De Vleeshal, THE SOCIAL LIFE OF THE BOOK

Åbäke, Alias, Ayreen Anastas & Rene Gabri, Katinka Bock, Paul Chan, Moyra Davey, Aaron Flint Jamison, Dora García & Tina Bara, Will Holder, The National Grid, OEI, Seth Price, Primary Information, Amy Sillman, Matthew Stadler & Publication Studio

De Vleeshal, Middelburg

27 June – 12 September 2010 / Opening Saturday June 26, 4pm

Saturday September 4, 3-7pm: seminar with David Bennewith, Will Holder, Louis Luthi, Linda Van Deursen and Kim West

The exhibition The Social Life of the Book, which is organized by castillo/corrales specifically for the series of exhibitions “Published By” at De Vleeshal, brings together a selection of artists works, publications and documents highlighting practices of artists and publishers who consider books less as finished objects or forms but for their disruptive potential and their ability to create new social situations for new relationships and new meanings. Towards the end of the exhibition, in September, a small seminar will be organized involving some of the participants to the exhibition (Will Holder, and Kim West) as well as additional voices in the persons of graphic designers David Bennewith, Louis Luthi and Linda Van Deursen.

The exhibition and the seminar continue the research initiated by castillo/corrales at Montehermoso in Vitoria, Spain, two years ago. It focuses on the undertakings of artists, publishers, writers, designers, booksellers, etc to attend the circulation of texts and ideas through a multitude of ways besides the sole/grand gesture of producing a new book/object. It examines notably the economics and pragmatics of publishing and distributing books today; the social space of reading; the practices of scanning, bootleging, translating, quoting, re-editing existing material; the ways texts can open up to events, actions, gestures, and other unforeseeable incidents. This research will lead to a series of new publications with Paraguay Press, in association with De Vleeshal and Montehermoso.