Online seminar
Attendance is limited to ten (10) participants. Please register before 23 June by emailing Johanna Lewengard: johanna.lewengard@ltu.se
Discussant: Katarina Bonnevier
Brita Lindvall Leitmann discusses her ongoing PhD thesis, Elizabet at All Times, in conversation with Katarina Bonnevier. The conversation will be held in Swedish.
The starting point of Brita Lindvall Leitmann’s research project revolves around the typographer Elizabeth Friedlander, born 1903, Berlin – and her typeface "Elizabeth", released in 1939. Friedlander plans to launch this typeface under the name of "Friedlander-Antiqua", but she is forced to rebrand it using her first name. Her surname is not accepted by the authorities due to the political currents that dominated Germany at the time. It sounds too Jewish. Elizabeth Friedlander, an upcoming name in typographic circles, is forbidden to practice her profession for the same reason. She manages to obtain a visa to Italy, which becomes a temporary safe haven until Mussolini’s anti-Jewish laws come into effect, forcing her to uproot once again. She flees the country just before the outbreak of war. Based on Elizabeth Friedlander’s interrupted work and canceled premise, Lindvall Leitmann’s project has its beginning.
"Elizabeth at All Times" constitutes an ongoing study of typography as a visual language and graphic design craft by exploring how time and circumstance affect aesthetic hegemonies and practice. The body of work consists of a series of revival typefaces based on Elizabeth Friedlander’s work and unfinished sketches accompanied by short stories connecting Elizabeth’s history, Lindvall Leitmann’s ongoing practice, and contemporary events. By historicizing how technological, political, economic, and sociocultural currents intersect, intertwine, and create conditions for Elizabeth Friedlander’s present, Lindvall Leitmann seek to try out methods for aesthetic and mental shifts that lead to other ways of perceiving and reanimating the past – setting other conditions and futures for her practice.
Text, design, and the type system, all together, form the material components of the inquiry, in which historical traces, fragments and interruptions are reworked through contemporary design practice.
Katarina Bonnevier is an architect and artist. She has extensive experience as a writer, lecturer and professor at Konstfack, KTH, Köpenhamns Konstakademi, HDK, HES-SO, among other institutions. Bonnevier received her doctorate in 2007, her dissertation is entitled Behind Straight Curtains: Towards a Queer Feminist Theory of Architecture (Axl Books). Bonnevier is also active as a costume designer for Lammungarnas natt, directed by Suzanne Osten (2014), architect of Sankta Anna Gården restaurant and inn, sculptor for exhibits at Underverkstan and Alma Löv- CIA (2014), and host and producer of the radio show Fasad for Swedish Public Radio (2013).
Main supervisor: Prof. Johanna Lewengard
Second supervisors: Dr. Nadine Chahine, Dr. Moa Matthis, and Malou Verlome