Daniel Steegmann Mangrane Livres

Animal That Doesn't Exist is the first monograph of Daniel Steegmann Mangrané's work spanning his entire work to-date. The book is a visual walkthrough thanks to large color reproductions and it is modeled on the glossary format, featuring precise short-form essays by art critics Benjamin Meyer-Krahmer, Filipa Ramos, and Ana Teixeira Pinto, curator Elfi Turpin, anthropologist Pedro Cesarino, and historian of science Jimena Canales. The conceptual backbone of the book is a list of 25 keywords defined by the artist together with curatorial office Rivet, which also edited the overall contents. The book also contains a section of reprinted existing literary texts as well as an extensive list of key terms that form the backbone of the entire book. This publication has a unique permutational structure designed by Studio Manuel Raeder.

Started in 1998, the Lichtzwang series includes over 300 watercolors on 15 x 21 cm sheets of graph paper. Most works consist of groups of watercolors where each piece is a variation of the previous one, illustrating a transformation. The last watercolor typically mirrors the first, creating loops that can be arranged in any order. The realization process follows simple rules—playing with the grid and ensuring each element lasts for three sheets—allowing for improvisation and randomness. The series is titled Lichtzwang, inspired by Paul Celan's book of poems. From 2000 to 2003, Daniel focused solely on this work, during which many themes later explored in other media emerged, such as color, space, time, structure, movement, modularity, variation, permutation, narrative, language, and loops. This publication features a selection of 256 watercolors created between 1998 and 2012, presented with the new Lichtzwang typeface, coinciding with the 2012 São Paulo Biennial, The Imminence of Poetics. Additionally, 30 copies include an original drawing signed and numbered by the artist, available through Mendes Wood gallery, which supported this publication. Daniel Steegmann Mangrané, born in Barcelona in 1977, has lived in Brazil since 2004.