Interlude
A short period of time between two longer periods, during which something
happens that is different from what has happened before and what follows. A
short play, piece of music, or other entertainment performed during a break
in the performance of a long work.
The reader’s traces
Books in libraries are public items; many different people read the same
copy. Each reader leaves their own traces and marks: a piece of paper used
to separate the pages, a note, a train ticket; all become unresolved texts,
hinting at something to be disclosed. The discovery of such traces creates
an opening, occupying an intermediate space. These interruptions suspend
the continuous accumulation of knowledge and force us to enter a new time
that has been cut from its original moorings. For one moment the database
structure of the library and the narrative experience of reading come
together.
Instructions
Each contributor is asked to produce a nomad text, a loose page to be
inserted into the books of the libraries. Each contributor is also
responsible of the strategy of distribution within the library: whether it
is made for a particular section, a particular selection of books, a
specific page, or if it is to be given to all the readers in one day, etc.
All the inserts were printed and distributed according to the contributor's
instructions in public libraries in Berlin, Paris and New York. There is no
way of tracing the final outcome of the action, the inserts are planned to
be found by accident.