The room.

There is a table in the room surrounded with chairs. There is a stack of books on it, borrowed from a public library. The books have all been chosen by the artist because they had been chosen by someone else beforehand. That person has left traces in the books, indisputable proof of their reading. I call these traces existential notation. 

 

The introduction.

The participants meet the artist in the room. They sit around the table. The artist shares the story of when she first moved to a place she knew no one, of how she was lonely and spent her days in the library, of how she started paying attention to the different marks people left in the margins of books, of how she started following different people around the library according to their marks. She explains this different mapping of the library, this journey – going from one book to another – reading only what has been highlighted by others, getting acquainted with these different versions of the books, getting acquainted with these different readers. Library books are public spaces, she says, and implores the participants to occupy them for a moment.

 

The performance. 

Each participant visits a public library. Each on their own. They choose a book. They inscribe this book with their existential notation. The notation should not render the book illegible. The notation should be preferably not language-based.  The performance may be repeated as often as one desires. 

 

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