Opening + book launch: THE SERVING LIBRARY / THE SITUATION AS IT IS

Join us on Friday 16 October 2020 at 019 for the opening of a new hub for The Serving Library in Ghent and the first three frames of The Situation As It Is, a new billboard by De Cleene De Cleene. Rather tag along from your cosy chair? Then join the online book launch of The Serving Library Annual 2020/21.

(Fully booked) OFFLINE OPENING of The Serving Library at 019 Ghent (19:30—22:00)
Visit the new basecamp of The Serving Library for the foreseeable future. Together with TSL, 019 designed a modular scenography for the collection that will travel between 019 and other institutions. Future stops for the collection will be Nevers (FR) in November 2020, Hasselt (BE), Antwerpen (BE), Den Haag (NL), … After every excursion, The Serving Library will return to Ghent and be on display at 019.

Update – All available timeslots to visit The Serving Library at 019 tonight are fully booked. More slots available on Saturdays from 14:00 to 18:00, until 31 October >> book a timeslot. Don’t want to miss out on the opening tonight? There are only 20 places left for the online launch of The Serving Library Annual 2020/21, starting at 20:00 tonight. See below.

ONLINE BOOK LAUNCH: The Serving Library Annual 2020/21
The issue of the annual series assembles The Serving Library collection of (nearly) 100 (mostly) framed objects as full-page images with extended captions and functions as a para-catalog for the collection’s semi-permanent display in Ghent.
Join the online book launch with Francesca Bertolotti-Bailey, Stuart Bertolotti-Bailey, Vincenzo Latronico, and David Reinfurt.
The issue is published by Roma Publications, Amsterdam in partnership with 019, Ghent; LLS Paleis, Antwerp; and Ravisius Textor, Nevers. It is supported by the Academy of Fine Arts, University of the Arts, Helsinki; and the Saastamoinen Foundation, Helsinki.

Register for the online book launch. Starts at 20.00 sharp! On the day of the event, registered attendants will receive the Zoom link to this online conference.

The issue assembles The Serving Library collection of (nearly) 100 (mostly) framed objects as full-page images with extended captions and functions as a para-catalog for the collection’s semi-permanent display in Ghent.
Each object first appeared as an illustration on the pages of our journal or its predecessors Bulletins of The Serving Library (2011–17) and Dot Dot Dot (2000–10). The collection includes items as diverse as record sleeves, watercolors, woodcuts, polaroids, drawings, screen-prints, airbrush paintings, a car license plate, and a ouija board. Throughout the years, these varied objects have more or less temporarily decorated the walls of many art institutions and served as a toolbox for seminars and workshops with University-level art, design and writing students.

The Serving Library Annual 2020/21 (Objects) depicts the entire collection at the time of writing, arranged in chronological order of production. It also includes fragments from the original texts each item was tethered to in order to offer some context and entertainment, and to illuminate why each image/object might have been deemed ripe for inclusion in the first place.

The volume is edited by Francesca Bertolotti-Bailey, Stuart Bertolotti-Bailey, Vincenzo Latronico, and David Reinfurt.

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Objects by: Søren Andreasen, Atelier E.B, Tauba Auerbach, Stuart Bailey, Justin Beal, Harry Beck, Tom Benson, Walead Beshty, Ernst Bettler, Barney Bubbles & John Cooper Clarke, Gerard Byrne, Muriel Cooper, Steve Double, Shannon Ebner, Shannon Ebner & Dexter Sinister, Paul Elliman, Chris Evans, John Foxx, Jason Fulford, Ryan Gander, Liam Gillick, Kara Hamilton & Angie Keefer, Richard Hamilton, Katrine Herian, Hipgnosis, Will Holder, Sanya Kantarovsky, Angie Keefer, Janice Kerbel, Alex Klein, Mathew Kneebone, Linder, Louis Lüthi & Radim Peško, Perri MacKenzie, Simon Manfield, Karel Martens, Eugene Menard, M/M Paris, John Morgan, Otto Neurath, Paulina Olowska, David Osbaldeston, Raymond Pettibon, Philomene Pirecki, Seth Price & Dexter Sinister, RAND Corporation, Robert Rauschenberg, Steve Reich, Ernst Reichl, Jamie Reid, Scritti Politti, Dexter Sinister, Frances Stark, Will Stuart, Benjamin Tiven, Edward Wadsworth, Stephen Willats, and Wire.

Excerpts from original texts by: Albert Angelo, Tauba Auerbach, Stuart Bailey, Lars Bang Larsen, Dexter Bang Sinister, Justin Beal, Mark Beasley, Mark Beasley & Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, Lucas Benjamin, Michael Bracewell & Jon Wilde, David Crowley, Dimma Davidoff, Diedrich Diederichsen, Eli Diner & Sanya Kantarovsky, Umberto Eco, Paul Elliman, Dan Fox, Ryan Gander, Rob Giampietro, David Greene & Samantha Hardingham, Katrine Herian, Will Holder, Anthony Huberman, Andrew Hunt & David Osbaldeston, Angie Keefer, Alex Klein, Mathew Kneebone, James Langdon, Bruno Latour, Jonathan Lethem, Kim Levine, Louis Lüthi, Louis Lüthi & Radim Peško, Perri MacKenzie, Francesco Manacorda, Paulina Olowska, David Osbaldeston, Mark Owens, Mark Owens & David Reinfurt, Emily Pethick, Katherine Pickard, Seth Price, David Reinfurt, Dieter Roelstraete, Steve Rushton, David Senior, Dexter Sinister, Frances Stark, Sytze Steenstra, Benjamin Tiven, Jan Verwoert, and Christopher Wilson.

OPENING: THE SITUATION AS IT IS (19:30—22:00)
De Cleene De Cleene

THE SITUATION AS IT IS: a story that unfolds in episodes of three frames, rhythmically revolving on a new billboard mounted onto 019’s facade. On view from 16 October 2020.

THE SITUATION AS IT IS: ring binders in the architect’s archive are filled with photographic negatives. Subjects are scattered. The documents try to tell a story of an existing condition. This is the state things are in. Buildings are perpetually unfinished. The dog keeps barking. It’s our third birthday, again. A plot emerges.

THE SITUATION AS IT IS: a work by De Cleene De Cleene, part of Documenting Objects, a research project at KASK & Conservatorium, School of Arts Gent.

Permanently on view on Dok-Noord 5L, from 16 October 2020 until May 2021