Art Metropole

10 Mar. 2023

Book Launch: DNCB - A History of Irritation

Time

5-7PM

Friday March 10, 5-7PM, join us for the book launch of DNCB – A History of Irritation by Oliver Husain & Kerstin Schroedinger, published by Archive Books, Berlin.⁠
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Part visual essay, oral history, and artist book, DNCB – A History of Irritation is a companion to the multi-channel installation DNCB by Husain and Schroedinger. DNCB stands for Dinitrochlorobenzene. It is used in the development of analogue colour film. From the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s, the substance was also employed as a treatment in alternative AIDS clinics around the USA and Canada. This new publication uses contrasting paper formats and materials, such as glossy colourful video stills and distorted archival imagery, to achieve a similar effect to the film, video, and audio tracks in artists’ original installation. It also features informative and deeply touching interviews between the artists and AIDS activists and long-term survivors, and collects the archival research on DNCB for the first time in a publication.⁠
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For the launch, the artists will be conversation with one of the interview partners of the book, Toronto-based AIDS activist Darien Taylor; followed by a screening of a hand-processed 16mm film on DNCB treatment instructions, supported by LIFT. The publication was made possible through support by the Senate Department for Culture and Europe, Berlin and Kerstin’s travel is supported through IFA, Germany.