The Book Lovers in Tallinn

Center for Contemporary Arts, Estonia invites:

On Tuesday, September 6 at 6 PM founding members of The Book Lovers project will give a talk on fiction written by artists and host a public reading at CCA, Estonia (Vabaduse väljak 6/8, button no. 5). The Book Lovers is a research project on the phenomenon of artist's novels curated by David Maroto and Joanna Zielinska. Their research focuses on how a literary genre such as the novel becomes a medium in the visual arts, exactly as video or installation could be. See the event on Facebook here.

The Book Lovers project stems from the fact that there have been artists throughout the 20th century who wrote novels as an activity more or less detached from their visual art production. However, in recent years an increasing number of artists have begun to integrate their novels as a fundamental part of their visual art projects. Surprisingly, there is a lack of research on this subject. This circumstance gives rise to a situation in which artists who write novels are not aware of others doing the same. With The Book Lovers we are intending to create public awareness of this silently widespread artistic trend. The project develops in a number of different stages. Its base is the creation of a collection of artist's novels with a parallel bibliography and extended database, which is complemented with a series of exhibitions and public programmes, pop-up bookstores and a publication.

The collection includes, among others, novels written by: Carl Andre, Matthew Brannon, AA Bronson, Jake Chapman, Keren Cytter, Salvador Dalí, Tim Etchells, Matias Faldbakken, Liam Gillick, Goldin+Senneby, Rodney Graham, Renée Green, Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Pablo Helguera, Stewart Home, Isidore Isou, Pierre Klossowski, Joseph Kosuth, Yayoi Kusama, Gareth Long, Jill Magid, Tom McCarthy, Brian O’Doherty, Mai-Thu Perret, Tom Phillips, Francis Picabia, Richard Prince, Stuart Ringholt, David Robbins, Roee Rosen, Lindsay Seers, Benjamin Seror, Alexandre Singh, Cally Spooner, Oscar Tuazon, Andy Warhol… to a total of 440 titles. This collection is the result of a research carried out by David Maroto and Joanna Zielinska, and it has been acquired by M HKA, to be part of the museum’s collection.

The event is supported by Estonian Cultural Endowment and Mondriaan Fund.

Look for more from http://www.thebooklovers.info/