Cycles

The first creation of the new Berlin based imprint bleu. is a book of J. J. Zana that required a rigorous and collective production process. Writer and translator Katie Archer (USA), designer Alan Bolumar and printer Che Huber (Switzerland), all worked hand in hand in order to create an original artwork, in both substance and form. Because indeed, Cycles seem to be, in today’s literature, hardly possible to classify—though it clearly follows a fragmentary aesthetics, explores the borders of narration, and introduces a certain form of thinking in the eleven sections of the book. The result is a text based on the theories of art and madness (or desire) that breaks, or intents to break the concept of genre—or gender. J. J. Zana is an artist whose main medium is writing. His first book, Cycles (published in 2022, reprinted in 2023), is composed of fragments - a form chosen for its interstitial, contemporary nature. This work, represented mainly in art and museum bookshops, has allowed the development of a broader practice - performance, installation, talk - a practice exhibited in institutions such as Kunsthalle (Basel), MK&G (Hamburg), and Tate Modern (London). He lives and works in Berlin, where, in collaboration with Nemo Ripoll, he founded the label bleu. -