04 NOV–17 DEC 2011
THE ANTI-LIBRARY
LIBRARY: "… a private library is not an ego-boosting appendage but a research tool. Read books are far less valuable than unread ones […] You will accumulate more knowledge and more books as you grow older, and the growing number of unread books on the shelves will look at you menacingly. Indeed, the more you know, the larger the rows of unread books. Let us call this collection of unread books an anti-library."
- Nassim Nicholas Taleb
We encounter this provocation in the opening section of Taleb’s 2007 book The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable. Citing author Umberto Eco (who himself maintains an impressive anti-library), Taleb goes on to espouse the virtue of the anti-scholar, “someone who focuses on the unread books, and makes an attempt not to treat his knowledge as a treasure, or even a possession, or even a self-esteem enhancement device.”
The possibility of an anti-library, as well as ideas of anti-knowledge and un-learning, informs a new project in SPACE’s LIBRARY gallery. For six weeks in November and December, the Anti-Library will house unread books gathered from over 150 invited contributors each asked to present a single book from their own anti-library, as well a short text outlining their selection. The project will include submissions from:
Oliver Laric, Cally Spooner, Arnaud Desjardin, Ed Atkins, Åbäke, Jamie Shovlin, Am Nuden Da, Pieternel Vermoortel, Mike Sperlinger, Kathy Noble, Maria Fusco, Kate Owens, Gavin Everall, Ian Law, Francesco Pedraglio, Athanasios Argianas (amongst many others).
The Anti-Library will be displayed within an environment developed by Fay Nicolson and Oliver Smith, in which all the books and short texts submitted by participating artists will be available to handle and read.
SPONSOR
bloomberg on
