During her residency in Wiesbaden, Annette Krauss developed together with her international art collective, Read-in, several interventions. Inspired by the quote by French philosopher Louis Althusser ‘There is no such thing as an innocent reading’ (1968) Read-in has been investigating social-political implications of collective reading since 2010. Under the title ‘Reading Gaps’, Hyunju Chung, Annette Krauss, Serena Lee and Laura Pardo initiated four public events in Wiesbaden in August 2013. One of these events was a Read-in classic: the group joined with public participants to go door by door, ringing strangers’ doorbells to find a spontaneous host for a collective reading session. Read-in, which is unavoidably rooted in the specificity of the places where it is practiced, calls attention to the relationship between the reading of the content of a book and the reading of a space. Through relocating and communalising a typically private and solitary activity, Read-in opens up new spaces for grappling with the material, affective and political dimensions of "reading together."
Building upon this research, the art collective Read-in will develop a score and choreography for a 'Library Piece' together with the Wiesbaden Boys Choir (cultural awardee Wiesbaden 2013) and the music class of the Oranienschool Wiesbaden (both with the guidance of Roman Twardy), as well as in collaboration with University- and State Library RheinMain Wiesbaden on Rheinstraße. The 'Library Piece' is activated by the registers of silence in the library and engages the potential of silent reading as a collective moment. It investigates how this silence is constituted through the physicality of reading, library etiquette, the books being read, architecture, as well as the different categorisations within the library. The rehearsals as well as the performance of the piece will happen during public library hours. In this sense the 'Library Piece' is inseparately interwoven with the everyday of this library and its working atmosphere and at the same time aims to transgress its existent categories by means of performance.
Annette Krauss is the sixth winner of the grant 'Follow Fluxus - After Fluxus,' which is awarded by the Nassauischer Kunstverein Wiesbaden and the state capital Wiebaden. She lives and works in Utrecht/NL. Krauss’ artistic practice emerges at the intersection of research, everyday life and performance investigating the potential of collaborative practice.
