Once again Cricoteka presents multimedia and performative artistic strategies, this time focusing on literature.

Reads Like a Book exhibition strives to prove that literature, when treated by visual artists, can take place well beyond the space of the book. The Book Lovers project investigates the many ways in which artists conceive their novels as part of their art projects.

For artists like Jill Magid, Cheng Ran, and Lindsay Seers the novel is not only a literary product of narrative fiction, but they also employ their novels as they would video or installation — as an aspect of a larger work or body of works. The three projects displayed in Cricoteka have something in common: they all have prepared a complex world of connections waiting to be unraveled through the use of one’s imagination and curiosity. Each element is linked to the next one by means of a narrative thread that connects them to a coherent whole. The novel offers a key to interpret what the spectator sees, so that many times it is possible to “read” the novel without opening the book. The three installations provide an immersive experience to the viewer, who literally walks into a narrative space. Many times the spectator only has access to fragments that belong to a larger narrative. The present exhibition aims at making such a narrative visible, readable.

The novels by Jill Magid, Cheng Ran, and Lindsay Seers are included in The Book Lovers artist novels collection, displayed at the center of the exhibition and available for public perusal. The visitor will find the richness in the diversity of artists’ different creative strategies. Complementing the collection, more than 360 titles are included in the first bibliography of artist novels, which is freely available in an online database.

The collection, which constitutes a peculiar kind of archive, includes works by artists who considerably influenced Tadeusz Kantor, such as Krzysztof Niemczyk, Witkacy, Bruno Schulz or Maria Stangret-Kantor. Both the artist novels collection and database are generously supported by MHKA, Museum of Contemporary Art in Antwerp. Within the framework of The Book Lovers project Cricoteka has also presented David Maroto’s performance Decide Your Destiny (2014) as well as the public program The Novel as an Art Form in collaboration with the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw (2013). The Book Lovers is a long-term project about artist novels by David Maroto and Joanna Zielińska. Through a series of exhibitions, public programs, pop-up bookstores, a symposium, and a publication, The Book Lovers investigates the use of the novel as a medium within the visual arts.

Curated by David Maroto and Joanna Zielińska

Photo credit: Jan Smaga