Art Metropole

27 Nov. 2011

Antonia Hirsch's The Surplus Library on Affect & Economic Exchange

Artist

Antonia Hirsch

Offsite Location

KW Berlin, Auguststraße 69, 10117 Berlin

More Information

Here

In this Series

25 - 27 Nov. 2011
Miss Read Art Book Fair '11

25 - 27 Nov. 2011
European book launch for Commerce by Artists

Art Metropole is pleased to introduce Luis Jacob’s most recent book at it’s booth, fresh off the press, Commerce by Artists, published by Art Metropole. The book launch will occur in Berlin at the 2011 Miss Read Art Book Fair in Berlin.

Commerce affects our lives in countless ways, connecting people and products in transactions spanning the globe. Commerce by Artists documents a fascinating and sweeping range of artists’ projects produced since the 1950s by Canadian and international artists who have sought to engage, rather than merely represent, the commercial world of which they are a part. Includes contributions by over 50 artists and writers: Carole Condé & Karl Beveridge, Maria Eichhorn, Andrea Fraser, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Mary Kelly, Ben Kinmont, Yves Klein, Life of a Craphead, Lin Yilin, Keith Obadike, Martha Rosler, Reid Shier, Ron Terada, Toxic Titties, Mierle Laderman Ukeles, and many more.

In conjuntion with the Miss Read Art Book Fair in Berlin, Art Metropole is excited to present a project by Antonia Hirsch, The Surplus Library on Affect & Economic Exchange.

The Surplus Library‘s collection consists of books relevant to the topic of affect and economic exchange.

In redefining the concept of a physical library, The Surplus Library On Affect & Economic Exchange operates on the basic assumption that its specific collection of books already exists in the material world: in the homes and private collections of countless individuals. Some of the holdings of this vast and distributed library can become known and accessible through The Surplus Library Web site. The site develops as the library’s holdings and locations are registered by users.

The site provides “portraits” of the particular books in its collection, and the homepage displays the most recent user-created book selection to all visitors. The books’ content cannot be accessed online; instead, person-to-person borrowing and lending (owing and extending credit) in the physical world is facilitated by the site, thereby defying efficiency and convenience in its coupling of the material and the virtual. The project functions as a highly idiosyncratic register of literature on its specific topic, while concurrently embodying the subject of its holdings: quasi-economic, non-monetary exchanges trading on curiosity, desire, and trust — in other words, affect.

The association of the terms “affect” and “economy” is based on the assumption that personal relationships are produced by economic activity; for example, in the process of trade and the division of labour. Conversely, affect, and in particular desire, generates economic transactions: it is the needing and wanting that demands to be satisfied by goods or immaterial values such as care, attention, or love, all of which entail multifarious forms of exchange.

During the fair, a selection of the library’s holdings will be on view at Art Metropole’s booth, and on Sunday November 27 from 1 pm to 4 pm visitors are invited to bring their own books relating to the subject of affect and economic exchange and register a new branch of the library! Your books will be scanned and registered on site to contribute to The Surplus Library‘s holdings and immediately returned to you.

Antonia Hirsch was born in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, and received her BFA from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design (London, England). From 1994 to 2010, the German-Canadian artist lived and worked in Vancouver, Canada. She has been based in Berlin since 2010. Her work has been exhibited internationally at institutions including MIT List Visual Arts Center (Cambridge, USA); Salzburger Kunstverein (Austria); Taipei Fine Arts Museum (Taiwan); Tramway (Glasgow, Scotland); Kunstinstituut Melly, FKA Witte de With Centre for Contemporary Art (Rotterdam, Netherlands); ZKM Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe (Germany); and in Canada at Contemporary Art Gallery (Vancouver) and The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery (Toronto). She has been artist-in-residence at institutions such as the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity (Canada) and the Cité des Arts (Paris, France), and has received numerous grants from the Canada Council for the Arts, British Columbia Arts Council, Hessische Kulturstiftung, and Stiftung Kunstfonds. Hirsch’s projects and writing have appeared in publications such as C Magazine, Fillip, The Happy Hypocrite, and Triple Canopy. In addition to artist books, she has published two anthologies, Intangible Economies (Fillip, 2012) and Negative Space: Orbiting Inner & Outer Experience (SFU Galleries, 2015). She was an associate editor at Fillip from 2009 to 2015. Her work is held in public collections, including those of the Vancouver Art Gallery (Canada), National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa), and Sackner Archive of Concrete and Visual Poetry (Miami Beach, USA).

Images

1: Presented by Art Metropole at the Miss Read Art Book Fair, Berlin.
2: Presented by Art Metropole at the Miss Read Art Book Fair, Berlin.
3: Presented by Art Metropole at the Miss Read Art Book Fair, Berlin.
4: Presented by Art Metropole at the Miss Read Art Book Fair, Berlin.
5: A visitor takes in Hirsch's installation, presented by Art Met at Miss Read in Berlin.

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