Reading Room #37: Maintenance
The tenth in a series of Reading Rooms around the library of the American thinker and organiser Fred Dewey, a collective reading and discussion proposed by Stijn Van Dorpe at LUCA Campus Ghent
09/12/2024, 18-20:30h
“People are more willing to talk … when they’re sharing something deeply meaningful with each other. That’s why poetry becomes the foundation of a new kind of dialogue.” (Fred Dewey)
Dewey had a fierce commitment to creating public spaces for intellectual and political engagement. His home base was Los Angeles, but the last years of his life he spent in Brussels. In 2022 Dewey died unexpectedly. To ensure the continuation of his legacy, the Fred Dewey Legacy Project was initiated, aiming to set up initiatives that extend Dewey’s work, as well as preserve his considerable library.
Summer 2023 artists Filip van Dingenen and Hélène Meyer re-installed part of Dewey’s extensive library. They are opening up his collection of books to artists and researchers from their studio home. One way to activate this library is Jubilee’s 2024 Reading Room program. This program performs a collective knowledge transfer – using the library as a situated research tool from which each Jubilee artist can select a title and propose it for a collective reading and discussion session.
This Reading Room is proposed by Stijn Van Dorpe, who selects Capitalocene, Waste, Race, and Gender (2019) by Françoise Vergès.
This Reading Room is connected to a project by Stijn Van Dorpe with Hana Miletic, Sarah Késenne and in collaboration with the cleaning staff and students, titled Vroeger heb ik ook tapijten gemaakt en nu poets ik het textielatelier. Je zou kunnen zeggen dat ik terug ben (English: I Used To Make Carpets, And Now I Clean The Textile Workshop. You Could Say That I’m Back.). We will visit the installation in the context of this Reading Room.
Calendar of Fred Dewey Reading Rooms 2024
23 January: Reading Room #28: Fred Dewey and School of Public Life proposed by Filip Van Dingenen
13 February: Reading Room #29: Fred Dewey and The Ignorant Schoolmaster proposed by Clémentine Vaultier
19 March: Reading Room #30: Fred Dewey and Art as Experience proposed by Maximiliaan Royakkers
23 April: Reading Room #31: Fred Dewey and Walter Benjamin proposed by Vincent Meessen
May: no Reading Room
11 June: Reading Room #32: Fred Dewey reading a collection of images proposed by Ciel Grommen, Maximiliaan Royakkers and Clémentine Vaultier (of the project Atlas of Ovens)
2 July: Reading Room #33: Fred Dewey and the Brechtian theatre proposed by Louise de Bethune. Part of Commons to Coop, Jubilee’s Summer School 2024 at Kunsthal Gent
August: no Reading Room
16 September: Reading Room #34: Fred Dewey and the cooperative, proposed by Vermeir & Heiremans
14 October: Reading Room #35: The Force of Listening, proposed by Stijn Van Dorpe
13 November Reading Room #36: Self-Organised, proposed by Jesse van Winden
Each reading room takes place from 18-20:30h. Soup and bites are provided
Location Reading Room #37
LUCA Campus Gent
Carré
Alexianenplein 1
9000 Ghent