Performance Research Volume 22 Issue 1
On Libraries
Issue editors: Deidre Heddon and Misha Myers
ISSN: 1352-8165 (2017) 22:1
In an economic and cultural context in which public libraries are under threat widely, On Libraries offers tangible evidence of the diverse interrelations between and interventions of artists and libraries which reveal the library as dynamic, shifting and contested spaces of creativity, subversion, refuge, labour, testimony, imagination, choreography, repetition, invitation, inhabitation, solitude and conviviality. Including contributions from Europe, America, Australia and Iran, the issue foregrounds the practices of 'library performances', including work which displays and disrupts in equal measure library forms, rituals and technologies; work which acknowledges and takes sustenance from the library as icon of safe space for reflection and intellectual pursuit; work which responds to the materiality of libraries, most particularly books and their para-texts, including marginalia, secret deposits and traces of singular readerly engagement. Performances in libraries offer one lens through which to approach the question of ‘What are libraries for in the 21st century?’; and, further, ‘What might libraries become?’
On Libraries : Introduction
Misha Myers, Deirdre (Dee) Heddon
pp. 1 - 8
Sollemne Enim est Bibliotheca : (Ceremony for the Library) (artist's pages)
Hester Reeve
pp. 9 - 11
The Artist in the Library
Clare Qualmann
pp. 12 - 24
The Bristol Art Library (artist’s pages)
Annabel Other, Tonia Carless
pp. 25 - 26
Billets-Doux
Ellen Bell
pp. 27 - 31
The Walking Library : Mobilizing books, places, readers and reading
Deirdre (Dee) Heddon, Misha Myers
pp. 32 - 48
Tales of Time and Space : Part-home, part-library and a fully functioning escape vehicle
Laura Mansfield
pp. 49 - 50
My Life as a Book
Mette Edvardsen
pp. 51 - 54
A Structured Space for Reflection : A conversation about The Quiet Volume, a site-specific autoteatro performance for libraries
Ant Hampton, Tim Etchells
pp. 55 - 60
Some Patterns of Current / A Choreographic Index (artists' pages)
Lucy Cash, Sheila Ghelani
pp. 61 - 66
‘Educate a Woman and You Educate a Generation’ : Performing geographies of learning, the public library and a pre-school parents’ book club
Joanne Norcup
pp. 67 - 74
Performing Refuge/Restoration : The role of libraries in the African American Community – Ferguson, Baltimore and Dorchester
Myron M. Beasley
pp. 75 - 81
A Performing Library : Dario Fo’s cultural manifesto
Marco Valleriani
pp. 82 - 84
No Nudity, Ducks or Amateur Wrestling OR What happens when you give a live artist the keys to the library?
Liz Clarke
pp. 85 - 88
The Library is Open! : Drag queen poetry at the Scottish Poetry Library, 28 January 2016
Iain Morrison
pp. 89 - 90
A Place Free of Judgement – A teenage takeover of libraries (‘Why Are You Here Teenager?’) (artist’s pages)
(Ju Row Farr) Blast Theory
pp. 91 - 92
Curated Readings : Site-specific art and performance in libraries
Penelope Bartlau
pp. 93 - 97
LADA’s Study Room : A case study in five parts
Lois Keidan, Marco Pustianaz, Mary Paterson, Tara Fatehi Irani, Tara Fatehi Irani
pp. 98 - 105
Poor Traces of the Room : The Live Archive at the library
Joseph Dunne, Anna Makrzanowska
pp. 106 - 114
A Beautiful Living Thing (artist’s pages)
Ross Birrell
pp. 115 - 119
Ecolibrary as Bing
Chris Fremantle
pp. 120 - 121
Anagnosis of Hysteria : Bibliothèque/Amphithéâtre/Shrine Charcot
Gabriella Daris
pp. 122 - 129
Library of Unfinished Texts
Diana Damian Martin
pp. 130 - 133
Spivak_rub (artist’s pages)
Jessa Mary Mockridge
pp. 134 - 135
Loving Memory : Anamnesis and hypomnesis
Mischa Twitchin
pp. 136 - 140
Sound Stakes (review)
Ella Finer
pp. 141 - 143
Notes on Contributors
pp. 145 - 146
