100 Notizen – 100 Gedanken / 100 Notes – 100 Thoughts, presentation of dOCUMENTA (13) notebooks at The Courtauld Institute of Art, London, October 15, 2011, 6 pm
100 Notes – 100 Thoughts. Now available: The second round of 16 notebooks in both printed and e-book editions.
A notebook is a picture in history.
Notes are the fictions of ideas. A note is an idea that occurs in the mind as a shape and does not exist yet for the world. When it does, it changes everything and nothing is ever the same again. True – only a small part of the world is affected at first by a note, but since a note embodies the art of the possible, the whole world could change due to a note, to a fiction. A collection of notes is written outside the realm of style and at the same time it constitutes an anthology or an atlas of primary sources – a necessary companion to understand the relationship between experience, images and thoughts. Notes are mild. They always start in the middle – a result of day-dreaming and semi-consciousness – instead of starting at the beginning, like the conscious writing of history or the exercise of reasoning out an argument. A note is instead a "multitudinous" middle.
The notebook project is a reflection on the state of art history. It shows the forming of thinking in an unassuming way, the awakening of a readiness in writing, for propositions whose contour and arguments are still in a state of becoming. It is getting ready for a transformation of the text that will affect the thinking involved with matter, objects, life and art – with culture today.
The notes are a call; a call to suspend analysis in favour of skeptical speculation.
Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, Artistic Director of dOCUMENTA (13) and Chus Martínez, Head of Department, Member of Core Agent Group for dOCUMENTA (13), will launch and discuss a new round of dOCUMENTA (13)'s 100 Notes – 100 Thoughts publications at The Courtauld Institute of Art, Somerset House, Strand, London on October 15, 2011, at 6 pm, joined by authors in the series Etel Adnan, Mario Garcia Torres, Mariam Ghani, and Griselda Pollock. This is the seventh public presentation of dOCUMENTA (13)'s 100 Notes – 100 Thoughts series, following a premiere in Cairo and presentations in New York, Buenos Aires, Thessaloniki, Paris and Oslo.
Ticket /entry details: Due to limited space this is on a first-come-first-served basis. Registration on arrival. Doors open at 5.30 pm.
Venue: Kenneth Clark Lecture Theatre, The Courtauld Institute of Art, Somerset House, Strand, London WC2R 0RN.
Web: www.courtauld.ac.uk
The notebooks appear in three different formats (A6, A5, B5) and range from 16 to 48 pages in length. Contributors hail from diverse fields – art, science, philosophy, psychology, anthropology, political theory, literature, and poetry. The second round of notebook authors include Arjun Appadurai and Nalini Malani, Doug Ashford and Julie Ault, Mario Bellatin, Bifo – Franco Berardi, Mariana Castillo Deball and Roy Wagner, Dario Gamboni and Paul Gauguin, Mariam and Ashraf Ghani, Donna Haraway, Alexander Kluge, Pamela M. Lee and Meyer Shapiro, Romaine Moreton, Nikos Papastergiadis and Cornelius Castoriadis, Griselda Pollock and Charlotte Salomon, Suely Rolnik, Annemarie Sauzeau, and Mario Garcia Torres.
Commissioned by dOCUMENTA (13)’s Artistic Director Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev together with Head of Department, Member of Core Agent Group, Chus Martínez, this series is edited by Head of Publications, Bettina Funcke. The 100 Notes – 100 Thoughts series is being launched at various places and in various moments, each accompanied by a discussion on the nature and the aim of this publishing project. You can acquire individual notebooks or subscribe to the entire series of 100 notebooks in both printed and e-book editions at www.hatjecantz.de/documenta13.
The Courtauld Institute of Art is one of the world’s leading centres for the study of the history and conservation of art and architecture; its modern and contemporary art department is unrivalled in Europe. Its Gallery houses one of Britain’s best-loved collections. Based at Somerset House (the former site of the Royal Academy), The Courtauld is an independent college of the University of London.
