Epilogue. The Book Lovers

Participant artists:
TOM PHILLIPS / ALEXANDRE SINGH / CALLY SPOONER

Artists' novels by:
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 / JANA LEO / JILL MAGID / TOM MCCARTHY / BRIAN O’DOHERTY MAI-THU PERRET / FRANCIS PICABIA / RICHARD PRINCE / STUART RINGHOLT / ROEE ROSEN LINDSAY SEERS / ALEXANDRE SINGH / OSCAR TUAZON / ANDY WARHOL i molts altres

Curators: David Maroto and Joanna Zielinska

Last exhibition from the programme The Text: First Notions and Findings. Curated by David Armengol and Martí Manen.

After four exhibitions focused on analysing the role of writing in contemporary art—a prologue and three chapters on different text registers: chronicle, fiction and manifesto—The Text: First Notions and Findings draws to a close with an epilogue. In The Book Lovers project, David Maroto and Joanna Zielinska have spent years researching and reclaiming novels written by artists, from 20th-century classics to contemporary fiction. This growing archive already comprises over 200 titles (the text as a first notion), now complemented by three exhibition projects (the text as a finding) that lead the construction of narratives towards other formats for presenting an account: the performative piece by Cally Spooner (Ascot, UK, 1983), the video installations by Alexander Singh (Bordeaux, France, 1980) and the graphic art work by Tom Phillips (London, UK, 1937).

As the final part of a book, an epilogue is an exercise that brings together and goes over the key arguments and conclusions. As a way of rounding off a year spent examining the ties between art and literature through a packed programme of exhibitions and activities, The Book Lovers: The Preparation of the Novel is our ideal farewell. A literal, direct, read goodbye. Within the usual times and spaces of an art centre, The Text: First Notions and Findings has enabled us to explore the habits of literary consumption and let us adapt certain rhythms of reading to the emotional experience of visiting an exhibition and taking part in its activities.

This project has been made possible thanks to the generous support of Mondriaan Fund.