Behind the process: Litho Days III
- Zekican Sarısoy
- 1 day ago
- 10 min read
Dou Print Studio, located in Ankara and working to keep lithography culture alive, is organizing the third edition of Litho Days. This year’s panel guests, who open up the question of sustainability, come from four different studios (7 artists): Atelier Clot (France), Tabor Presse Berlin (Germany), Hjørring Grafisk Værksted (Denmark), and Steinprent (Faroe Islands). A panel with these seven artists will take place on December 6, 2025, at the Erimtan Archaeology and Arts Museum. You can visit the ongoing exhibition, Separation and Merging Point, at Anafartalar Çarşısı 203 in Ankara until December 28.
Lithography needs to survive in some way. Because the practice itself is a process that makes temporality visible. In other words, the work is not only about the image that emerges. The rhythm in which that image is produced, the repetition, the margin of error, the physical contact between ink and paper and all of these together record a certain kind of time. For this reason, printmaking stands outside the economy of speed and efficiency that shapes most artistic practices today. And yet, it is also very much inside it. This is precisely what makes it possible -both aesthetically and politically- to talk about the small studio that Doğu Gündoğdu and Naz Önen are trying to sustain through their intensive efforts.
Perhaps the strongest breaking point in this discussion is the fact that even in repetition, the result can be different. This is one of the most fascinating aspects of printmaking. It incorporates the resistance of the material and the embodied knowledge of the artist. Thus, the idea of reproduction falls onto an entirely new ground. Yes, technically it is reproducible, but no copy is ever exactly the same as another. This is exactly why Walter Benjamin’s passages -and the concept of “aura” that he reveals within them- come to my mind. Today, that context returns to us in a very contemporary way through printmaking.
We need to see the emphasis on uniting the traditional and the modern. What escapes our attention there is not a search for nostalgia, because for many artists or thinkers today, the point is not to reach or find nostalgia. On the contrary, it is about intersecting a historical technique with the questions of the present. So the issue is not preserving the past, but asking: can we create a new ground of thought from the techniques of the past?
Tabor Presse Berlin, which will appear in this year’s panel with two artists, comes from a time when history split Berlin in two lines. And Steinprent never hesitates to play with the nature of form and meaning. There is perhaps a constant state of wandering there. Printmaking does not romanticize the past; it makes it possible to open new paths from it. A traditional technique in the hands of a contemporary artist does not become a repetition but rather opens into a space of rediscovery. In the process, no one truly knows what will emerge -not even the artist of course. It is precisely this uncertainty, this open-endedness, that makes printmaking a field that is not nostalgic, not progressivist, yet oriented toward the future. On the occasion of the third edition of Litho Days, giving space to the guest artists on the panel, listening to their production practices, wandering through those territories, pausing, and opening up the connections their studios build between past and present becomes especially meaningful.
Christian Bramsen (Atelier Clot, France)
Atelier Clot is not only a print studio but also one of the centers of modern graphic art history. The prints produced there are now part of many major collections around the world, we know that. The studio existed for 125 years. How do you think it balances its traditional structure with the needs of today?
It is true that traditional institutions have a certain inertia. The advantage of my profession is being in constant contact with modernity. We are obliged to be perpetually oriented toward a spirit of progress and the future. Human presence plays a major role in this. Since artists are always and continuously renewing themselves, original lithography must adapt to the needs of artists and their modes of expression. If the artist creates the work, we invent and create the technique they need. To be honest, we don’t always know how we achieve our results, but we are indeed compelled to find solutions.
This studio is deeply rooted in the pre-digital era on the other hand. From this perspective, how does the rise of digital printing technologies affect your technical choices? Or does it affect them at all?
25 years ago, we made the choice to shift from interpretive lithography to high-definition digital printing. Clients looking for a reproduction of an already existing work were more inclined -at a lower cost- to obtain an exact copy, rather than a beautiful but nonetheless laborious lithographic reproduction. We also had to satisfy artists who create their works digitally, offering them a very high-quality paper print, which allowed us to focus entirely on the publishing of original lithographs. One could say that digital technology has made it possible to distill original lithography to its essence.
Jan Pelkofer and Paul Klös (Tabor Presse Berlin, Germany)
Tabor Presse was founded in Kreuzberg while Berlin was still divided, and meaning in a part of West Berlin that was, in effect, isolated like an ‘island.’ What do you think this geographic and political isolation influenced the studio’s aesthetic, its production culture, or the profile of the artists who worked there?
Berlin attracted people for the same reasons as today. But up till the 80ies there was very little money and gallerys in town. Everybody left the city before but after people started with new positions and artist run exhibition spaces. Also the knowlegde of printmaking had to be reimported. The style of Tabor was driven by artists that painted figuratively but not academic and the technique taught by dutch artists and pieced together from multiple sources. A genuine diy spirit in all fields.
Tabor is not just a technical support structure for artists; it functions as a true production partner from the first spark of an idea to the final print. How does this close collaboration transform both the artist’s language and the technical direction of the print? I mean in your view, what is the greatest creative advantage of this partnership model?
There is no other way because everybody below the age of 70 in arts today ,generally speaking, has big difficencies in technical aspects so close collaboration is the only way. In litho that has a huge impact on the final result of course. In addition it becomes ever more important to assist people, artists and customer alike, in all things surrounding the print, like what paper to choose, framing, hanging conservation marketing and so on.
Kasper Fleng and Julie Peter (Hjørring Grafisk Værksted, Denmark)
HGV has been organized as an ‘artist association,’ meaning it is not just a commercial workshop but a production and collaborative space open to artists. In your view, -both of you- how does this collective structure shape the aesthetics of the work produced, the production process, and even its public impact? And also what effect has it had on your own working perspective and practice?
Because HGV is an association of artists, our focus is on artistic curiosity rather than commercial demand. We give artists time to experiment with the process of printmaking rather than focusing on a final product.
Experimentation is core to the workshop’s identity, and we want to support ideas and processes in printmaking that do not fit into a commercial framework. We can do that by letting artists test out ideas, printing methods, and artistic exploration within the printmaking medium in our intaglio workshop with woodcut or other media, which they can then take with them to our litho workshop.
We are an association rather than a business, we also invite emerging artists who may not yet have a market but whose approach adds something interesting to the graphic field. This keeps the workshop looking towards the future of printmaking and open to new voices.
That said, we also need to generate income, to keep our workshop running, so we of course also have to take into consideration whether the print that is made can sell. Therefore we work with a combination of new/emerging artists, known “cash cows” and established artist brands.
Mikkjal Matras Andersson and Louise Aakerman Nielsen (Steinprent, Faroe Islands)
Steinprent is a relatively recent studio and you focus on a historical technique like stone lithography. How does the tension or harmony between this contemporary context and the traditional technique shape your production practice? On the other hand, Steinprent functions both as a studio and an art gallery. How does this dual function affect your production and presentation processes? Does using the space for both creation and exhibition contribute to your creative decisions?
Mikkjal: The Steinprent studio is birthed from a long line of master printers through different countries and regions. The craft has been passed along from master to apprentice(s), each of whom develop the technique, finding new processes, and new contexts for the medium. Jan Andersson, the master lithographer of Steinprent, was raised on a very strict rulebook, of what was possible, allowed or suitable. But as one learns throughout the life of a printer, with such a diverse medium, is that there are many methods of achieving a desired result, each portraying their own characteristics. The largest force of progress in this instance, are the many different artists who work with their own temperament, techniques and perspective. Whereas in the past, an artist was given a certain frame of conditions within which to work, we now strive to preserve the freedom of the artists will, and pursue any means to realize their vision, even if the result differs from the original intent. Working closely and intensely together with the artist, carefully guiding or bending, to create contemporary works while continuously pushing the boundaries. We ask not if something is possible, but rather by what means it may be accomplished, and every project - succesful or not - is contributory to a deeper understanding.
Louise: At Steinprent we fully trust the artists process, and we feel very much privileged to be a part of that proces and journey, together with the artist. This Is the key and the starting point, in the every collaboration we do, between the masterprinter and his team, and the artist. We are welcoming the artist to an open space at Steinprent -a space to work and experiment. This privilege is only possible because of the fantastically skilled artists we are collaborating with. This is a synergy we do care, very much about.
We print with contemporary artists, mostly of them painters. The graphic process, compared to oil painting, is a faster method, and just by that fact alone, working with lithography offers the artist some kind of dynamic and possibilities. There are as many different methods and processes, as there are artists. Now a days there is no such rules we predict the artist to follow -the artist will not get no for an answer- when asking us to push the boundaries in any way. We can always print it - it is just a matter of how. So printing like this is very much process orientated, and for the lithographer not to days are alike. We build the print up, color for color, stone after stone.
We love working in this old field of craftsmanship, with stones, ink, paper and print -but in our daily life at the workshop, we do not see this as the contemporary artist meeting the traditionalist masterprinter. We are focused on the possibilities, and “how to get there”. The traditional techniques, is old yes -but as a printer you are encuraged to look forward, and we are very much enjoying so. The history of litjhography is old, as well as the material, the stones, and color pigments - a old history is somehow the best tool to have, when creating something new.
You’re moving from a hybrid workshop–gallery structure like Steinprent to a new space that you will run on your own. How will this transition transform your production practices and approaches? I mean, what motivated you the most in making this shift?
Mikkjal: The livelyhood of our studio depends greatly on the large flow of interesting and interested visitors, locals as well as tourists from around the world. Unlike many studios, both our gallery and studio space is open, also during all the processes, for anyone to observe. This can of course at times strain the focus and continuity of the process at hand, but also creates a very unique atmosphere that both we the printers, the artists and observing audience appreciates. We find the many visitors perspectives of the prints we sell and exhibit completely changes when they are allowed a small glimpse of the process behind, most of whom have no prior knowledge of the concept of lithography. We cherish the ability to educate the public, promote and further professional artists and their works, and simultaneously create new works with many different artists all year round. The amount of invigorating conversations that have taken place between so many different people in our studio, the amount of unlikely and benefitial connections and collaborations made, are invaluable to what Steinprent is today. While being a printing studio and gallery, Steinprent acts as a meeting point for a variety of artistic interests, inputs and ideas.
Louise: In 2016 I moved with my two years old daughter to Faroe Island, because I had the opportunity to learn the lithographic craftmanship at Steinprent. After 9 fantastic years at Steinprent, and 9 years enjoying living In the Faroe Islands with my daughter, we are returning to the isle of Bornholm, located in the Baltic Sea, which is also the place I grew up. Here im building up my own workshop, this has been a big motivation for me and a dream for years. In 2021 I found a perfect place for the workshop. The workshop, will include the lithographic studiospace with the machines, a gallery, a framing workshop, and upstairs art residency, all situated in an old little church, in one of Bornholms small north cities, Allinge. Through out years I have spoken with lots of artist, who prefer the silence and peace when working, nothing to distract. Bornholm is a small island, and is very dynamic in summer and peaceful during wintertime. I know from the Faroe Islands, that actually you can grow something, in a small society -it can actually be to your benefit, that you are situated remotely. I will host artist in the house during all year, and I will continue the printmaking at Bornholm, to be experimental and offering the artists a free process, visiting the studio, ending up with exhibitions in the gallery.
This interview was published as Turkish on December 5, 2025 on artfulliving.com.
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