDS FROM ITALY

We are delighted to announce the release of BORING POSTCARDS FROM ITALY by COLL.EO. Available in a limited edition of 99, this hardcover book is fully illustrated. Below is the description, both in English and Italian. You can purchase a copy on Amazon and read an interview with the authors here.

English

To create Boring Postcards from Italy, COLL.EO has collected more than one hundred of the most boring images from Forza Horizon 2. The result is a book that, in sharp contrast to the title, fascinates and surprises. Boring Postcards from Italy redefines the relationship between reality and simulation with "postcards" that are "boring" both in content and composition. The project is an appropriation and homage to Martins Parr's seminal Boring Postcards series: a commentary on videogame architecture, tourism and simulation, photography and representation. It is, above all, a provocation. Text in English.

Italian

Per creare Boring Postcards from Italy, COLL.EO ha raccolto oltre un centinaio delle "cartoline" più noiose dell'Italia simulata in Forza Horizon 2. Il risultato è un libro che, in aperto contrasto con il titolo, affascina e sorprende. Questo volume illustrato rappresenta uno strumento essenziale per comprendere la complessa interazione tra gioco e fotografia, documentazione e simulazione, arte e design. Sono qui incluse immagini "noiose" a livello di contenuto, composizione e soggetto dell'Italia immaginata dai programmatori di Turn 10 Studios. Boring Postcards from Italy offre uno sguardo inedito sugli ultra-luoghi videoludici, illuminandone tanto l'architettura quanto la sottesa ideologia (nonché patologia). Frutto di una duplice appropriazione - il videogioco Forza Horizon 2, ma anche la serie Boring Postcards del fotografo britannico Martin Parr che il progetto omaggia a livello formale e contenutistico - il volume porta in primo piano la natura auto-referenziale dell'arte videoludica e, in particolare, della fotoludica, termine che indica le pratiche fotografiche all'interno dei videogiochi. 

Here's the teaser:

EXTRA MILES. ESTETICA DELLA GUIDA VIDEOLUDICA

Concrete Press is happy to announce the release of its first book in Italian: EXTRA MILES: Estetica della guida videoludica by Matteo Bittanti. The book features twelve essays on the theme of simulated driving. Fully illustrated and gorgeously edited, the book forms a diptych with the previously released Orizzonti di Forza. Fenomenologia della guida videoludica (2015), the first academic study of a racing game, Forza Horizon 1 and 2. Like its "twin" Orizzonti di Forza, the book cover features an image by Mauro Ceolin aka rgbproject. To celebrate the book release, we published a conversation between the author and the artist collective Random Parts. You can read the full interview here. 

EXTRA MILES: Estetica della guida videoludica is available in limited edition (100 copies) exclusively through Blurb. Purchase your copy here. 

GRAND THEFT SAMO

San Francisco, September 1, 2015. Concrete Press is delighted to announce Grand Theft Samo, a critical catalog that documents COLL.EO’s eponymous 2014 project comprising an artistic mod, a series of in-game performances, a set of videos (machinima), a collection of screengrabs, and several digital prints.

The second of a series of interventions in Grand Theft Auto IV by COLL.EO that also includes Grand Theft Vito (2013), Following Bit (2013), and Arthur Rimbaud in Liberty City (2015), Grand Theft Samo puts the player in the streets of a fictional New York under the guise of a virtual Jean-Michel Basquiat.

Additionally, COLL.EO has faithfully reproduced several SAMO's graffiti and embedded them on the walls of Liberty City, replacing the existing ones. The book includes a gallery of SAMO's graffiti, never seen before images from SAMO IS DEAD, a machinima created by COLL.EO, a critical essay by Morgan Rachel Levy, and an introduction by the artists.

Grand Theft Samo is available in a limited edition of 99 copies.

Grand Theft Samo

Also available from Concrete Press:

Arthur Rimbaud in Liberty City

Grand Theft Vito

ARTHUR RIMBAUD IN LIBERTY CITY

San Francisco, March 5, 2015 - Concrete Press is delighted to announce the release of Arthur Rimbaud in Liberty City, a fully illustrated book based on COLL.EO's third Grand Theft Auto IV intervention.

The book includes two texts and features forty-eight photographs from the project. Arthur Rimbaud in Liberty City has a square format and is published on premium matte paper. 

Published in an edition of 99, its release coincided with the online exhibition COLL.EO, Arthur Rimbaud in Liberty City, which took place at Concrete Gallery in March 2015, a digital space where art can be experienced and remembered - or ignored and forgotten - all day, all night.

Arthur Rimbaud in Liberty City

Buy a copy  on Amazon

COLL.EO