NEW YORK, NY.- The Fundación Cisneros/Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros (FC/CPPC) announces the launch on February 20, 2013, of the e-book versions of its acclaimed series, CONVERSACIONES/ CONVERSATIONS. The series was first published in print format in 2010, under an imprint created by the FC/CPPC to support its mission to encourage scholarship and enhance appreciation of Latin American art and ideas, and to promote excellence in visual-arts education. To this end, the FC/CPPC is committed to utilizing digital media and new technologies as they are developed.

The e-books will be made available in a standard EPUB 3 format, the most versatile platform to date, initially available on the iBookstore, with Kindle, Nook and Kobo versions following soon after. The FC/CPPC has partnered with London-based digital art book publisher MAPP Editions on the design and production of the e-books. All forthcoming titles will be published simultaneously in print and digital editions. The e-books will be available for purchase for $9.99 at https://itunes.apple.com/ and at www.coleccioncisneros.org.

Titles launching as e-books:
Carlos Cruz-Diez in conversation with/en conversación con Ariel Jiménez distills over three decades of wide-ranging conversations between preeminent Venezuelan artist Carlos Cruz-Diez (b. 1923) and then FC/CPPC Chief Curator Ariel Jiménez. A pioneer in color theory and perception, Cruz-Diez and such artists as Alejandro Otero and Jesús Rafael Soto launched the abstract movements that placed Venezuelan art among the international avant-garde during the 1950s. The digital version of this title brings Cruz-Diez’s kinetic works to life through various special features including animations and videos: anecdotes are enriched with slideshow images from Cruz-Diez’s personal life, while technical and behind-the-scenes videos give an insight into the physical processes and machines used by Cruz-Diez in the creation of his work (Sept 2010, ISBN: 9780982354421 / e-book ISBN: 9780988205512)

Tomás Maldonado in conversation with/en conversación con María Amalia García presents an extended dialogue between the Argentine-born artist, industrial designer and theorist, Tomás Maldonado (b. 1922), and writer and art historian María Amalia García. Maldonado discusses his early work with the avant-garde art movements in Argentina during the 1940s and 1950s, and his search for a rationalist approach that would later lead him to the world of architecture, design and aesthetic theory.

The digital version of this book features interviews with the artist, archival images from the Ulm School, and full text reproductions of important and rare publications, among other assets. (January 2011, ISBN: 9780982354438 / e-book ISBN: 9780988205529)

Jac Leirner in conversation with/en conversación con Adele Nelson presents an extended dialogue between the Brazilian conceptual artist, Jac Leirner (b. 1961), and writer and art historian Adele Nelson, with an introductory essay by Robert Storr. Leirner’s meticulously constructed works carve out a place for commonplace objects, from cigarette packs and plastic shopping bags to cutlery and currency. In this, the first in-depth study of Leirner’s creative process, Nelson interviews the artist about more than two decades of production. The digital version of this book boasts multiple and close-up views of single artworks and installations, as well as a video of Leirner and her band that provides a glimpse of the São Paolo punk scene in the 1980s which shaped her artistic sensibility, as well as additional special features. (July 2011, ISBN: 9780982354445 / e-book ISBN: 9780988205536)

Jesús Soto in conversation with/en conversación con Ariel Jiménez captures over nine years of conversations between the renowned Venezuelan kinetic artist Jesús Soto (1923–2005), and art historian Ariel Jiménez (former FC/CPPC Chief Curator), and provides insight into Jesús Soto’s involvement in the development of kinetic art in Paris in the 1950s and 1960s, and his subsequent work in the geometric abstract movements in Venezuela. Soto is recognized today as one of the most important Latin American artists of the century.

The digital version includes excerpts from one of Soto’s last interviews, archival documentaries of the artist at work, and slideshows of rare images from exhibitions, including his solo show at Galerie Denise René in Paris, 1961, among other features. (December 2011, ISBN: 9780982354469 / e-book ISBN: 9780988205543)

Ferreira Gullar in conversation with/en conversación con Ariel Jiménez presents a vivid portrait of Ferreira Gullar (b. 1930), an art critic, political essayist, playwright, and poet who has been a key and controversial figure in the Brazilian cultural scene for the past 60 years. From his first major collection of poems, to his Concrete and Neoconcrete work, published in the late 1950s, Gullar’s writings are essential to the history of Brazilian and Latin American literature. The e-book includes many special assets including videos of Gullar reading excerpts of his poems in his studio in Copacabana, and a previously unpublished anthology of Gullar’s poetry titled An Ordinary Man translated into English by Leland Guyer, which includes a full translation of the epic poem “Poema sujo.” (June 2012, ISBN: 9780982354452 / e-book ISBN: 9780988205550)

Gyula Kosice in conversation with/en conversación con Gabriel Pérez-Barreiro is the first detailed account of the life and work of one of the most visionary artists of the 20th century, co-founder of the Madí movement in the 1940s, and creator of the Hydrospatial City, a radical urban proposal that envisions a utopian environment suspended in space. Kosice (b. 1924) immigrated to Argentina, where he currently lives and works. Sculptor, plastic artist, theoretician, and poet, Kosice is recognized as one of the leading pioneers of Lumino Kinetic art.

The digital version of this title features such highlights as talks between the artist and the author, videos including a walkthrough of the Hydrospatial City and Kosice’s kinetic works in action, archival recordings, and full-text reproductions of Madí publications. (November 2012, ISBN: 9780982354483 / e-book ISBN: 9780988205567)

Forthcoming titles in the series:
• Liliana Porter and Inés Katzenstein (May 2013)
• Luis Camnitzer and Alexander Alberro (2014)
• Waltercio Caldas and Ariel Jiménez
• Tania Bruguera and Claire Bishop
• Alfredo Jaar and Luis Pérez-Oramas
• Julio Le Parc and Alexander Alberro