The exhibition Formes de l’affiche will be inaugurated on Thursday, 26 May in the rooms of the Palazzetto Tito della Bevilacqua La Masa and will display a selection of posters from the collection of the Centre international du Graphisme of Chaumont, a city in Marne, France which, over the last few decades, has created a niche for itself internationally as a point of reference for contemporary graphic design.
Indeed, despite being declared dead on more than one occasion and undoubtedly surpassed by other types of media, the “poster” or “manifesto” or “affiche” continues to be adopted and used by contemporary designers as both a tangible and intangible media for linguistic and conceptual research in which cultural and aesthetic positions are expressed, declared and discussed.

Among the posters selected for Venice, some have been commissioned to promote the International Festival of Posters and Graphic Design, which has been held annually in Chaumont since 1990. Others have been specifically conceived for original layouts as images to help understand and recount the projects on display. In fact, beyond their use as a means of communication, posters represent for Chaumont an amazing space for discussion and freedom of expression.

The display will include works by Abäke, Jean-Marc Ballée, Jan en Randoald, Henning Wagenbreth, Christophe Gaudard, Mathias Schweizer, Karel Martens, Fanette Mellier, and Loulou Picasso.

The foundation of the Centre in Chaumont is the culmination of a relationship between the city and posters which dates back to 1905 when Gustave Dutailly, a local politician and collector, bequeathed his collection of posters to the city of Chaumont. Gustave Dutailly was one of just a few enthusiasts of this type of artistic expression in the last few decades of the 19th century, the golden age of French illustrated posters. At that time, public spaces of large cities were covered by thousands of colourful advertising posters. Hence, the city of Chaumont received a collection of about 5,000 posters with works by Jules Chéret, Toulouse-Lautrec, Bonnard, Choubrac and other great artists. The works were stored in the archives of the public library until they were rediscovered and gained renewed appreciation in the 1980s.

The exhibition catalogue is published by bruno (http://www.b-r-u-n-o.it) and Printed on REMAKE by Favini (www.favini.com) . The special touch and natural look of this high-end paper are created by up-cycling leather residues, which substitute 25% of FSC certified tree cellulose: cover REMAKE Midnight 250 gsm, text REMAKE Oyster 120 gsm.
For the technical support we would like to thank Nicolè Traslochi, Venice.