30/7/2008
Martha Rosler Library
Stills, Edinburgh
Comprised of approximately 7,700 titles from the artist's personal collection, the Library was opened to the public by Anton Vidokle in November 2005 as a storefront reading room. A personal library represents the private sphere of an individual, her way of acquiring and combining knowledge. Accumulation is the result of an intellectual inquiry that takes place in parallel with a more random search, which can lead us to unexpected textual, and therefore mental, spaces.
Comprised of approximately 7,700 titles from the artist's personal collection, the Library was opened to the public by Anton Vidokle in November 2005 as a storefront reading room at e-flux, on Ludlow street in New York City. It has since traveled to Frankfurter Kunstverein, MuHKA, Antwerp, unitednationsplaza, Berlin, Institut national d'histoire de l'art, Paris and the John Moores University, Liverpool. The library will remain on view in Edinburgh through November 9th, 2008.
"In an act of incredible generosity, one of Americas most important living artists temporarily dispossessed herself of the vast majority of her personal library so that it could be made available for consultation. No borrowing was possible, but the eclectic ensemble of books on economics, political theory, war, colonialism, poetry, feminism, science fiction, art history, mystery novels, childrens books, dictionaries, maps and travel books, as well as photo albums, posters, postcards and newspaper clippings could be studied at will. Smart, decidedly political in orientation, often funny, and all over the place (in that way a perfect mirror of its owner), the library is packed with essential reading and titles that even your better bookstores would love to get their hands on. As the product of decades of avid reading, the contents of the library are both the source of Roslers work and an installation/artwork that continues many of the concerns with public space, access to information and engaged citizenship that traverse her entire oeuvre."
--Elena Filipovic, Afterall, issue 15, Spring/Summer 2007
A personal library represents the private sphere of an individual, her way of acquiring and combining knowledge. Accumulation is the result of an intellectual inquiry that takes place in parallel with a more random search, which can lead us to unexpected textual, and therefore mental, spaces. Martha Rosler Library offers the visitor an opportunity to approach this open source of information with her or his own interests, and to create new affinities and connections between the elements of the library that add to more than the sum of knowledge contained in it. The bibliography, currently in process, can be accessed online at http://www.e-flux.com/projects/library
Whenever the Martha Rosler Library docks into a venue – be it a shop front, a gallery or an office above a supermarket – it evolves in response to its new geographical and social location. A repository of knowledge and ideas, it settles, breathes and lives again as new readers arrive and new discussions begin. In Autumn 2008, the next chapter will commence at Stills, another unique context, this time with a particular focus on photography.
Talks: Martha Rosler Library project includes a series of informal public conversations, lectures and discussions which started in New York and continued at all its venues. Please see http://www.stills.org for more details.
Following the opening of Martha Rosler Library, Anton Vidokle will discuss the library and other related recent on Friday 1 August at 1pm.
Publication: The exhibition is accompanied by a publication including interviews with Martha Rosler and Anton Vidokle by Stephen Wright, and an essay by Elena Filipovic. The publication is available through Printed Matter, http://www.printedmatter.org
Stills: Founded over thirty years ago, Stills invites people to explore photography in the context of contemporary art and culture. Our darkrooms and digital studios place production at the core of our activities as we seek to catalyse the creation of new ideas, works and dialogues, which are reflected in our exhibition programme. We are particularly delighted to be working with the Martha Rosler Library at this point in our development as it contributes to both our thinking around current artistic practice as a site for exchange and reflection and the role that the public space of the art gallery can play in supporting this process.
Opening on Thursday 31st July from 7pm -9pm.
23 Cockburn Street Edinburgh EH1 1BP
Opening hours: daily, 11am – 6pm
Admission is free. All are welcome.