For Oxford’s three-day contemporary art gathering DEPOT Fusion is presenting a new Small Publishers and the return of FOCUS, this year shaped around the evolving project Xeno-space.
Xeno-space explores art as knowledge-making, where boundaries are challenged, and ideas, objects, and sounds interact in a space of flux.
Xeno-space challenges traditional ideas of academic knowledge, expertise, market influence, and the notion of artistic genius by creating a space for disobedience, resistance, and active participation.
Xeno-space was developed in dialogue with 2024 Focus artists — Valerie Asiimwe Amani, Jermaine Francis, and Sunil Shah.
Curated by Shah, it builds on his PhD research proposing a space of coexistence and conversation that nurtures multiple perspectives, as Maharaj states “other ways of knowing and ways of knowing otherness”. It attempts to expand the boundaries of what a gallery or art fair can offer.
The space will be active throughout the event with workshops, live events, and sonic/visual interventions. A small publisher’s bookshop, featuring experimental forms of publishing, will also be integrated into Xeno-space through events and workshops
Details of exhibiting artists to be released shortly.
SMALL PUBLISHERS SHOP at DEPOT
New for 2025, DEPOT introduces a shop dedicated to small publishers and artists’ books. With a focus on independence and experimentation, the shop will feature publications from Fieldnotes, Prototype, TACO!, If A Leaf Falls, Montez Press, IZZA Books, and Tenement Press, with more contributors to follow.
WORKSHOPS & EVENTS at Xeno-Space
A programme of readings, performances, and workshops will invite people to take part directly in both strands — the publishing and the artistic practices on show as part of the Xeno-space.
Friday: Unprecious Instrument workshop with artist Rob Shuttleworth, using accessible and found materials to make a new experimental instrument, then compose a collective sound piece.
Friday evening: Readings from writers, poets, and artists whose publications feature in the Small Publishers Shop.
Saturday: Drop-in Zines and Poster workshop with Julia Utreras (Common Press). Using prompts to respond to artworks in Xeno-space, participants can make posters, add to a collective artwork, or create a zine drawing inspiration from the shop’s publications.
