LÆSEMASKINER: DISPOSITIV, DEMOKRATI, DISTRIBUTION /// READINGMACHINES: DISPOSITIF, DEMOCRACY, DISTRIBUTION

Antipyrine Bookstores samarbejde med Kunsthal Aarhus blev lanceret i sommeren 2013 i forbindelse med udstillingen Læsemaskiner – udfoldning af bøger og arkiver, som en del af udstillingsprogrammet Systemic series (dengang: Edition After Hand). Udgangspunktet for både udstilling og boghandel var og er at udfolde nogle passager mellem samtidskunsten og samtidspoesien, udstillingens rum og bogens rum.

I november og december måned 2015 har forlaget Antipyrine tilrettelagt en række foredrag, samtaler, filmvisninger, boglanceringer og udstillinger, igen under titlen Læsemaskiner, og denne gang med undertitlen DISPOSITIV/ DEMOKRATI /DISTRIBUTION. Læsemaskiner omhandler denne gang bogens synlige såvel som usynlige strukturer, dens betydning for viden og magt, bogen som et modstandsobjekt og rum for alternative historiografier, samt ikke mindst bogmediets potentiale i en postdigital tid.

Programmet er tilrettelagt af forlaget Antipyrines redaktør og kurator Mathias Kokholm og folder sig ud fra boghandlen i Kunsthal Aarhus, men finder sted flere steder i byen bl.a. i biografen Øst for Paradis og på udstillingsstedet Piscine over de kommende måneder. Herudover vil boghandlen blive opdateret med nye bøger fra forlag som Forlaget Virkelig, Nebula og Pork Salad Press, samt vores samarbejdspartner Motto Distribution.

– foredrag/samtale med Jørn Erslev Andersen og Mathias Kokholm, Kunsthal Aarhus kl. 19:00–21:00

Det franske begreb dispositif kan bl.a. oversættes til apparat, anordning, foranstaltning, maskineri eller installation. Begrebet anvendes af den franske tænker Michel Foucault, som henviser til fysiske, administrative og sociale mekanismer og vidensformer, der bearbejder og vedligeholder magtudøvelsen i den sociale krop:

”Det, som jeg forsøger at indfange under dette navn [dispositiv], er en temmelig heterogen samling, der indbefatter diskurser, institutioner, arkitektoniske indretninger, regelbeslutninger, love, administrative forholdsregler, videnskabelige udsagn, filosofiske, moralske og filantropiske påstande, kort sagt: Dispositivets elementer består af noget sagt såvel som noget usagt. Dispositivet er selve det net, som man kan påvise mellem disse elementer.” (“The Confession of the Flesh” interview, 1977)

Et af Michel Focaults grundlag for udarbejdelsen af dispositi-begrebet var den franske forfatter Raymond Roussels værk. Raymond Roussel (1877-1933) er sandsynligvis en af det 20’ene århundredes mindst kendte og mest mystiske forfattere, der dog har haft stor betydning for den konceptuelle kunst og litteratur. Gennem hele sit forfatterskab (10 værker) skabte han hele imaginære verdner fra bunden, uden den mindste rest af “virkelighed” til at stå i vejen for skriften, og udviklede igennem bl.a. homonymer (ord der staves/lyder ens) og sprogspil et eget komplekst tænkende og læsende apparat.  

Jørn Erslev Andersen, lektor ved Æstetik og Kultur, vil denne aften tale med udgangspunkt i Raymond Roussel, Michel Foucault og den danske billedkunstner Sven Dalsgaard (1914-1999), for igennem deres tankemodeller at udvinde et bogdispositiv, i samtale med Mathias Kokholm.

 

– boglancering og filmscreening, Kunsthal Aarhus kl. 16:00–18:00

– udstilling af Poul Pedersens kunstnerbøger i Antipyrine Bookstore (17/11–31/12-2015)

 Lancering af bogen Poul Pedersen – en bibliografi, i udgivelsesserien Den store nordiske registrant over kunstnerbøger og andre kunstrelaterede trykte sager. Introduktion ved bogens redaktører Lasse Krog Møller og Mathias Kokholm, samt visning af Katrine Nyholms film Det stjålne alfabet (2001) om bogstavtyven Poul Pedersen.

– foredrag/samtale med Thomas Hvid Kromann og Mathias Kokholm, Kunsthal Aarhus kl. 19:00–21:00

Overvejelser og kritik af samtidskunstens brug af bogmediet og diskussion af kunstnerbogens potentiale i forhold til at undslippe den totale kommercialisering af kunsten.

Thomas Hvid Kromann er forfatter og ansat som forsker ved Det Kongelige Biblioteks Håndskriftsamling. Han har siden anden halvdel af 00'erne forsket i kunstnerbøger og bl.a. redigeret den store antologi Danske kunstnerbøger (2013).

 

27/11 læsemaskiner: DISTRIBUTION: L’ombre invisible – imod officialismen

– arkivudstilling baseret på digter, billedkunstner og forlægger Henrik Haves kunstneriske praksis og forlag Edition After Hand, udstillingsstedet Piscine 27/11-19/12, fernisering 27/11 kl. 16:00-20:00.

 

– diskussionsgruppe om okkulte tekstmaskiner med udgangspunkt i udstillingen L’ombre invisible, udstillingsstedet Piscine kl. 19:30–22:00

– visning og præsentation af filmen Linotype: The Film, om den største revolution inden for bogens verden i det tyvende århundrede, Øst for Paradis kl. 17:00-19:00

 

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Kunsthal Aarhus' bookstore Antipyrine Bookstore was launched in the summer of 2013 in connection with the exhibition Reading Machines - Unfolding Books and Archives as part of the Systemic series exhibition program. The starting point for both exhibition and bookstore was to cultivate new passageways between contemporary art and contemporary poetry, between the exhibition space and the format of the book.

In November and December 2015, the publishing project Antipyrine has organized a series of lectures, discussions, film screenings, book launches and exhibitions, again under the title of Reading Machines but this time subtitled DISPOSITIF / DEMOCRACY / DISTRIBUTION. Reading Machines now concerns the visible as well as the invisible structures of the book, the book in relation to knowledge and power, the book as an object of resistance and a vehicle for alternative historiographies, and not least the potential of the book as a mode of mediation in a post-digital era.

 The program is organized by Mathias Kokholm, editor and curator of Antipyrine, and based at the bookstore at Kunsthal Aarhus, with events taking place in several other venues throughout the city as well, including the Øst for paradis cinema and the exhibition space Piscine, over the coming months. In addition, the Antipyrine Bookstore will be updated with new books from publishers such as Forlaget Virkelig, Nebula and Pork Salad Press, as well as our partner Motto Distribution, during the same period.

 

- Lecture/talk with Jørn Erslev Andersen and Mathias Kokholm, Kunsthal Aarhus 19:00-21:00

The French term dispositif, in English translated variously as device, machinery, apparatus, construction and deployment, is used by the French philosopher Michel Foucault to refer generally to the various institutional, physical and administrative mechanisms and knowledge structures that enhance and maintain the exercise of power within the social body.

"What I’m trying to pick out with this term is, firstly, a thoroughly heterogeneous ensemble consisting of discourses, institutions, architectural forms, regulatory decisions, laws, administrative measures, scientific statements, philosophical, moral and philanthropic propositions, in short, the said as much as the unsaid. Such are the elements of the apparatus. The apparatus itself is the system of relations that can be established between these elements." (“The Confession of the Flesh” interview, 1977)

At the basis of Michel Focault’s development of the dispositif term, is the work of French writer Raymond Roussel (1877-1933). Roussel is probably one of the least known and most mysterious authors of the 20th century who nonetheless has been of great importance for the development of contemporary conceptual art and literature. Throughout his writing career, Roussel created entire imaginary worlds from scratch, without the slightest residue of "reality" to stand in the way of the writing, and through the use of homonyms (words that are spelled/sound alike) and language games developed his own apparatus for complex thinking and perception.

Jørn Erslev Andersen, associate professor at Aesthetics and Culture at Aarhus University, will speak on Raymond Roussel, Michel Foucault and the Danish artist Sven Dalsgaard (1914-1999), with the purpose of extracting, through their thought models, a book dispositive, in conversation with editor Mathias Kokholm.

 

- Book launch and film screening, Kunsthal Aarhus 16:00-18:00

- Exhibition of artist’s books created by Poul Pedersen, at Antipyrine Bookstore, Kunsthal Aarhus (17/11-31/12-2015)

 Presentation of the book Poul Pedersen - A Bibliography, from the series The Great Nordic registrant of artist’s books and other art-related printed matter, with an introduction by editors Lasse Krog Møller and Mathias Kokholm, and screening of Katrine Nyholm’s film The Stolen Alphabet (2001) about Poul Pedersen, the alphabet thief.

 

- Lecture/talk with Thomas Hvid Kromann and Mathias Kokholm, Kunsthal Aarhus 19:00-21:00

A presentation of concerns and critiques of the use of the book as medium in contemporary art, and a discussion of the potential of artist’s book's in relation to evading the total commercialization of art.

Thomas Hvid Kromann is a Danish author and a research fellow at the Department of Manuscripts at the Danish Royal Library. He has researched artist’s books since 2005, co-editing the expansive anthology Danish Artist’s Books published in 2013.

 

27/11 Reading Machines: DISTRIBUTION: L'hombre Invisible - Against Officialism

- Archive exhibition based on the artistic practice of poet, visual artist and small press publisher Henrik Have and Edition After Hand, Piscine 27/11-19/12, vernissage 27/11 16:00-20:00

 

- Discussion group on text machines of the occult based on the exhibition L'hombre Invisible, Piscine 19:30-22:00

 

- Presentation and screening of Linotype: The Film, a film about the biggest revolution (The Linotype machine) within the world of books in the twentieth century, Øst for paradis cinema 17:00-19:00