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X-OPERATIVE
X Marks the Bökship
17 November – 20 December 2013
Adam Burton, Sophie Demay, Rory Macbeth, Beatriz Olabarrieta, Keef Winter

X Marks the Bökship is setting up shop in Wysing Arts Centre for a six week exhibition that includes specially commissioned artist-made display systems by Adam Burton, Sophie Demay, Rory Macbeth, Beatriz Olabarrieta and Keef Winter. There will be and a series of events on the themes of distribution, production, reading, writing and performance and Rebecca Jagoe will be the Writer- in-Residence for the duration of the exhibition.

The East London bookshop and project space specialises in independent publications by artists and designers. The Bökship acts as a site to bring together individual practitioners and create a local publishing community.

The title X-Operative is taken from an essay by Ksenia Cheinman, who uses the term to describe common places where the cultural space becomes creative, productive, commercial, domestic, and educational all at once. Using this playfully as a blueprint the exhibition includes specially commissioned artist-made display systems by Adam Burton, Sophie Demay, Rory Macbeth, Beatriz Olabarrieta and Keef Winter, each supporting a selection of publications available to read or purchase from each station. Independently produced by artists, designers and writers these books sit in relation to five separate themes illustrating the multi operations of X Marks the Bökship: reading & writing, production, performance, distribution and exchange.

'These spaces that merge production and distribution spaces into one in a capitalist system become community hubs known for their local engagement yet international reach. It is in this sense that they become a unique set of Uncommon Commons where unlikely facilities meet, often combining bookshop and library/reading room spaces, exhibitions and communal food venues, music events and theoretical courses. They are not community centres as far as their mandate goes, neither do they try to please the general public, but they are community spaces where everyone is welcome to become part of a meta‐community in the form of an X‐Op.'

Extract from X-enos. Uncommon Commons by Ksenia Cheinman 
http://archives.library.yorku.ca/iain_baxterand_raisonne    

Over the duration of the five weeks, each construction will become activated as the focus of a packed events programme focusing on each theme including talks, screenings, workshops, readings and performances. The events allow for an environment for exchange and study as well as action, reflection and discussion and include contributions from Anagram Books, And Public, Eleanor Vonne Brown, Adam Burton, Adam Chodzko and Rob Young, Michael Dean, Chris Evans and Will Holder, Rory Macbeth, PERSONA Journalwith Melissa Gordon, Jessica Wiesner and Marina Vishmidt, The Fox with Mathew Whittington, and Lucy Woodhouse. Rebecca Jagoe will be based at Wysing Arts Centre as Bökship Writer-in-Residence for the duration of the exhibition.

Five sculptural display systems have been commissioned by artists, writers, designers and publishers to present a selection of publications, subverting and playing with how we read, write, collect knowledge and publish information. On the theme of Reading and Writing, Rory Macbeth has reproduced a set of glasses to the same prescription as Sigmund Freud that can be used to examine the stack of journals and texts placed alongside. On the theme of Production, artist and publisher Keef Winter has installed a destructive production line, books about production are shredded and reformed into concrete book blocks.

On the theme of Performance, artist Beatriz Olabarrieta imagines the scripts and publications her sculpture holds are theatrical characters, presenting them to the audience as if on stage. On the theme of Distribution, artist and publisher Adam Burton has written an essay investigating the problems of independent distribution and suggesting alternatives. Copies of his publication are being distributed from throughout the exhibition. Finally, on the theme of Exchange, designer Sophie Demay has created the centre stage of the exhibition – a reading area that also functions as a space for conversation, discussion and performance events.

Saturday 16 November 5-8pm
Preview and Launch event

Keef Winter will activate his installation, shredding books about production and reforming them into concrete book blocks throughout the evening.  Lucy Woodhouse uses printers and scanners to create live visuals and unique prints based on H.G. Wells ‘World Brain’.

5-7pm Keef Winter Lets Build Our Own Tomb, Durational Performance

6pm Introduction by Eleanor Vonne Brown

6.30-8pm Lucy Woodhouse Experimental Ink Jet, Durational Performance

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Day of Exchange
Saturday 30 November 2013, 1 - 4pm

1pm Publishers’ Lunch

Independent publishers and those interested in publishing are invited to join us for a free 1pm lunch at Wysing to discuss recent books they have published and distributed.

2-4pm Alternative Models of Distribution Think Tank

Discussion on Adam Burton’s text Some Problems of Distribution for Independent Publishers and Independent Booksellers, written for X-Operative. Read PDF here Some problems of distribution for… or pick up a free copy at Wysing Arts Centre.

Distribution think tank with presentations from Louisa Bailey (Luminous Books) and Eva Weinmayr (AND Publishing) and independent publishers, distributors and booksellers and discussion on Print-on-Demand platforms and social distribution initiatives.

Reading & Writing, Saturday 14 December 2013, 3 – 5pm
Launches, Readings & Performances

3pm - 'The Wanderer by Franz Kafka' by Rory Macbeth (audio extract)
Macbeth’s novel has been written by translating Kafka’s classic tale without knowledge of the German language or use of a dictionary. Rather than relying on computer-aided translations, Macbeth uses belief as a method for writing, forcing himself into a place where he simply believes the translation to be correct.

3.10pm - Launch of The Fox with introduction by Mathew Whittington
Although technically a first issue, The Fox ‘issue 4’ is loosely a continuation of the seventies journal of the same name produced by the artists’ collective Art & Language. This regenerated version, edited by Mathew Whittington, deviates from the concerns of the past publication, being more closely aligned with the 'natural world' and using the urban fox as a medium with which to explore attitudes towards the city, culture, nature, labour, architecture and design. 

3.30pm - Launch of PERSONA including performance of East Coast/West Coast Re-presented, directed by Jessica Wiesner and performed by Paul Becker and Nadia Hebson, and introduction by Melissa Gordon

PERSONA is an artist-led magazine co-edited by Melissa Gordon and Marina Vishmidt and looks at the condition of self-presentation for the contemporary artist. In encompasses discussions on refusal, interiority, friendship, candour, and embarrassment. The launch will be marked by a performance of East Coast/West Coast Re-presented directed by Jessica Wiesner which reconstructs the original East Coast/West Coast - a videotaped argument between Nancy Holt and Robert Smithson conducted with Joan Jonas in 1969.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNv_Eg1Ceas&feature=youtu.be

4.05 Short Break

4.15pm - Rebecca Jagoe, No Strange Men Shall Remove the Stone
Writer in residence for the duration of X-Operative, Rebecca Jagoe will bring together her collected writing and present a selection of new work created during her time at Wysing. She has been using the residency to explore an ongoing interest in the archaeological interpretation of megalithic structures, the devolution of technology, time capsules and nuclear waste.

4.30pm - Chris Evans and Will Holder, Errors hit Orient
Chris Evans went to British Library Newspapers, Colindale, to read B.S. Johnson's football reports (published in The Observer in 1964 & 65) then suggested to Will Holder that they be set to music. Eight reports are scored for speech and eight improvised themes, played 'bottleneck' on bass guitar. Four modular, percussive and affective pieces accompany this, composing a commentary in the indeterminate manner of some of the author's novels.

X-Operative
Wysing Arts Centre
Fox Road, Bourn, CB23 2TX Cambridge, Cambridgeshire
http://www.wysingartscentre.org/

__________

Writer in Residence

Rebecca Jagoe is Writer in Residence for the duration of X Marks the Bokship’s X-Operative exhibition at Wysing Arts Centre.

'Through lecture performance and written pieces, Rebecca Jagoe explores the appropriation of texts and the practical application of the metaphysical to everyday life. She will be using the residency to explore an ongoing interest in the archaeological interpretation of megalithic structures, the devolution of technology, time capsules, and nuclear waste. She will also use the time to continue an extended work featuring a solitary protagonist preoccupied with routine, structure, and the number 2.

Rebecca Jagoe is co-editor of the art writing journal YFR. Recent Recent shows and performances include 'Adoption and Divorce' (HFBK, Hamburg, June 2013), 'LUPAFETE' (London, June 2013), and 'Building Your House on the Edge of a Cliff' (New Gallery, Peckham, March 2013). Her writing has been published in journals including 2HB, YFR and SALT. .'